It's been a while (Happy Birthday Pops)
I don't know where I've been for the last few days but haven't had time to update. And I still haven't finished writing Friday's entry. So what's been happening? Quite alot so I'll try keep it brief. After my mammouth shopping on Friday and a very late night, Saturday was a challenge on only 6.5hours sleep. It was another school day and today we were ooh you guessed it rehersing for prize giving!!! It's only coming together at last...and even my Grade 8-9 dance is looking pretty co-ordinated. It was a good feeling to see them all reading well and I ran around like a blue fly ensuring that everyone was ready to go on next. Finally we got there. So as a spot of light relief, I'd arranged for us all to go play!!! Most of the other teachers were in a meeting with a visitor from Japan so I stole Buddhika and with 50 children in tow we walked off down the playground. It was pretty cool walking the road with 50 kids all laughing and shouting and small ones holding your hand. It was definately a sight to behold. I felt in charge, ensuring they didn't get run over and the big ones weren't fighting. I do enjoy looking after them, that's where I get the buzz of doing what I do. It came to light that there were two camps - one for footie and one for cricket. The cricket lot went off and there were about 20 of us for footie. Buddhika and I elected ourselves team captains and selected our teams. Smart me took goal position where as BUddhika took center!!! And the game began. All boys and me. It was ace. They were all aged 10-14, then Buddhika who is 22 and then the old hag me! So they all had the energy of a Duracell battery and I was more like a wind up toy! My team won 2 - 0! I was so proud. Such interaction doesn't normally happen between students and teachers and the kids I felt were very relaxed in my company. They were all laughing at my pink hat (sorry Craig it's coming to NZ) and all came and shared my water bottle and then sat around with me whilst the rest went to re fill the bottle from a local well. Even the ones who in class were normally quiet, were trying to talk to me. My presence here is making a difference to them and that makes me feel good. After another runaround the pitch, I tried my hand at cricket. If my football skills are limited, then I have no cricket skills. Bowling - what's that all about. I'm surprised people don't dislocate shoulders from doing this. It was a stinking hot day and everyone was suffering from a serious need for water so we trooped off to the local well. That's why I love this place. The well was on someone's property, who happened to be the Aunty of one of the children and she had no problem with letting 50 children run riot in her front yard, stealing fruit off her trees and drinking from her well. It was one of those moments I wish I could have shared with you all. Sitting on the side of a well, under the shade of mango and lime trees, drinking cool refreshing water from a well.
Our journey back to school was hysterical. Girls and boys here don't tend to mix or play together but for the first time I saw them having a laugh together. With my water bottle, I squeezed it so and soaked little Danushka for a laugh. Having seen what I'd done, Damith came and asked me politely for a drink of water and walked off with my bottle. Next thing I see is Damith throwing water over the girls...and the girls were screaming and chasing him and hitting him...all in jest. So knowing that I could help settle the score, I casually asked Damith to go re fill the bottle cause I was thirsty. So being the obidient children they are, off he went to prepare for his own execution. He returned the full bottle to me and walked on ahead. I then passed the water bottle to one of the girls with a wry smile, which gave her the go ahead to go get him!!! The kids were like a pack of wild dogs on that journey home. The playground is a great place for them to let off some steam, which I think we did. I'm gonna try and ensure they get to play for an hour every week. It's good for me and them and I think it will help bring down those barriers that seem to be firmly in place between students and teachers.
So Saturday night, I was a train wreck. Another one of those awful headaches and all I could muster was lying in bed and cursing myself for playing football in the heat of the day. Therefore no journal entry for Saturday.
