Visit to Thirukovil

This was another very early start to the pre school of the Methodist Church we had visited he day before although today the journey did not take quite the two hours travelling time.

We arrived to a wonderful welcome and greeted with beautiful fresh garlands, which we took off as it was so hot as we started our session.  The Welcome song was fun and the children soon took-to touching the giraffes although they were scared of touching a soft toy. We told the story of a dancing giraffe, which they found difficult to hear because of a very noisy fa

They coloured in giraffe hats and we added glass eyes, which the children loved. We made a beautiful collage of a jungle, which was hung on the wall. After playing with balloons, beanbags, bubbles, parachute and lots of singing, the session was over., they all went home with tooth brush, toothpaste, a lollipop and a lovely knitted teddy bear. What  a great morning!

Heather

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

Arrival in Batti

Our first  Batti of team meeting was exciting as it was the first time the whole team had met together. Ross from Calthorpe Park spoke about The group  and two of the students spoke about their preparations over the last year and it was especially moving to note how the students realised over this time of preparation how they had grown. heather spoke about the preparation of team two and especially how the team had grown to know each other. she also spoke about how  their preparations had included rallying other organisations e.g. 750 teddies have been knitted by groups all over the country so that each child can receive a teddy. Jenny spoke as a trustee and thanked everyone for their work.

Dilanee spoke about how the charity started after the Tsunami  when she visited Sri Lanka and visited the site of a children's home where all 220 children had died.  She read the beautiful and very poignant poem that she wrote at the time which moved me to tears as it expressed all her emotions and feelings  that she had at that moment in time and from that Ocean stars was born.  We sang a the Ocean stars song.

The  CP children  will visit Two Secondary schools.  A Teacher from one of the schools spoke about Batti Lagoon school which was established in 1871,  the school was really affected by the Tsunami which really affected the children physically and emotionally and the support they receive is much appreciated.  I feel so privileged and humbled to be part of the team this year and to play a very small part in the lives of the beautiful children we met and the development of the work of OST.

Thirukovil Church

Dilanee, Julie, Heather from Fleet Methodist Church and Keith and Christine from Spalding Methodist Church visited the joint URC/Mrthodist Church in this beautiful but poor part of Sri Lanka which was very badly hit by the Sunammi. We left the hotel at Kallady, for the two hour journey to the Church, which was due to start to start at 7.30 am.

Unfortunately we arrived late, and crept into the service. All the hymns were in English to help out team, although the readings and the sermon were in Tamil which meant that it felt like a jolly long sermon. The team sang we are marching in the light of the Lord and we then got the congregation to join us and the appeared to enjoy it. I then presented to the reverend a photograph of members of the Fleet church taken two weeks ago. 

After the service Julie and Christine did some craft work with the children and we all sang songs. It was a lovely time. We then went to a newly refurbished recreation ground which Dilanee opened. It was wonderful to see the children rush across to play on the swings and the slide - all paid for by Ocean Stars.

Thirukovil nursery

On Sunday we visited Thirukovil nursery. They had an outside play area, which had been unusable with broken play equipment. Dilanee had been asked for OST to make a safe playground for the nursery.

Some of us had the joy to be welcomed by the teachers and the most beautiful children. On entering the outside area, we were given a garland which the children placed around our necks.
The play area had been transformed to the most wonderful safe playground with brightly painted equipment. Slide, swings, climbing frame, and a swing boat. Dilanee cut the ribbon to open te playground. She then said to the children, ‘Enjoy’. The look on their faces were full of joy and delight. Smiles all the way round. I am sure many happy hours will be spent in the lovely playground. Having worked in a very well equipped nursery in England my thoughts were in our country, we are so privileged. How often we take things for granted. It makes me want to raise more money to give the children of Sri Lanka the enjoyment they deserve.

