Day 8 - Let’s head for Trinco!
Today team 2 and team 1 both took the trip down to Trinco to visit three schools - one preschool, one secondary school and one high school - all came back with varying but positive experiences!
As we climbed the steps to the preschool we could see the warm welcome that awaited us; lots of children, parents and grandparents. We had a shorter session that usual given the long journey from Batti to Trinco and also because the children had prepared songs and dances to show to us. In spite of the limited time the children got really into the ‘I think I can’ theme and really enjoyed the story and hat making. We were then treated to a superb display of English action songs, and beautiful tamil singing and dancing. Some of the children wore traditional dress to perform. We were then offered delicious cake and fresh papaya and bananas, before being taken to the teacher’s house to meet her family and enjoy a refreshing glass of mango juice along with dates and sweets. We were overwhelmed by the generosity shown to us. It really was a wonderful morning.
Lauren
Trincomalee primary school, house visit & Hindu temple
Me, Amali, Rod, Rev Dan, Zeddy and Dharshan went to the Trinco primary school. Rod, Dan and Dharshan headed outside to do all sorts of games with the boys, Zeddie went to do train hats with the grade 2s and some grade 1 stragglers (the majority of grade one were in some mysteriously unknown location). Me and Amali went into the grade 3 classroom with the girls. We started with decorating stars with different kinds of tissue paper and card. The girls got stuck in and spent a lot of time carefulling putting there's together and I was very impressed with the beautiful and intricate designs they'd produced from somewhat limited resources. (They were all a lot better than mine) The teacher's ones especially were stunning. We also made paper chains using Julie's 'Lick n Stick' method which the girls enjoyed, periodically showing off and handing me their finished chains. The finished girls joined the accumulating crowd of children in the circle outside to do a very enthusiastic hokey cokey with Rod, Dan and Dharshan. The excited screams of "OHHHHHH THE HOKEY COKEY" could be heard from the classroom and made the remaining girls and us laugh. With a lot of effort and cello tape, Amali (mostly) and I managed to attach all the decorated stars on a line of string with a few paper chains to the ceiling and it looked amazing! As we embarked from the school we passed lots of smiling and waving children from their classroom windows, showing off their English with lots of Goodbyes and Good Afternoons.
Next we visited the house of… to relax and have a delicious lunch, a chance for some of the team to meet their sponsored children, a spot of Henna by Jasmine and the opportunity to buy some amazingly intricate folded card designs featuring elephants, swans and several types of vases.
Finally we headed to a famous Hindu temple in Trinco. I had my eyes keenly peeled for animals and was rewarded with many deer, several monkeys, some adorable kittens, and a peacock up in a tree, all of which I found very exciting, especially as they were all so close! The massive Hindu statue was very impressive and I felt quite educated as Dharshan explained to us the meaning behind some of the temple's exterior features- not to mention the great sea views. One the way back, me and some of the team stopped off for a coconut. It was amusing to watch the man just hack the top off with a knife and then stick in a straw. The coconut water proved very refreshing.