February 2010
3 posts
Hey! I’m really sorry I haven’t posted anything for ages and ages! But it’s been difficult because I haven’t had access to a computer. But I’ll try and make up for it by telling you all about my time in India in person, which I’ll be able to do soon because I’m coming home in a few days!!! I’ve had a really great time here with my family and at DBI,...
Well I’ve really enjoyed my first few days in India, despite being cold!!..having to pile up the blankets on my bed to keep me cosy! But you’ll probably tell me the cold is nothing compared to England and you’re probably right, I’m just a wimp and obviously made to live in a hot country!
Yesterday was really good. I went to church…awh it was amazing! Great time of...
January 2010
17 posts
Becky is…happy to be in India & very happy to be with her lovely mum!!
Today was good. There were actually several minutes during the morning when no one was crying - amazing!! And the older kids had an arty afternoon doing drawing and painting, which was nice and chilled.
This morning was crazy!! Never have I seen so many children scream and cry for so long! But I suppose it’s not surprising because it’s probably the first time that many of them have been left by their parents for a significant amount of time. So it was we had an exhausting morning…comforting sobbing children, catching the kids who were determined to make a run for the gate and...
This morning 40 parents were interviewed in order to decide whether to offer their child one of 28 places at the Smile Lanka Montessori. Amy and I were invited to be on the interviewing panel, alongside the Head and Deputy Head Teacher!…didn’t we feel honoured! So we dressed up in our sari’s and sat through 2 hours of interviews that were conducted in Singhala! Afterwards we were...
Satesha came out of hospital yesterday and it was great to see her in church this morning, looking very well :) Thank you to everyone who prayed for her recovery! Xx
The new vicar led the church service today. There was a really good atmosphere, lots of people, lots of songs. She seems lovely and very friendly. So that’s good and brings hope that this year will be one of great blessing for...
Awh it was so good to have the kids back! In pre-school this morning we only had 24 kids because the older one’s have left and the new kids start next week. I did miss some of the older one’s but it was really nice to have a smaller group. And they were really well behaved!…we were expecting them to be super hyper but they were great! In the afternoon the staff had a meeting so...
Today all the staff came into school for a big sweeping and washing sesh! Me and Amy knew there’d be a lot of sweeping…they sweep the floor 5 times on a normal school day! But they literally swept everything…the floors, windows, ceilings! They also washed pretty much everything…the floors, chairs, tables, cupboards. So the school now looks beautifully clean and ready to be...
Awh man, yesterday was…umm…hard! We needed to go to Colombo to renew our visas and get back to Hambantota in a day..even if everything went perfectly it wouldn’t have been fun!
We got up at 4am and were ready and waiting to jump into the van we’d arrange to take us and be on our way by 4.30am. Not surprising the van was late, but by 5.15am we were off. But not for...
December 2009
16 posts
Today was very chilled out and relaxed. I had a lovely long lie in, watched Little Women and went to the Vicars house for dinner!..very nice. We also packed our bags and got ready to go on our adventures around Sri Lanka!..very excited! We’re leaving for Colombo tomorrow morning, and over the next two weeks we’ll be staying in Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Bentota. Hopefully I’ll get...
The other day one of the older girls from Smile invited us to her house, so this afternoon we went round. We had a lovely time. They were very generous, offering us drinks and crackers and cake! After chatting for a while, we walked down to beach with her and her Mum, and played in the waves…fun, fun!
In the evening we went to a carol service at our local church. They had a visiting church...
This afternoon we were told that the kids were going to do speeches, in Singhala!…didn’t think I’d be much help and it didn’t sound particularly interesting to be honest! But I actually had a really nice afternoon! I sat on table with a lovely group of girls and we chatted (managing on their limited English, my extremely limited Singhala and mime!) about our families,...
We had very special treat today!..a roast dinner…with stuffing!! Awh, it was so good! We had this amazing meal at Tim and Liz’s house. They’re a lovely couple from England, who have been working as volunteers in Sri Lanka for a couple of years. Tim works at the Chamber of Commerce and Liz helps at Smile with us, so they’ve become good friends!
November 2009
20 posts
Had a nice day :) My morning was pretty normal - helped the kids write letters, played in the playground with them and got breakfast and lunch…they always eat loads on Mondays(!), probably because they don’t get fed very much over the weekend. With our afternoon class, Amy and I made salt dough Christmas decorations! Was really fun and they did some lovely snowmen and Christmas trees,...
Becky Dalling had fun playing with play dough, painting, and getting very messy washing the paint brushes and trays :D
Discovering more about the lives of the staff and children at Smile Lanka, has been…I can’t actually think of any words to describe how it makes me feel. So many of them have an incredibly difficult home life and are forced to cope with horrific circumstances. You wonder how they manage to stay so strong, when just listening to their stories makes you feel so heart broken.
Nayani is the Head...
Today we had a special morning for the widows who are sponsored through Smile. They came together at Smile Lanka to play games, do art and have lunch. They’re also given enough food and essential items to last them a month - two bags weighing 20kg in total!…they must really struggle to carry them home! They all seemed to of had a great time and were so grateful for everything! It was...
Funny little incident happened at lunch today…a couple of the kids who had finished eating were messing about with a sandal. It got chucked onto the table where a few kids were still eating, and one of them picked it up and threw it across the room…right into the bowl of dhal! Was a great shot from about 10 metres! Awh his face was so funny after he realised what he’d done!