Day 4 - Trinco

Trinco – Young boys – James
What a day. Arrived in the village greeted by all the sponsored children who shook our hands as we walked up the stairs. The welcome consisted of samba bands, songs and lots of happy faces. After the welcome we found ourselves in an open field with 40 boys aged 6-14. Let the mayhem begin. We had all sorts of team games and relay races going on, duck duck goose, hockey, football however the morning ultimately ended with a very competitive game of cricket. A brilliant morning shared with brilliant kids. They all seemed so pleased to have us there and playing games with them. A very lovely experience and one I will not forget…especially the sunburn I now have for forgetting to apply sun cream in 35 degree heat and no shade…

Shahana Ramsden
It was 6 months ago that I started thinking about the session I was due to teach to the 13 to 18 year old Muslim girls. The idea was to make “self care” boxes - a special place where they could put their precious items focused in the 5 senses - something that smelt good, nice words they could hear, pretty things to see and materials that felt good to touch. Thanks to the very generous donations from friends and some careful online purchases, I came armed with a large suit case full of resources. Even without an interpreter, it was easy to show the girls what to do. The session went exactly as I hoped. The young girls immediately  began to construct and decorate their boxes showing true creativity, their behaviour was excellent and as soon as I explained a task, they were keen to show me how well they could do it.. Once boxes were ready, I asked the girls to make personalised cards and with positive words about themselves, and again I was pleasantly surprised by how beautifully they could write in English and how many positive words they found about themselves. We headed straight from the session to meet a sponsored family and had fund showing them family photos and seeing what we had in common with each other.

So as I headed back to the mini bus with an empty resource bag I felt physically and emotionally lighter - having had the privilege of spending time with some amazing people.

Kamran
Our session with the older boy’s at the school in Trincomalee was inspiring and fun! Dan and I started with a simple exercise designed to test creativity and inventiveness - we provided the boys with dried spaghetti, string, cello tape and a soft ball and tasked them with the goal of creating a structure that could support the ball. Of course, the team that won were the ones who worked together as a team and tested their ideas constantly! We then gave the boys a MasterChef inspired challenge - create a fruit cocktail using only a handful of fruit, some teaspoons and a glass of water, then create a name and present it to the judges in just 15 minutes. The winning drink - creatively titled in English ‘New Fashion Drink’ - tasted great and was presented creatively in a hollowed out water melon. We finished the day by teaching the students two classic British schoolyard games - broken mirror and flinch ball - followed by a short tour of the school.

Ultimately, my experience of the school in ‘Trinco’ was incredibly positive, particularly considering I was completely unsure what of to expect. The students ultimately made the experience great: their confidence and enthusiasm for the future was genuinely inspiring to witness and I really hope to visit again to see their progress.

Day 3 - Trincomalee

Five members of team two had the chance to experience the beautiful sights of Sri Lanka, the elephant safari and the delicious Sri Lankan food. We had already fallen in love with the country but as soon as we arrived in Trincomalee we had the chance to see another even more inspiring aspect of the Sri Lanka community. We immediately joined the rest of the Ocean Stars team and had the chance to see first-hand how the Ocean Stars funds are used. It was great to see the joy on the faces of the local children who received bikes purchased by Ocean Stars supporters. Boxes of very cute and fluffy chickens which will support sustainable livelihoods of families were handed to families in need. However.  The most excitement was generated as the boys from the local cricket team all crowded around and peered into a huge bag which contained a full set of cricket equipment.

Finally the team walked across to the house of a local villager, where the  wide of a local fisherman and her 5 year old son happily received a boat donated by a generous sponsor. We then came together as a whole team again where we finished off the afternoon with tea and cakes, which took me right back to that first evening where excited but anxious team two participants sat in Dilanee’s front room to start the planning of this life changing experience. 

-------------------------------------------

Aidan and Chris

We arrived at Trinco to find ourselves in the middle of the various gifts donated being given out to individual children and families.

Seeing children at the gate so grateful and happy to receive a pair of shoes to wear or a bike to ride to and from school was so humbling. For each of them it meant so much and a number of them  struggled to express their feelings. However, their reaction and smiles said it all.

Being asked to give 20 chicks each, to the mothers of two families so they could have fresh eggs was both emotional and humbling. We were in the midst of people who had so very little and yet their faces and reaction meant they had received so much.

Although we had heard so much about Sri Lanka and Ocean stars whilst preparing to visit, it is only when you experience a day like today that you realise just how special and important the work  is that Ocean Stars is doing.