25 APRIL 2014

I hope you are all well and enjoyed Easter.

I am really well. So I am now two weeks into my MA at the University of Life, and so far, so good; I have done so much already that I almost don’t know where to start…

I am living in a village called Horana, which is about 42km south of Colombo. It’s pretty rural, and the people are very friendly and go out of their way to help. For me, Sri Lanka feels quite familiar and is not too dissimilar to Mauritius – the only differences being the language and the food is much spicier.

I am staying with a really nice family – Upal (Dad), Kumari (Mum) and their three children – Kavitha, Ramish and little Danni-do, who is basically a super cute little monkey! And for a 6-year-old, his English is excellent and he knows everything! In fact, I would say, he is the one to speak to for any information.

Their house is just like Pallaram HQ in Mauritius, and in Horana, there are nine volunteers in total. There are six in our house and three next door. In our house, we have the entire second floor, with our own bathroom, balcony and washing machine, which is an absolute Godsend. The five girls that I am living with are super cool and super interesting, and it really didn’t take long for us to gel, and so far I am absolutely fine with communal living.

So I am currently sitting in an internet café in Horana, composing this email. The first two weeks have been a little unusual as last Monday (14 April) was the Sri Lankan New Year. The first week was orientation week, where we were getting to know each other and being introduced to our projects and placements. The focus was on understanding culture, working with children and adults with special needs, and teaching English.

Leading up to the New Year we were invited to a New Year’s party. What can I say? Sri Lankans take their New Year parties very seriously with lots of games such as Lime and spoon race, pass the hat, and musical chairs, with the same vigour as the Olympic spirit, and this seriousness applies to both the adults and the youth – I loved it! Sadly, I did not win the lime and spoon race!

We went to the jungle at the end of the first week, which was amazing! The scenery was beautiful, the company was great and the activities were great fun. We went white water rafting, which was quite relaxing as the water was low (I obviously wore my waterproof gilet). We also went rock sliding and jumped off rocks, which actually was my favourite. I also really liked the fact that we had intermittent power cuts, no water for a while and the backdrop of heavy rain – there was just something very therapeutic about watching the rain with no power or water.

The second week was a public holiday for the New Year, so we took advantage and travelled to Jaffna in the North, which is about eight hours away. Jaffna is really interesting. The landscape is so very different to our home and signs of the war and the tsunamis are still very present. Many of the buildings are covered in bullet holes and there are vast areas that are completely baron. There are signs of development and I think it would be really interesting to see how it develops over the next ten years or so. It’s also much hotter. We visited quite a few temples (Hindu and Buddhist) and lots of churches. The architecture and paint work is amazing, especially in the Hindu temples.

About halfway through week 2, we headed to Nilaveli beach, on the east coast. This beach was beautiful, but more importantly, pretty empty. Our guest house was literally on the beach and it was so nice to sit on the balcony when the sun was too intense and look out to the beautiful ocean. The colours were incredible; the sea was the turquoise from a packet of Crayolas and the sky was just so clear and an amazing baby blue.

We woke up for sunrise on one of the mornings; it was nice, but there were clouds, so not as good as it could have been. Having said this, I did find it really peaceful and really enjoyed it. I also realised this was the morning version of the pictures that I have painted multiple times over the years, except for the fact there were five of us on the beach, not two. So, Laguna, I may paint you a sunrise upon my return…

Later that day we went snorkelling around Pigeon Island. This was pretty cool and I saw some pretty fish – very similar to the fish that I draw.

I am getting used to the transport system. Before I came, I didn’t really manage to update my Tripod (this is what Mum calls my iPod), but it really isn't necessary. The music on the buses is pretty good and the sound system is pretty loud and clear, which is great when travelling during the day, but completely unnecessary on the overnight buses.

So I’m now entering the third week and now starting to do what I came here to do! This morning I was doing activities with young special needs children. I was warned, that no matter how much lesson planning I do, it will not go to plan, and low and behold, this was true. Basically, the key is to plan a lesson and have a million other activities in your back pocket. I did not know what to expect, but it wasn’t what I expected. All children have different needs and different interests. Some like singing, some like arts and crafts, others like sound, and others like physical activity…fortunately, there are a few volunteers in my group because of the visa issues (the March team were postponed to April) and we were able to do different things. One of the things I struggled with is the language barrier - some of the children were chatting with me for ages, and I simply did not know what they were saying.

I’m going to end here as I’m about to be kicked out of here. Guys – please send me your updates too! How did the marathon runners do?

Until the next update…

Love

Vidia xxx