Greetings from Sri Lanka!!

Post No 1....Aubowan! Here I am in Sri Lanka and it is more fun, crazy, daunting and hot than I thought it would be. I am here for 6 weeks and will be writing a blog for friends, family and future volunteers to get the low down on my time here and the experiences that all 24 of us come across.

So far, we have been here for nearly two weeks and the time has gone really fast. Everything feels like a new experience, from simple things like getting on a bus to learning to eat again, this time with hands! to the harder things like seeing the poverty on the streets to the poverty in the places we are helping in...but that's why we're here...

There are 24 of us in total, knees and shoulders covered, living in various homestays in either Maharagama or Homogama, a crazy number of westerners for the locals to get their heads around! Our first week we spent getting to know the area we are living and volunteering in as well as getting to know each other. I live in a homestay of 6 of us, me, Sinead, Zoe, George, Mark and Jonny and the family are so welcoming and friendly, it feels like home already, especially with the two children who are like my akka (sister) and mali (brother) - I'm learning Singhala already, I can also count to 10! I will be working in a centre for disabled men (both mentally and physically), in an old people's home, teaching in the youth centre and helping in an all girls' orphanage with age ranges of 2-18 years old and undoubtedly a range of challenges that lie ahead....