Monday 3rd August
Yet another early start at 4am being woken up confusingly by the rain, which we couldn’t work out whether it was rain or sand blowing through our mosquito net! This wasn’t the best feeling to start the day, this unexpected wake up call was shortly followed by the sound of Polly’s alarm at 4:30am! This woke up the remaining members of the team, who managed to sleep through the rain. Struggling in the limited space of our camp beds, we managed to pack our bags and take down our camp beds and mosquito nets, using only the light from our head torches, and trying to make sure minimal sand got into everything was the challenge of the day! We loaded the bus, and finally at 5:30am got onto our Safari jeeps and headed off on a VERY bumpy ride; seeing Peacocks, Elephants, Monkeys, Crocodiles, Buffalos, Mongoose, Wort Hog, Wild Bore, a Sloth-Bear and not forgetting the sleeping Leopard, that failed to hide itself in a tree, that was surrounded by at least 20 jeeps full of agitated tourists. All of us worn out, we arrived back at the beach resort at 11:45 to find our breakfast awaiting us. We had all never been so happy to see the site of our breakfast! After what felt like a gourmet meal, we returned to the bus and began our travels back to Janoda. Only an hour or so later we stopped at Reuben’s buddies house for lunch. We all had to put on a brave face when we saw the tables of food (because we had already eaten so much!), however, we all had room for the cold coke, pineapple, watermelon and ice cream. Finally, after loading ourselves up with all the different foods, we got back onto the bus and visited two of the teachers houses from Tzu Chi where we managed to eat a whole tub of ice cream between us.
The last stop was at another local school to look at what another partnership school had done in their English classroom. We went so we could be inspired and maybe give us an idea as to what we can do to improve the English taught at Tzu Chi. We then played parachute games and volleyball with a few of the Sri Lankan students from that school.
Arriving home at around 5:40pm we all began to set our beds up again, but in the main house instead of the Kindergarten classroom, although most of us decided to set up outside.
Finishing off a long and tiring day with an early dinner and an early night, ready for our last few days.
It is sad to see it all coming to an end so quickly, as the experiences have been incredible, but can’t wait to come home.
– Love Maddie K xxx
(Hi to family, miss and love you)
