Back to school
Aayu bowan! Vanakkam! (Yep , you could say we're pretty much fluent in the local languages now.)
So, it's the eve of our first drama session at the Tea Leaf Vision school, and we've been enjoying settling into life in Maskeliya for a week now.Life at the busy Tea Leaf school is never without excitement! This week has seen teacher training lessons, role plays on the importance of respect in the classroom, passionate talent show auditions and lively staff meetings.
We've been consistently impressed by the dedication and professionalism shown by the staff members at the school, most of whom are around our age and were former TLV students themselves. Spending our first week working alongside these teachers and observing their impassioned lessons has really inspired us and encouraged us to carry out our work in the same vein.Getting to know the different students inside and outside of the classrooms has no doubt been the most revealing, inspiring and humbling part of our experience so far. From the poorest backgrounds, these young men and women walk up to 6 hours every day in order to receive the free education provided at the school, always arriving immaculately dressed and with smiles on their faces. The students are so grateful for the new horizons this charity provides, that beyond the classroom, their enthusiasm continues with their weekends spent bettering the community.
At the weekend, we joined various groups of students on their service projects, fixing and cleaning schools, crèches and water tanks.Whilst our day times are busy with school life, our evenings are filled with family fun! Our surrogate 'amma' Sharma ensures our bellies are filled with absolutely delicious foods (we can't even name all the different curries we've had with rice, roti, string hoppers... accompanied by our faithful love- Daal and the heavenly coconut Sambol) and our new gorgeous little sisters Dilmi and Samadi have loved having four girls to practice their English on and to play cards and hairdressers with!
Sunday was 'Poya', full moon, so we took a bit of a hairy bus ride round the mountains with the family ( and Auntie and Asisa from the hotel- bit of a gang!) to see their local Buddhist temples and to meet the extended family, and several cups of tea and packs of biscuits, along the way.
We are so delighted to start receiving our Tea Pick donations from our generous family and friends. Thank you so so much for these.We have decided that the money we raise will go towards counselling projects here at the school. After reading emotional health survey reports filled in by past and current students, it is evident that there is a great need to help to support these young adults emotionally. £1,000 would provide the training and resources needed to provide this, so anything we can raise near this sum would be fantastic.
Next blog: The Drama Project Begins!