Longest story ever
Door: Kim Kardashian
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Andrea
14 Januari 2016 | Sri Lanka, Jaffna
Life in Galle
Long time no see/write/speak/fax. Bad wifi, busy times, upcoming deadlines… Thousands of reasons, but I will try to resume what I did over the last few weeks.
Girls’ Home
Work at the girls’ home has been great, as always. Somedays are super chaotic, but most of the time we manage to teach them something. Our structure, English in the morning and Art or Sports in the afternoon, has settled and our group got bigger when the holiday started in December. There was nothing to do for any of the girls, except for English, so more girls came to our class. The holiday also meant that there were more girls hanging around in the room and there was more noise than ever before. Teaching English is quite hard when 20 other girls are watching television in the same room.
New girls arrived and others left. We now have two very young girls, of 9 and 10 years old. The girls seem to treat them well, but still, imagine if they have to stay there until their 18… What a life…
Christmas
We spend Christmas Eve eating out in the hotel of our coordinator. A four course meal and a short walk at the beach made it a great day. At the 25th of December it was time for our Christmas lunch. We were so busy organizing everything for this day in the previous weeks. In the morning, we arranged the last things and got dressed. We could lend some saree’s from the wife of our coordinator and decided to wear these on this special day. Took the tailor about half an hour to get me dressed, but hey, it was only for one day. I can’t imagine how it will be to have to do that every morning. Also, you can not walk in a saree. Really. I felt like a penguin all day long. But, all that mattered is that the girls loved it. They were so surprised to see us in saree’s and kept saying how beautiful we looked. All the girls themselves dressed up as well, all looking lovely and festive.
We decorated the big room and put all the tables and chairs into place. Than we invited them into the room. They could write their name on a bauble which we put in the Christmas tree. Once every girl was inside, the Christmas tree was filled with 68 baubles and everybody was excited. You could really sense that the girls were enthusiastic and happy. The vibe in the room was really good and we started the party with serving the lunch. After some ice cream, it was time for some games, music and of course presents. We had a small package for each girl with some school stuff and new hair ribbons for their braids. When we called a girl to come get her present, all the other girls would clap. So special, it was great to see how they supported each other. We ended the day with dancing and singing. I have never seen the girls smiling so much as on that day. The vibe was amazing, so lovely. Some girls had more emotional moments, and started crying because all the happiness made them miss their families. Really understandable, and it was good that they did not keep those feelings inside. The other girls were really caring and it was good to see that all the tears turned into smiles in the end. I think this was the best Christmas I ever had. The girls told me several times that they would never forget this day, and neither will I.
Tsunami
The evening of the 25th, there was a memorial at my coordinators house. There was a Buddhist ceremony to remember all the people that lost their life to the tsunami. All though I couldn’t really understand much of the ceremony, it was still impressive to see all those people together, most of them dressed in white. On the 26th, the day of the tsunami, there was not much going on, what surprised me. There was no big memorial thing in town, as I expected. I think most memorials were just a family thing, which is also understandable. For me, I definitely thought more about it these days. It is so strange to realize that this natural disaster affected the area where I am now and the people I work with every day.
New years and trips
I spend my New Years a little different than normally: on the beach! The Sri Lankan New Year is in April, but all the tourist gathered together in Unawatuna. Watching fireworks with your feet in the sand is something I can recommend!
And then the weekend trips, I have done too much to tell about! I think I only wrote about the first two weekends, and I’m already here for almost ten weeks now… My third weekend was a quite relaxed one. Spend one day on the beach, and another one in Hikkeduwa. In Hikkeduwa I visited a turtle sanctuary and the tsunami museum, which was really impressive. In my fourth weekend, I went to the National Park Udawalawe, where I saw lots of elephants, water buffalo’s, peacocks, land monitors, kingfishers, pelicans, toucans and even more. My fifth weekend trip was to Mirissa, where I went surfing and whale watching. Saw 10 whales and over 20 dolphins, so we were super lucky. My sixth weekend was a long one. We visited Ella, Haputale and Ohiya. We went to Lipton’s seed, saw a tea factory, climbed little Adams Peak, visited water falls & a spice garden and strolled to National Park Horton Plains to see Worlds End. Everything was so impressive. The weekend after that, which included the day of the tsunami, we took things a little more easy. We went to Bentota for a lagoon tour and spotted crocodiles, snakes, water monitors, kingfishers and other birds.
In the first week of January, I went away for a short holiday with Lotte. We went to the far North. First stop was Jaffna, were you could still see all the marks of the Civil War. Next was an impressive visit to Manar, were we seemed to be the only tourists. It looked like a different country and lots of youngster wanted to take selfies with us. Also, lots of people ‘secretly’ take pictures of us. I think other people have made more pictures of me here than I have myself. Next stop was Trincomalee in the East Coast. It was rain season and the first day it was pouring. The second day we had more luck, super sunny weather! We visited some hot water wells and strolled around town. Also in Trincomalee, you can see lots of marks from the civil war and the tsunami, especially if you go to less touristic places. Makes you think more about the history of this country. Lastly, we visited Anuradhapura, a country with a beautiful ancient city and lots of temples. We cycled around, half of the time accidently on the right side of the road, but hey, we survived.
I could tell loads more about all the things I get to do, see and experience here, but this blog post is already way too long. I also need to work on preparations for activities for the girls home and of course my reports for school. So enjoy this one whilst I bury myself in all the things I need to get done!
