This trip was going to be a special trip as my Hubbie Alfred joined me on my working holiday.
He knew it would be a working holiday, but he would do some sightseeing as well. We stayed 4 weeks, and we had a great time. We worked hard, visited many friends. We saw elephants and went to the hot spring in Maha-oya. We stayed at the Oceanic Resort which was right on the beach/ocean. We ate there the most delicious seafood. Alfred went twice with friends to the Knuckles, for a walk and a swim under the waterfall. He visited the dancers of Kandy and the temple of tooth. While he was doing that I unpacked and packed the last boxes and bags at Nishantha’s place. Alfred helped as well. He sorted out the Knexx so it could be divided between 5 schools which all got the same amount.
Every time when I am in Sri Lanka the schools are closed for whatever reason, so an extra holiday. A holiday which would not be on the normal list. Yes, this time again problems. All schools around Kandy were closed. Why?
The Temple of tooth opened specially to show their relic (the tooth of Buddha) to all the people. The last time this happened was in March 2009. That time an estimated one million people paid homage (it is 10 days). This time, after 5 days 1 million people had already seen it. This meant there were queues of more than 10 km around Kandy. 32 Busses were sent back as there was no parking space anymore. People stood there day and night. There were hardly any toilet facilities so many jumped in the lake. The town was dirty, very dirty.
In the meantime, some schools cancelled my visit. One school wanted new green boards which we would pay but I told them to come on their day off to school. Which they did and they also got educational materials.
So what have we done?
We visited 3 new schools. 2 special need schools. A very poor one in Trincomalee and one richer one in Kandy. The latter one was run by an experienced teacher. She had been lucky to receive many toys from a nursery in England, but she was still very happy with the given toys. The first one was at a time there were also provincial elections and yes, the schools were closed again for 2 days. This is to give the teachers the time to get back to their birth village, vote and come back the next day. So we had to change the days and luckily enough that was possible.
We visited four nurseries. Two in Sigiriya which we visited before. Both are very talented teachers which I like to help throughout the coming years. One was a new one for me, but my friends Lesley and Ralph went there before with some of the older materials. Those materials were still there, and nothing was missing. I was impressed. A good nursery which I like to help as well.
The fourth nursery was near my friend Desiree’s house. The nursery got a warning a half year ago that they (the nursery teacher) didn’t look after the materials properly and if that would not change I would take everything back. Sounds very strict but it is a big organization to get the materials there so … Desiree went back 2 months before my arrival and showed me photos of the materials. Not good and many items were missing. So we went there, the teacher was not there, we took back all the materials which were still intact and gave it to another wonderful, creative, big nursery.
One school I visited is our sponsor project. For 60 euro per year people can sponsor a child so he/she can go to school. This project I do together with Ramani. A lovely school and great children. For the first time I saw self-made materials. I couldn’t believe my eyes. So there are teachers who don’t mind putting some extra time into making materials. This is a school to my heart. This was the first time I gave here English materials and educational materials.
We visited 2 new hockey schools. We are helping many schools who want to start with hockey but don’t have the equipment. Up until now we helped 5 schools with a keepers outfit, hockey sticks, balls, cones and hockey clothing. Thanks to Alliance hockey club in Heemstede and Cartouche hockey club in The Hague. The 2 new schools got first a keepers outfit. Later on during the summer Tess and Sven gave hockey clinics and gave the hockey sticks balls and cones.
The other schools we visited were during the Maha-oya trip. 5 days with Kanchana, Alfred me and Dinesh our new driver. Those schools were the Dance school, Manga school, Doctor school, jungle school, tile school and the library. The library is a project which I really like. To get children to read is great and is organized and built with our money by the welfare organization.
Before we knew it we were back at Negombo for 2 days of rest at the Beach apartments. Great location overlooking the ocean.
I hope to see Sri Lanka in October again but then on my own again.
The last words from Alfred were: “I can’t see any schools anymore for the last 10 years” (he had to visit more than 15 schools). Let‘s see what will happen.
Greetings, Natasja