Week Three in Sri Lanka

The Sarath de Mel Memorial Day dominated the third week of our trip to Sri Lanka.    Sarath de Mel was, until he tragically passed away in early 2007, our greatest friend in Sri Lanka.  We were with him on the day of the 2004 Tsunami and it was through him that we started most of our projects.   He helped us buy our first boat, and from then on managed everything on the ground for us.

When he passed away far too young , we decided that we would have an annual day at the school in his honour.  We chose February 15^th, his birthday.

Each year, we give certificates of achievement to the children at the school as well as new uniforms and shoes. The new prefects are given their jackets and the class monitors, and head boy and head girl are appointed.    It is a very special day for the school.  This year on February 18^th we were accompanied by Bernard and Beryl Brown, long time visitors to Sri Lanka, our good friend David Hoole and Kiran and Sanjeev from London. 

Don pinning a prefect's badge to a brand new jacket

Shehan and his mother Lynette handing out the shoes

There were several speeches including one from Sarath’s son Shehan   He was accompanied at the school by his Mother. . Lynette.  We were also lucky because a waiter at our hotel was an old boy from the school and he was able to tell the children how important education had been in enabling him to find a job.

Certificates of Achievement

An enormous amount of work goes into making this day a success.  The children have to be measured for their uniforms and shoes, certificates have to be printed, prizes bought and then each shoe box and uniform pack labelled with the individual children’s names.  Somehow it all works out.

On the morning of that day, we had visited the children’s nursery where we also distribute shoes.

  

The Nursery School children with their new shoes

The next day we went to visit the nursery school in the jungle which is run by a Buddhist Monk.  He splits his time between our local temple and his original village where the nursery is situated. We gave out more shoes and watched the children perform for us before they played in the playground which had been renovated with money from our great friend Toby Green and his boys.

The new playground

New shoes for the new intake of pupils

The Jungle Nursery

David, Sanjay and Kiran had all left us by the end of the week. More to come with the long awaited arrival of Steve and Gav!

Kiran and Sanjeev's guest blog

We are Kiran and Sanjeev.

Having taken a year out of our lives back home in the UK to discover the world, we are now in Sri Lanka.  We have experienced so much in the several months of travelling and now an opportunity has arisen to stop, reflect and contribute a little.

We've been lucky to meet Della and Don, whose story of surviving a Tsunami in Sri Lanka and then returning every year for the past decade to help the people devastated by the natural disaster, has been nothing short of a humbling experience. Kiran having heard so much about Della and Don through working with Della's brother, was keen to find out first hand what the charity does.  We were also extremely keen to learn about the different projects and to get involved in whatever which way was needed.
During our time here so far we spent a day visiting some of the many projects that Della and Don support.  We ended up at the village school which is attended by children from poor backgrounds, including those living by the railway.  Although these children don't have much in terms of material worth, they appeared to be happy and had a healthy appetite to learn. This was evident when we started to play interactive games with them teaching them about 'opposites', the class grew from six to a crowd!  

Thanks to the charity, these children now have uniforms, shoes and a lunch provided for.  A few of the children even came in on Saturday to help paint their school furniture, some of which has seen better days. Children from the UK could learn a thing or three from them! 

Some teachers are funded through the charity and some by the government. We witnessed first hand English being taught by a teacher funded by the charity. He attends once a week to teach ALL the children English, in one sitting all together. We were amazed at how attentive, engrossed and engaged these children were, again reinforcing their appetite to learn.

The Principal has been witness to these very children attending school hungry and in dirty clothes, some without shoes, and some in flip flops. She'd always wished for better for these children, and in her very own words she conveyed how 'Della and Don have been a god send to these children', providing them with opportunity and hope.

Although only having experienced a snippet of this charities work, it has left us feeling humbled and honoured to have had the privilege to be a part of this community for even a short time. 

Our second week in Sri Lanka

 

On Sunday February 9th David Hoole arrived in Sri Lanka for 10 days.  He has been a generous contributor to FODAD taking part in several sporting events to raise money.  

We introduced David to the school first thing on Monday morning, and after watching the children who had played in the band and performed in the National Day Parade proudly receiving their certificates of participation, he went to “inspect” the toilets and the shower s which had been built through FODAD with the proceeds of his efforts.

We then bundled him into a van and took him to the children’s home where we have sponsored two boys.   They used to live in our village. Much to our amazement David even played cricket which was a first for him. The two boys were so pleased to see us and insisted on having their photos taken with me (Della).

