Monday 23 October 2017

Thoughts on Batti

7.30 am Day 3 in Batti 

The start of day two in Batti and  so much has happened in the last few days.
After one day and one night in Trinco we made our way to Batti to start work in the pre schools.

Trinco was a rewarding and humbling experience. A group of people across many faiths and now living together with a common bond. A community that seems to reach out to each other and live simple lives, with so very little in comparison  to ourselves, so little and yet they could teach us about faith, hope and making sure today works for your family and tomorrow is another day - always in the future.

Batti started with a team meeting for all of us, group 1 and 2. Dilanee read a poem she had written about her first visit and held up the hand of a doll she had found whilst walking on the beach that first time after the Tsunami occurred. A very  profound, extremely moving and very spiritual experience - we all have a responsibility to reach out and Dilanee has managed to bring us together with common purpose and goal. A profound spiritual experience.

Aidan then encountered a tree branch going to pick cases up - some of our Sri Lankan team are quite small in height - they managed to miss the branch and walked underneath the branch, Aidan didn't - ouch, but he was fine despite the blood from a small cut. The pain whilst real would go away far quicker than some of the pain of the families we had encountered.

Day 1 in the two pre schools we worked in was rewarding. Again people with so little making the most of what they had. Children not much younger or older than our grand children, Samuel and Edward. The children's eyes open wide with excitement and in many cases what are this group of people going to do for us and for some being tearful and wary. The welcomes were filled with  the gift they could give freely and in abundance - love for a fellow human. We has so much to learn as a society from these little children and their teachers. The visits were rewarding in so many ways and an important learning experience

The visit to the Ocean Stars office  again demonstrated how so much could be done with so little. It was lovely to see a group of ladies with a common purpose and bond working so hard for the charity. They have very little and a small monthly donation would make a huge difference to them. The cost of visiting each of the groups on a monthly basis  equates to evening out or , visit to the cinema or restaurant visit. So I would ask everyone reading this blog to consider sponsoring one of these journeys. Diana who runs the OST office here in Sri Lanka is such a wonderful person and so driven to leading her team to  deliver their mission on the ground in Sri Lanka.

So to another day of learning and life experience......

Chris and Aidan

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