Lots of love!
Long time no see/write/speak/fax. Bad wifi, busy times, upcoming deadlines… Thousands of reasons, but I will try to resume what I did over the last few weeks.
Girls’ Home
Work at the girls’ home has been great, as always. Somedays are super chaotic, but most of the time we manage to teach them something. Our structure, English in the morning and Art or Sports in the afternoon, has settled and our group got bigger when the holiday started in December. There was nothing to do for any of the girls, except for English, so more girls came to our class. The holiday also meant that there were more girls hanging around in the room and there was more noise than ever before. Teaching English is quite hard when 20 other girls are watching television in the same room.
New girls arrived and others left. We now have two very young girls, of 9 and 10 years old. The girls seem to treat them well, but still, imagine if they have to stay there until their 18… What a life…
Christmas
We spend Christmas Eve eating out in the hotel of our coordinator. A four course meal and a short walk at the beach made it a great day. At the 25th of December it was time for our Christmas lunch. We were so busy organizing everything for this day in the previous weeks. In the morning, we arranged the last things and got dressed. We could lend some saree’s from the wife of our coordinator and decided to wear these on this special day. Took the tailor about half an hour to get me dressed, but hey, it was only for one day. I can’t imagine how it will be to have to do that every morning. Also, you can not walk in a saree. Really. I felt like a penguin all day long. But, all that mattered is that the girls loved it. They were so surprised to see us in saree’s and kept saying how beautiful we looked. All the girls themselves dressed up as well, all looking lovely and festive.
We decorated the big room and put all the tables and chairs into place. Than we invited them into the room. They could write their name on a bauble which we put in the Christmas tree. Once every girl was inside, the Christmas tree was filled with 68 baubles and everybody was excited. You could really sense that the girls were enthusiastic and happy. The vibe in the room was really good and we started the party with serving the lunch. After some ice cream, it was time for some games, music and of course presents. We had a small package for each girl with some school stuff and new hair ribbons for their braids. When we called a girl to come get her present, all the other girls would clap. So special, it was great to see how they supported each other. We ended the day with dancing and singing. I have never seen the girls smiling so much as on that day. The vibe was amazing, so lovely. Some girls had more emotional moments, and started crying because all the happiness made them miss their families. Really understandable, and it was good that they did not keep those feelings inside. The other girls were really caring and it was good to see that all the tears turned into smiles in the end. I think this was the best Christmas I ever had. The girls told me several times that they would never forget this day, and neither will I.
Tsunami
The evening of the 25th, there was a memorial at my coordinators house. There was a Buddhist ceremony to remember all the people that lost their life to the tsunami. All though I couldn’t really understand much of the ceremony, it was still impressive to see all those people together, most of them dressed in white. On the 26th, the day of the tsunami, there was not much going on, what surprised me. There was no big memorial thing in town, as I expected. I think most memorials were just a family thing, which is also understandable. For me, I definitely thought more about it these days. It is so strange to realize that this natural disaster affected the area where I am now and the people I work with every day.
New years and trips
I spend my New Years a little different than normally: on the beach! The Sri Lankan New Year is in April, but all the tourist gathered together in Unawatuna. Watching fireworks with your feet in the sand is something I can recommend!
And then the weekend trips, I have done too much to tell about! I think I only wrote about the first two weekends, and I’m already here for almost ten weeks now… My third weekend was a quite relaxed one. Spend one day on the beach, and another one in Hikkeduwa. In Hikkeduwa I visited a turtle sanctuary and the tsunami museum, which was really impressive. In my fourth weekend, I went to the National Park Udawalawe, where I saw lots of elephants, water buffalo’s, peacocks, land monitors, kingfishers, pelicans, toucans and even more. My fifth weekend trip was to Mirissa, where I went surfing and whale watching. Saw 10 whales and over 20 dolphins, so we were super lucky. My sixth weekend was a long one. We visited Ella, Haputale and Ohiya. We went to Lipton’s seed, saw a tea factory, climbed little Adams Peak, visited water falls & a spice garden and strolled to National Park Horton Plains to see Worlds End. Everything was so impressive. The weekend after that, which included the day of the tsunami, we took things a little more easy. We went to Bentota for a lagoon tour and spotted crocodiles, snakes, water monitors, kingfishers and other birds.
In the first week of January, I went away for a short holiday with Lotte. We went to the far North. First stop was Jaffna, were you could still see all the marks of the Civil War. Next was an impressive visit to Manar, were we seemed to be the only tourists. It looked like a different country and lots of youngster wanted to take selfies with us. Also, lots of people ‘secretly’ take pictures of us. I think other people have made more pictures of me here than I have myself. Next stop was Trincomalee in the East Coast. It was rain season and the first day it was pouring. The second day we had more luck, super sunny weather! We visited some hot water wells and strolled around town. Also in Trincomalee, you can see lots of marks from the civil war and the tsunami, especially if you go to less touristic places. Makes you think more about the history of this country. Lastly, we visited Anuradhapura, a country with a beautiful ancient city and lots of temples. We cycled around, half of the time accidently on the right side of the road, but hey, we survived.
I could tell loads more about all the things I get to do, see and experience here, but this blog post is already way too long. I also need to work on preparations for activities for the girls home and of course my reports for school. So enjoy this one whilst I bury myself in all the things I need to get done!
Lots of love!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
