Wednesday - Visit to the Trincomalee projects

Today the team took the new road (when Ocean Stars first started, the road between Batti and Trinco was completely destroyed) to Trinco to visit the projects there.  The team split into three groups, visiting a secondary school, a primary school and a pre-school.

Vellaimanal pre-school in Trincomalee is a short way up a track impassable with a van.  As we walked up to the school Poojah, Dan, Preneetha, Ruth & Hugh were greeted by a collection of about thirty smiling children who presented us with shell necklaces.  Some particularly pleasing aspects of the school and the visit:-
Despite being in a Muslim area the school provides for girls and boys in approximately equal numbers

A lot of mothers, sisters, brothers and a father came to see what their children were doing, peering with eager curiosity through the mesh which makes for windows

The children sang two quite lengthy, lively songs for us and they danced enthusiastically along with them

The mothers were happy to converse with Ruth who exchanged many a 'Salaam Aleikum' with them
the teachers gave us multitudinous delicious refreshments:- for each of us a fresh coconut, a plate of lovely sweet papaya, a plate of cakes and a banana!

These refreshments were an unexpected prequel to the lunch which was subsequently provided for us, for the rest of Team 2 (who had been visiting the Vellaimanal primary school & the local secondary school - and working rather harder than us), for all the Calthorpe Park students & teachers and for some of the Ocean Stars sponsored children & their families.

Meanwhile, during the morning Stephen and Phil joined the Calthorpe Park School team of students and teachers at .... secondary School in Vellaimanal.  As it was a Buddhist public holiday, school was meant to be off all day but we were grateful and honoured that probably around 140 children came in to school to meet us, play sports or do artwork.

Around half the students (mainly girls) stayed in the school and practised origami and did crafts and sang songs which went down enormously well. The other half, almost exclusively boys, went to the field opposite to play 15-a-side football and cricket. We (Phil and Stephen) mostly set up games for the younger children who didn't join the bigger games of football and cricket, and played bowling and parachutes.  We had a great time all morning and it was good to interact with some youngsters closer to our own age. The school had a good community feel to it all morning, with English and Sri Lankans sharing and enjoying eachother's company.

Meanwhile, Karen, Kathy, Pam and Julie went to Vellaimanal Primary School expecting to run a session with a group of girls. Instead, up turned 48 girls AND 52 boys and so Karen and Pam heroically took on the outdoor session with the lads, without any balls or outdoor games except bean bags! The English volunteers certainly felt the heat on the field and had to take more breaks than their Sri Lankan counterparts.

The lunch/banquet was provided by and hosted by the indefatigable Janabdene, the leader of the local community and the key wheel for Ocean Stars in the Trincomalee area, and by his equally indefatigable family.  Happy conversations flowed easily and the occasion was rounded off by a visit from some of the women (mostly mothers of children attending the pre-school) who work in an Ocean Stars supported sewing/embroidery project, the building for which is located just up the hill from the pre-school.  The women brought examples of their colourful & intricate work and I am glad to say that quite a number of these were bought by the visiting Ocean Stars volunteers.




(Today's blog was written by Hugh and Stephen)