Disabled Centre - update

I had a really good day on Wednesday at Maharagama Disabled Centre. I think they're really enjoying us being there and its showing in everything - the way they greet us, the growing number every visit of how many join in the activities, the smiles on their faces as we spend time with them and their enthusiasm to communicate with us. One of the men who is normally locked up was sat outside of the bars this time - this has happened twice in our visits but we are yet to find out why they seem to be let out sometimes and not others. I'd really like to do something about this before we leave.

Anyway, sat outside the bars, he started talking to Robbie in English...'My name is....I have two brothers...etc etc' which was a massive surprise. It makes it even harder to understand why some of these men are in here, especially the ones locked up. I hope the relationships we have built up can either be used by us this time by or future volunteers to try and change the conditions in the centre for such loving and gentle people.

Here's some photos taken that day (mostly by the men themselves after helping themselves to my camera from my bag!)

Nothing is Impossible..Yes I Can....

A slogan we learnt on the first weekend at the 'Academy of Adventure'...it was put in place this weekend.

Lion's Rock (Sigiriya)

I broke my toe...again (would anyone expect anything less?) and instead of an ice pack, I decided to climb this....

Here is my toe at the top. Woop.

Maharagama Youth Teaching

For one reason or another, myself, Rachelle and George only started youth teaching last week and have now spent two lessons with a group of hairstylists. The youth centre runs many courses for pupils from ages 17-29 (as I've seen) from bakery courses to air conditioning to beauticians where they learn their trade on site in the classrooms. I love their 'uniforms', basically dressing all in white, and with the occassional monks that walk around, I think the centre has a very pure and peaceful air about it...may be that's just in contrast to the conditions in our other projects.

In the first lesson, as they speak relatively good English, we did conversational roleplay with them - how to book an appointment on the phone - and taught them the English words for hairdressing tools and styles. This week we began to help them with CVs, for some crazy reason any job interview they have is all in English. Unlike in the orphanages, the youths are there because they are really keen to learn and you can see the enthusiasm in their eyes at having a real English person stood teaching them, which makes working with them really enjoyable. After the volunteers who teach the beauticians getting facials, I think a new hair-do is in order next week!

I want an elephant

I thought this was blog-worthy....

Being showered by an elephant

Unawatuna Beach

The second weekend, we went to Unawatuna beach, an incredible beautiful place where much fun was had...

My first glimpse of the beach and where we ate breakfast

My last glimpse of the beach as it started raining

Pretty special.

Ups and Downs

Wednesday 18th August

Today was definitely a day for highs and lows.

This morning we were at the Disabled Centre where one of the men opened up (by miming) and told us about some of his past traumatic family experiences.  Although this was very upsetting and shocking to hear, it shows we have gained their trust and that they want to tell us about their lives, which I think can only be seen as something positive.  After this we used thread to show them how to make friendship bracelets - they loved it and I was pretty proud and impressed by how quickly they picked it up!

At the orphanage, there was a similar story.  Following our conversation about boyfriends (something which is becoming a bit of an in-joke - they now call me by the name of a Sri Lankan boyfriend I made up!) I have noticed a difference in their manner towards us, they definitely seem more keen on us and more keen to learn.  After a successful lesson on body parts, as it drew to a close, a lot of the girls were very open and wanted to talk about their family with us, telling us some stories which were closely represented in some of their drawings which hang on the wall.  This was the first day the girls have come up to us themselves and hopefully reflects their building trust, a massive boost for us.

Seeing this in more than one project after just 3 weeks is really rewarding and has reaffirmed the reason why we are here.

Delkanda Girls' Orphanage

Monday 16th August

There are roughly 140 girls at Delkanda orphanage of all ages from 2-17 years.  Not knowing what to expect, I thought the orphanage was quite big with a large yard for the girls to play in, but the dorms that the girls sleep in are anything but with not even enough beds per person. The girls seem to get on well with the matrons though and some of them seem quite passionate to look after them. They seemed quite wary of us at first which should change as they become familiar with us.

We split the girls up into age groups and take one every day.  Although this makes them more manageable, it makes it harder to get to know them, after time though I'm sure the cheeky ones will stand out!

This morning we had the 2-5 year olds, an age hard enough to control when you speak the same language! so it was pretty tough, but we sang songs like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and did the Okey Kokey (does anyone know how to spell that?) with them which they loved and which helped to calm them down.
One of my biggest worries that came with my first impressions of the orphanage was how to relate and get into the mindset of teenage girls who have experienced more than you despite being older than them.  As a 17 year old, the last thing you would want to do is be pushed to learn English from a group of foreign strangers not that much older than you. At first, we found this very hard but last Thursday we decided our lesson would be conversational so we talked and teased them about boyfriends (inadvertently making them describe in English!) which they found hilarious and they seemed to warm to us a lot more. I hope this is the foundations of their trust.