Sunday was dedicated to prize giving. Everything is dedicated to prize giving right now! But by 3o'clock, sick of wrapping presents, I gave the girls the alternative of going for a bike ride. They like it when I present them with something other than work! So we did a tour of the streets, past a couple of tanks, round a few corners. Cycling here is easy cause it's pretty much flat! And then football. There were more recruits today. So the goalposts got wider and the pictch a little longer. Big trouble for me....and my team. We suffered out first incredible defeat. 6-1. Ouch. Now, i don't consider myself an expert on the the Beautiful game...but I remember this much...and boys, you would be impressed. When the ball is passed to you, you must have two member of the opposite team infront of you or atleast parralel to you...otherwise YOU ARE OFFSIDE!!!! How impressive is that. Ex-husband dear, you are the reason i know that...THANK YOU. I'm getting a tad competetive and because Wanni's team was trashing us, I piped up that Wanni, who seemed to be lurking in front of my goal area all the time, was actually offside!!! How smart am I! Must learn more rules. Must learn how to play. The game is definately catching on. And then off to the Tank. I remember my first tank bath. Kinda feeling a little icky at the colour of the water, wondering what small worms were crawling into my feet and wondering how many people had pissed in there today. Now i don't even think about it. I'm soaping my bits like a true professional and I've even learnt where the path of sand is under the water (this is the bit you stand on)
Having the evening routine of Football and Tank bath makes my day a little more enjoyable and I think for the girls is what they look forward to all day after being stuck in the computer lab. I do feel sorry for them. Wanni is looking to them to keeping Horizon running when he finally steps down. So he's pushing them and pushing them. They come here everyday at 8am, clean the grounds, clean the bathroom, clean the computer lab and then settle down to uploading webpages and writing new stories for the websites. They finished there O'levels in December and were probably looking forward to 5 months of mooching around doing the ocassional fun thing with their new English teacher, and maybe a few lessons. I don't think they expected to be couped up day after day in the dark. It's pretty depressing for them. even i get depressed if I had to do this day in day out, 7 days a week. Hopefully it will be over for them on Thursday. But then Wanni wants to re do the main website......Poor girls. I do feel sorry for them. It's like Wanni's the Pimp Daddy and they are his Bitches. I know that sounds awful, but he is making them work like dogs!
We've had a few power cuts of late. And Sunday night was no exception. Just after dinner it went. What can you do when that happens? Bugger all, just get your torch and sit it out. What is nice is the silence that comes with a power cut. As Wanni says, it's like the whole world has stopped. It's so dark you can't see your hand infront of your face. We had another power cut last night for 4 hours in total. The power would come on for 5 mins and then vanish again. I stupidly thought that when it came back on the first time it would be for good, so downed torch and popped outside for a ciggie. Only to find myself enshrouded in blackness after the second puff. And boy it was scarey. I couldn't see a thing. I didn't know where the house was. All i could see was the glowing tip of my cigarette. Its spooky yet somewhat tranquil. Eventually Ramanee and I just sat out under the mango tree in the dark and talked. You actually stop. It's nice feeling. At home you always feel so driven to do things and feel that if you sit and do nothing, somethings not getting done...well that's how I felt. And here, when the lights out go, you can't do anything. Being able to sit and talk with just nature to accompany you is a fabulous feeling.
AS you know my brother is here at the moment. He's keeping a LiveJournal of his time out here and I gave it a read yesterday. It's amazing to think that Roger and I are on the same island only 350km apart and yet to read our journals you'd think we were in different universes. He's got destruction and carnage and I have fresh fruit and tank baths. He's desalinating wells and I'm trying to get an Accounts System working. The people we are helping appreciate our efforts but what we are doing is on totally different scales. His username is magicmeercat. Read his journal. It's pretty mad. Much more interesting than mine at the moment.
