Sri Lanka - October 2014

Extracts from the Sri-Lanka trip blog 2014

The first day in Sri-Lanka was spent at the elephant orphanage in Pinnawale where we saw elephants roaming and we got to take part in a brilliant photo opportunity posing with the elephants and carefully stroking their trunks. Some of us had a special visa where we could feed the disabled elephants some green leaves. After adoring the baby elephants taking a bath we strolled down to the elephant bathing lake and topped up on refreshing ice cold drinks. We then returned to the orphanage to witness the elephants being fed. 

The second day was a very jam packed day, we did a variety of activities from dusk to dawn. We started off the day waking early and having an 8 o clock breakfast. Afterwards we headed to D.S. Senanayake Maha Vidyalaya school, in Kandalama city, where we were welcomed warmly by smiling faces, colourful flowers and a song. We played two exciting games; the Sri Lankan take on rounders, which we lost :(, and a cricket match, which we won :). We then learnt one of the playground games which we found to be very joyful and energetic. We also tried to teach them 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' and blew up some balloons which they were fascinated by. After saying a sad goodbye, we left for a local eco-park which looked after venomous snakes and other injured animals. It was very heart-warming as the curator has been sacrificing his life in order to save these injured animals. We were allowed to hold one of the cat snakes he looked after. It was very surreal as it felt very smooth and soft which was unexpected. We also got to see a very rare albino cobra, which was very interesting and stunning as it was something we had never seen before.

On day three our first destination was the Sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic. Before we entered, we were taught about Buddha and the Buddhism Religion and then headed in (with no shoes!!) to the Temple.. For us personally, the Temple wasn't anything like we expected - it was much more colourful, loud and busy! In the Temple we saw a religious music performance and various items that meant a lot to Buddhists such as lotus flowers and a special shrine. Afterwards we went into a little museum where we saw King Rajha which is a tusker elephant which they consider to be very sacred. Later, we went to a tea factory where we took part in a competition to see which group could pluck the most tea leaves, we learnt how the different Sri Lankan teas are made and then even tasted a type of tea called BOPF which could even be used to cure cancer! We were surprised as to how many variations of tea there were and BOPF was a lot sweeter than we thought it would be, but really nice. After that, we hopped back onto the coach and headed off to a jungle of cosmetics!! Here we also had lunch and we had to cross a wobbly bridge high above the ground to get there, which was every exciting!!

The 'cosmetic jungle' was filled with lots of natural products such as hair oil, slimming sets, perfume, skin creams and hair removal cream.  We were shown how to make some of the products by the Sri Lankan people. During this not only did we get a massage, but it was using some of the fancy oils; it was lush! We were then taken to the shop where we could buy some of the products and then headed home, all very tired after such a great day!

The next day we had a long journey to Batticaloa where we were able to meet some students from the two schools we would be teaching in. The next few days were spent teaching in two local government schools in Batti.  We taught children at really young ages, around 6 up to 16. There was a mixture of boys and girls.  It was hard to play football in the very hot sun. The teachers enjoyed their day also at the mixed school and at the girls school. In the evening we gathered at a local town hall with Batticaloa's Deaf and Dumb society. It was truly inspiring seeing a community so strong after all they have been through. We had various activities going on such as; balloon animal making, crown making as well as many various games that were enjoyed by children and their parents. The last day in Batti was spent having a sports day at the mixed school which was brilliant as the teams were mixed between Sri-Lankan students and students from CPS.  In the evening, there was a variety show at the school. There were so many amazing talents - the dancing was amazing and unique to the country. Some of the CPS students had brought fake snow which the children loved touching since they had never experienced it before. At the end, everyone was dancing on the stage, it allowed everyone to say goodbye to each other. Due to the bonds created between the students it was very hard to leave them, however we will never forget the children or the experience they gave us. We all learnt the one lesson that you don’t need loads to be happy, as all the children we met had so little, but gave so much.

On Friday morning after a tasty Sri-Lankan breakfast of roti, sambal and fish curry (!) we left Batticaloa at 8:30am and stopped for some snacks at Food City before a quick visit to the Dutch fort and the lighthouse in Batti.  We also broke our journey to visit the indigenous people of Sri-Lanka who showed us how to light a fire and shoot with a bow and arrow - well done to the boys for this!  We stopped for lunch at KFC which was most welcome by the students and we are still en route to Colombo, which has been a long journey today. 

Saturday was spent doing some much needed retail therapy and having lunch at the food court.  We also had a quick visit to a Buddhist temple which was very interesting.  Saturday night was our last night in Colombo and we had a final group meeting saying our sad goodbyes to all the team.  We had a lovely buffet dinner and some of us had an early night as we had to leave the hotel at 5:30am!