Thursday 2 July

This morning was a trip to the Ratmalana Village School where many of the fishermen from the village send their children. The main purpose was to distribute new school uniforms for every single child and which we have to thank the Village School in Hampstead for helping make possible. As we arrived, the children presented us with floral garlands and had lined up along the driveway, almost in a guard of honour which was very touching. The heat and humidity was building so we were quickly ushered into the main school assembly hall which also doubles as a classroom. The deputy Principal conducted proceedings and it took all his authority to keep the excited children in order. Then, we were invited up to the stage to hand out the shorts, shirts, blouses and skirts to the children as their names were read out. All beamed with pride as they came up to receive their uniform. Sadly, one girl was called up only to find that there wasn’t a uniform for her so had to retreat empty-handed. As I looked back, I saw her desperately trying to stop the tears rolling down her face and her lip quivering. A quick tip-off to Udaya who spoke to the deputy head quickly resulted in her being called back up and presented with a new uniform and her smile alone has probably made the whole trip worthwhile.

We also presented brand new cricket bats and balls and during break-time, there were 3 different cricket matches taking place which even included a girls match.

After, we watched as the daily meal was handed out to all the children and were then invited to meet with some members of staff and the vice-principal. We chatted about how we might help the school further and Saul, Caroline and Steve are going back to help with English lessons next week. One of the teachers was very keen to seek our help in providing the school uniforms for a band (school bands seem to be very prestigious in Sri Lanka). We agreed that if the Government funded the musical instruments, we would look to see if we could raise the money to buy the uniforms.

After school ended (in Sri Lanka the school day runs from 0730-1330), we all met up to discuss amongst ourselves how we might continue to provide assistance and think of different ways to help. We have been invited to go to the school at anytime and will chat to the children and teachers to hear their ideas.