Prize Giving is 5 days away. Yesterday we hired a van and went hand delivering all the invites to the local dignatories. Doctors, Police men, Government officials, Headmasters....it was pretty amusing. The plan was to do it 2 batches. The morning batch and the afternoon. Wanni wanted atleast 2 people to stay and work on the websites. So in the morning Radhika and Krishanthi stayed and the other 4 came. Before the afternoon shift started, Radhika spoke to me. According to her, Wanni didn't want her to go in the afternoon shift because he needed her to continue doing the websites. She pleaded with me to ask him to let her come but under no circumstances to say that she had said anythings! POLITICS! Well, I had a "quiet" word in Wanni's ear...he didn't seem to think that he'd told her that...but as I've said before the girls are really scared of asking him anything. I gave Radhika her good news...she was happy. Now, this afternoons excursion meant the Iresha and Ruvini had to stay behind to work. 20 mins before the van showed up, Iresha piped up that her and Ruvini wanted to come as well and not be stuck inside for the afternoon. They would have never dared asked Wanni directly. So I yet again had to do their dirty work. Wanni was cool about it. I think he realised that maybe he was working the girls into boredom!!! So 7 of us minus Wanni headed off to deliver more invites, stopping for pineapples and biscuits along the way. They seemed to have a god time, just larking around like 6 teenage girls, squealing and screaming. At one point I actually had to ask them to ssshhh. Felt like a real old lady....I remember our trips at that age....we were moonying out of the coach windows....so really I should be grateful for their naivety. "It wasn't me" that god awful song by Shaggy and some dude is a big hit out here with the kids. Some Sri Lankan dude has even produced a Sinhala version. The girls have a tendency to break into song at inopportune moments with "It wasn't me". Drives me mad...but they seem to enjoy themsleves so who am I to spoil their fun. There's the line "Then we did it in the shower, then we did it on the counter, then we did it on the sofa....etc" They were singing away and I asked them if they knew what it meant..."A little". So I took it upon myself to explain "did it". I think they got it in the end!!!
And then that brings me back to last night and the 4 hour power cut. So that's it in a nutshell.
Will try and keep you bored more frequently!
mx
Our journey back to school was hysterical. Girls and boys here don't tend to mix or play together but for the first time I saw them having a laugh together. With my water bottle, I squeezed it so and soaked little Danushka for a laugh. Having seen what I'd done, Damith came and asked me politely for a drink of water and walked off with my bottle. Next thing I see is Damith throwing water over the girls...and the girls were screaming and chasing him and hitting him...all in jest. So knowing that I could help settle the score, I casually asked Damith to go re fill the bottle cause I was thirsty. So being the obidient children they are, off he went to prepare for his own execution. He returned the full bottle to me and walked on ahead. I then passed the water bottle to one of the girls with a wry smile, which gave her the go ahead to go get him!!! The kids were like a pack of wild dogs on that journey home. The playground is a great place for them to let off some steam, which I think we did. I'm gonna try and ensure they get to play for an hour every week. It's good for me and them and I think it will help bring down those barriers that seem to be firmly in place between students and teachers.
So Saturday night, I was a train wreck. Another one of those awful headaches and all I could muster was lying in bed and cursing myself for playing football in the heat of the day. Therefore no journal entry for Saturday.
Sunday was dedicated to prize giving. Everything is dedicated to prize giving right now! But by 3o'clock, sick of wrapping presents, I gave the girls the alternative of going for a bike ride. They like it when I present them with something other than work! So we did a tour of the streets, past a couple of tanks, round a few corners. Cycling here is easy cause it's pretty much flat! And then football. There were more recruits today. So the goalposts got wider and the pictch a little longer. Big trouble for me....and my team. We suffered out first incredible defeat. 6-1. Ouch. Now, i don't consider myself an expert on the the Beautiful game...but I remember this much...and boys, you would be impressed. When the ball is passed to you, you must have two member of the opposite team infront of you or atleast parralel to you...otherwise YOU ARE OFFSIDE!!!! How impressive is that. Ex-husband dear, you are the reason i know that...THANK YOU. I'm getting a tad competetive and because Wanni's team was trashing us, I piped up that Wanni, who seemed to be lurking in front of my goal area all the time, was actually offside!!! How smart am I! Must learn more rules. Must learn how to play. The game is definately catching on. And then off to the Tank. I remember my first tank bath. Kinda feeling a little icky at the colour of the water, wondering what small worms were crawling into my feet and wondering how many people had pissed in there today. Now i don't even think about it. I'm soaping my bits like a true professional and I've even learnt where the path of sand is under the water (this is the bit you stand on)
Having the evening routine of Football and Tank bath makes my day a little more enjoyable and I think for the girls is what they look forward to all day after being stuck in the computer lab. I do feel sorry for them. Wanni is looking to them to keeping Horizon running when he finally steps down. So he's pushing them and pushing them. They come here everyday at 8am, clean the grounds, clean the bathroom, clean the computer lab and then settle down to uploading webpages and writing new stories for the websites. They finished there O'levels in December and were probably looking forward to 5 months of mooching around doing the ocassional fun thing with their new English teacher, and maybe a few lessons. I don't think they expected to be couped up day after day in the dark. It's pretty depressing for them. even i get depressed if I had to do this day in day out, 7 days a week. Hopefully it will be over for them on Thursday. But then Wanni wants to re do the main website......Poor girls. I do feel sorry for them. It's like Wanni's the Pimp Daddy and they are his Bitches. I know that sounds awful, but he is making them work like dogs!
