Wednesday 5th August
Our last day before travel started with a treat down in the mud hut. We had rotties (sort of like thick pancakes made with coconut and rice) smothered in treacle, butter and jam. A few of us headed off to Hambantota to collect the last few sarees buy a few for sarongs and take another trip to ‘food city’ to buy food for our celebrations later. We then reluctantly started to pack for going home . We made a trip to see buffalo curd being made which we then ate for pudding for lunch. Afterwards we started our preparations for our celebration. Oh So Wrong (The boys in sarongs) learnt their dance to ‘Best Song Ever’ by One Direction which was beautifully choreographed by Grace and Ellie to perform to the buddies later on. Pass the parcel was wrapped with challenges and thank you speeches were prepared.
Finally the buddies arrived ready for the party. However, none of the girls knew how to put their sarees on so the buddies and teachers helped which took longer than expected so the boys were left impatiently for about an hour. Boys in their sarongs and girls in their sarees we started the celebrations with another brilliant performance from max who managed to get another Sri Lankan teacher attempting to juggle. 3 of the buddies gave us a somewhat quiet performance of a song which was interrupted by builders hammering, and ice cream tuck tuck and a howling dog. It was then time to teach them a traditional English dance – The Macarena, which was hard to do while stopping our sarees from falling down. Maddie T and Graces buddies treated us to an interesting dance piece and then it was time for ‘Oh Sarong’ to make their appearance. They absolutely smashed it and nailed the bum wiggles, they put One Direction to shame. Grace and Brooker gave their thank you speeches and we then all gave our buddies a friendship bracelet to end the ceremony.
It was time for food and we enjoyed a variety of biscuits, fizzy drinks, crisps and lots of cake. We went back outside again to play a classic game of pass the parcel with challenges such as the one Charlie had to do which was spinning 20 times and then having to walk in a straight line. He managed one straight line then hobbled around for about a minute afterwards. Our next game was passing a balloon around between each persons legs without dropping it which soon turned into a new game suggested by the Sri Lankans. We got into pairs and danced with a balloon stuck in between our foreheads. Paba then opened the hopscotch by playing it for the first time. It was nearing the end of the day and with the music playing everyone started to get emotional. Tears were flowing during our goodbyes with our buddies and many photos were taken. We then had our last supper at Janoda and for pudding we were surprised by strawberry ice cream ! An emotional meeting finished the day with reflections and more tears from Grace, Polly, Morty and even Harri. It was definitely time for some fun so we headed to have our own mini party with a bit of dance to some songs from our childhood. Soon we will head to bed but Team no sleep might not go till midnight.
We are all sad to leave but can’t wait for a McDonalds when we arrive back after our long journey tomorrow and Friday.
Lots of love Ellie
