Day 7 - Our second day of teaching and we've got the swing of things! today there were 4 groups all going to various preschools in Batti. Two groups were also luck enough to experience a good Sri Lankan tuk tuk ride ( through the flooded roads ) to quite remote areas of Batti. Olivia, Katie and Julie where also lucky enough to witness the grand opening of a water supply built by Ocean Stars. Some parents explained that they would have to walk 5k to access water so it was an honour to have experienced this important event that will help so many.
Katie
Today has been just amazing! It was such an honour for Olivia and I to have had the opportunity to open the water supply at the preschool! Our group today was smaller than expected but the children were so full of fun and enthusiastic with the activities - especially the bean bag games. Then after a busy morning we were kindly treated to some delicious fresh corn from a stall on the side of the road by our lovely tuk tuk driver. After a bit of relax in the afternoon, we headed off to the Deaf Link Party. It was definitely a successful evening with over 80 people turning up to join the celebration!
Dan + Zeddy
Today I visited mandoor for the preschool sessions. The children warmed up to us and had exciting times with the stories, games, songs and painting of hats. Meeting the sponsor children and their families was also overwhelming.
Had a challenge with the rain and had to swap vans on the way to preschool - thanks to a Good Samaritan driver who stopped and helped us with our van and too us to the preschool
Dan and Lauren Wow! The rain is insane. I’ve been based in Batti since May and I have never seen it rain like this. But as usual, I was amazed by the teamwork of everyone in the Sri Lanka team to make out preschool visits happen. Despite having to take these different vehicles, we eventually arrived at Mandoor 1 preschool. Lauren and I got stuck into teaching and the children had a wonderful time. The D&D evening was fantastic- great to see familiar faces. Chug chug, puff puff
Lauren
Mandoor 1 pre school & deaf link:
The morning started off a bit challenging when we found the road to Mandoor flooded. Chitra, on the ball as always, starting making some calls to arrange some tuktuks to take us to the preschools.
However, as we waited, a random man kindly stopped for us. Me and the team got into his minibus and faced the floods. On the other side, I had my first ride in a tuktuk, side by side with Chitra and the preschool teacher.
The preschool went smoothly and we had lots of fun. I particularly enjoyed making the collage with the children and seeing their cheeky personalities being brought out during the hokey cokey.
At the beginning there was an amusingly underwhelming opening of the kitchen as Dan posed for a photo with his little scissors. Although you can see how important this new facility is for the preschool, giving them needed clean space to prepare food for the children's lunches and snacks.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Deaf link evening. I was manning the scratch art with Amali, it was so popular we ran out of cards! Had a fab time being the sauce and poppadom girl when serving the dinner and felt we really worked as a team with our.. engine line styled serving. It was hilarious to see Dan using two plates to grab and drop mountains of noodles from the massive bath of noodles on the ground! As we ate, me and Liz talked to one of the sponsor children and her mother. She told us how she used the sponsor money to pay for private english lessons, and her English was very good at the age of only 11. She also said that she wanted to become a Doctor and was achieving 100 in science and 98 in maths! This conversation really highlighted the importance of what Ocean Stars does and how it changes lives.