We've had a few power cuts of late. And Sunday night was no exception. Just after dinner it went. What can you do when that happens? Bugger all, just get your torch and sit it out. What is nice is the silence that comes with a power cut. As Wanni says, it's like the whole world has stopped. It's so dark you can't see your hand infront of your face. We had another power cut last night for 4 hours in total. The power would come on for 5 mins and then vanish again. I stupidly thought that when it came back on the first time it would be for good, so downed torch and popped outside for a ciggie. Only to find myself enshrouded in blackness after the second puff. And boy it was scarey. I couldn't see a thing. I didn't know where the house was. All i could see was the glowing tip of my cigarette. Its spooky yet somewhat tranquil. Eventually Ramanee and I just sat out under the mango tree in the dark and talked. You actually stop. It's nice feeling. At home you always feel so driven to do things and feel that if you sit and do nothing, somethings not getting done...well that's how I felt. And here, when the lights out go, you can't do anything. Being able to sit and talk with just nature to accompany you is a fabulous feeling.
AS you know my brother is here at the moment. He's keeping a LiveJournal of his time out here and I gave it a read yesterday. It's amazing to think that Roger and I are on the same island only 350km apart and yet to read our journals you'd think we were in different universes. He's got destruction and carnage and I have fresh fruit and tank baths. He's desalinating wells and I'm trying to get an Accounts System working. The people we are helping appreciate our efforts but what we are doing is on totally different scales. His username is magicmeercat. Read his journal. It's pretty mad. Much more interesting than mine at the moment.
Prize Giving is 5 days away. Yesterday we hired a van and went hand delivering all the invites to the local dignatories. Doctors, Police men, Government officials, Headmasters....it was pretty amusing. The plan was to do it 2 batches. The morning batch and the afternoon. Wanni wanted atleast 2 people to stay and work on the websites. So in the morning Radhika and Krishanthi stayed and the other 4 came. Before the afternoon shift started, Radhika spoke to me. According to her, Wanni didn't want her to go in the afternoon shift because he needed her to continue doing the websites. She pleaded with me to ask him to let her come but under no circumstances to say that she had said anythings! POLITICS! Well, I had a "quiet" word in Wanni's ear...he didn't seem to think that he'd told her that...but as I've said before the girls are really scared of asking him anything. I gave Radhika her good news...she was happy. Now, this afternoons excursion meant the Iresha and Ruvini had to stay behind to work. 20 mins before the van showed up, Iresha piped up that her and Ruvini wanted to come as well and not be stuck inside for the afternoon. They would have never dared asked Wanni directly. So I yet again had to do their dirty work. Wanni was cool about it. I think he realised that maybe he was working the girls into boredom!!! So 7 of us minus Wanni headed off to deliver more invites, stopping for pineapples and biscuits along the way. They seemed to have a god time, just larking around like 6 teenage girls, squealing and screaming. At one point I actually had to ask them to ssshhh. Felt like a real old lady....I remember our trips at that age....we were moonying out of the coach windows....so really I should be grateful for their naivety. "It wasn't me" that god awful song by Shaggy and some dude is a big hit out here with the kids. Some Sri Lankan dude has even produced a Sinhala version. The girls have a tendency to break into song at inopportune moments with "It wasn't me". Drives me mad...but they seem to enjoy themsleves so who am I to spoil their fun. There's the line "Then we did it in the shower, then we did it on the counter, then we did it on the sofa....etc" They were singing away and I asked them if they knew what it meant..."A little". So I took it upon myself to explain "did it". I think they got it in the end!!!
And then that brings me back to last night and the 4 hour power cut. So that's it in a nutshell.
Will try and keep you bored more frequently!
mx