I can't believe it.
I've just finished my last project here in Sri Lanka.
The time has gone so fast and I have loved every second. It has been an amazing privileged to have seen and experienced all that I have over the past five weeks. This morning was a particularly sad morning in the home stay as many of the volunteers are leaving, some of whom who have been around as long as three months! Rhi and I got up at 6 o clock to ensure we could say a goodbye to the children that live in our homestay and see them off to school. I think I mentioned this in my last blog but It is so great how at home I have felt in a place so far from home.
My last project was Youth Teaching. This involves teaching a class of around 15 boys a similar age to us. Our class are training to be electrical engineers and it's hoped the project can broaden there horizons by enabling them to understand English job adverts etc. The class are great we have had so much fun particularly as they are so cheeky. The first time we taught them we made them use English to introduce each other. It became clear that one boy was particularly good with English when he managed to manipulate those introducing him to describe him as there hero (haha). For our final lesson we got them to 'direct a London taxi driver' in order to understand instructions and directions before setting up a bit of a treasure hunt around campuswriting up there own directions, it was so much
fun and boys being boys means that there English seems to remarkably improve when there is a competition involved. One of the projects I will be most sad to leave is a mixed childrens home. Although there cheeky ways have made for particularly stressful and exhausting Thursday afternoons I had begun to get a lot more confident with them distracting them with larger games and lots of running around. One cheeky young boy took it upon himself to draw my attention to fidgety expressions when explaining games imitating my every move. Fidgety expressions aside I have loved the experience of having to communicate in different ways due to language barriers. I have also appreciated how much of our communication is non-verbal but I don't think I quite understood to what extent. This hasn't just been true of working with kids but also the adults in NIMH and other special needs projects. It's amazing the conversations you can have without words.
I think my favorite project experience has to have been working on the male forensics ward here. We decided to run large group activities and to our amazement it worked. I'll never forget running up and down the hall with the nurses between two rows of approximately 60 men shouting OVER, UNDER, OVER, as they battled to be the first to complete the ball race. Nor will I forget singing 'Down by the River' 60 times to accompany the clapping game while the men that were out accompanied my strained and tired voice the the shakers I had brought with me.
as I sit here waiting for my final weekend to begin I realise that I cannot possible write all the things I intended to write in this blog post. I haven't even told you about the incredible field trip we went on assisting a clinical psychiatrist on his daily errands around some of the poorest parts of Sri Lanka including the areas affected by the Tsunami. Nor have I told you about our incredible weekend trekking through Liptons tea plantations and swimming in water falls. With so much more I need to say I think I'm going to have to write the
entries when I get home. However, I do just want to express (whilst on
such a high about my time here) how thankful I am for those that
contributed to my fundraising efforts. I can't wait to tell you in person all about the amazing work that goes on out here. And also, whilst all the goodbyes continue, how lucky I am to have meet so many great people over these five weeks.
p's I thought I'd leave you with a quote from a conference last night that makes a pretty good life motto...