On Tuesday, after visiting the school in the morning, we distributed the clothes and shoes we had brought from England for the fishing village.  The parents were thrilled with the children’s clothes – so thanks everyone and please keep them coming!

On Wednesday, we took the Galle Road down South to see the women for whom we have now bought 3 sewing machines.  We were thrilled that nowadays they have a little tailoring shop. Each of the machines is supporting at least eight extended families.  A real success story! They gave me a beautiful sari but I am sure I will never learn how to wear it.   

We left there and went to show David the memorial to the 1270 Tsunami victims who were killed on a train and in the adjoining village.    It is a beautiful work of art and very moving.

On Thursday we had a wonderful morning at the orphanage in Colombo.  The girls had organized a show which was both touching and hilarious in equal measure.   There was a new girl from Jaffna who danced like a star from a Bollywood movie.  She was very small and full of expression.  We all got up and danced afterwards - I doubt that she was very impressed.     On our last week here we will be taking them for a day out.  They are really looking forward to it.

Friday was Poya – full moon day – which is always a public holiday in Sri Lanka though we did briefly visit the clinic we support in the morning.     The February holiday is very special and involves parades of dancers and elephants through Colombo.

The week finished with a wonderful “Big Girl Party”.  Throughout Sri Lanka huge parties are thrown when a girl starts to menstruate.  An astrologer will determine the most propitious date for the celebrations.  Udaya is the fisherman who does almost everything for FODAD in Sri Lanka. His daughter’s party was on February 15th.  It was a wonderful celebration. Held on the beach with an almost full moon, it was just like a wedding.  Everyone was dressed up, the food was wonderful and we danced the night away underneath the stars on the sand.

Our First week back in Sri Lanka

Don and I arrived in Sri Lanka on Sunday February 2^nd and since then have been busy catching up on things.

We were really excited to meet the new baby in the village.  She is the daughter of the fisherman, Udaya, our man on the ground who does everything for us.  Born on November 29^th, she is named Menushi Della and is adorable.  She has been showered with gifts and clothes donated by my friends and colleagues in New York.

Della with Menushi Della 

Our next priority was to visit both the nursery school and the school.  There is a new intake of children at the nursery school.  Needless to say they were absolutely terrified of us. Great white monsters drained of colour!   Most of the kids we knew there have moved on to “big school” – which is our Village School.   When we got to the Village school, the children were proudly rehearsing for the National Day Parade. Sri Lanka became 66 on February 4^th – just a few days younger than me!  Our children are so proud and looked wonderful in the uniforms which our friend Lawrence had bought them after his visit 3 years ago.  We had not appreciated until then that the children from our school had to march along with no musical instruments and no uniforms.  That has been put right!   The instruments had been bought 5 years ago in memory of Don’s brother Declan.

On Wednesday, work started in earnest.  We fixed dates for the rest of our visit with the Principal at the School.  The Sarath de Mel Memorial Day will be on Tuesday 18^th – that is when we give out the prizes, shoes and uniforms and Fun Day will be during our last week here.  We checked the quality of the food that is being delivered to the school.  Inflation has been rampant and costs have increased so we went through the list of things the Principal needs more help with.

On Thursday we were joined by Kiran and Sanjeev.  They have been back-packing their way around the world since last July.  Kiran works with my brother Saul and had heard about our project and so, they are here between Thailand and India.  It is only by chance that they turned up here while we are here and we were able to introduce them to our nursery school, the school and of course, the villagers.  We discovered that Kiran has TEFL training and so we knew we had to put her to work.

On Friday, Kiran and Sanjeev took classes at school and the new English teacher we have employed to come once a week was there at the end of the morning also.  We are so determined to give the kids the start they need.  Learning English is so empowering.  

On Friday afternoon, we went to visit one of the most amazing women we know.  Doreen is the mother of two of the children we support, Wesley and Smith.  She is the testimony to life changing in a second.  After we left last year she was run down by two racing tuk-tuks.  She was so badly injured that she had her leg amputated.  It has still not healed but she smiled as much as ever and was so pleased to see us.  Without FODAD support she would be begging on the streets.

Learning English at last! 

Doreen

Saturday was hard work; well for some of the pupils and Kiran and Sanjeev as they painted all the desks and chairs at the school.  They are seriously smart and brightly coloured.  The children will be really surprised when they turn up at school on Monday!

Painting the desks

More to follow.

Lunch time