Mandur 2

Today, Julie, Keith and Heather went to Fleet Methodist’s twin Church at Mandur,  where we were deluged with lovely fresh garlands. I received eight in all! Julie ten and Keith about eight also. What a wonderful welcome.

We were expecting 33 children, but 36 turned up!

We followed the usual routine, welcome, read the story, did the hokey cocker , played with the parachute, coloured giraffe hats, had a group photograph taken with the Reverend, and then it was time to go home. It was very, very hot. Keith repaired two doors in the Manse, and had a ride on the Reverend’s motor bike.

We also presented the Fleet Methodist Church Group photograph, taken after Church on Harvest Festival, which was welcomed.

Pre school was held in the church, as the tiny room they have at present is too hot and small for their present needs. They will be better served with a new school room.

I was also pleased to see they have a lovely new ceiling in the church with good lighting. No more buckets scattered around the church catching rainwater.

The morning finished with a lovely lunch provided by the parents.  Thank you Mandur for your gracious hospitality.

Heather

Evening social

This afternoon we were able to share a small yet important amount of time with a group of families who have at least one parent who is deaf or deaf and no speech.
Hearing, Dilanee speak, with translation by Diana and then signed by a third person was incredible. These families have less than most and yet they demonstrated how the seemed to have closer bonds than many we had seen. The whole family played games together, some Dad's helping with craft work.
The atmosphere was remarkable and wonderful to be part of. Particularly striking was the perseverance that many showed at the tasks they were doing, determination and pleasure written all over their faces.  The quiet encouragement of parents of their children to do tasks but then becoming engaged themselves and finally the look of achievement was inspirational to witness.
My parting memory will be how much those there wished to repay kindness to them with a smile, a handshake and in the case of one father a loving hug and smile.
The evening was another rewarding experience, lovely company, lovely food , lovely families.

Chris

Kanchirankudah

The visit started in traditional fashion being met at the gate with the most beautiful garlands made of fresh flowers.
Chris and Shahana soon got into the swing of things whilst I took pictures and tried to establish what the school might need. We had two wonderful translators and. A lovely lunch provided by the mums .
The children were aged between 21/2 to 6 a wide age range all well dressed with immaculate manners.
Some children were very tearful and were looked after well until able to cope and return.

We still very much see our own grandchildren in each of the children and feel very grateful for all we have had and perhaps thoughtful about what we have wasted when so many have so very little and really make the most of it. It seems that the less you have the more you appreciate.

Aidan and Chris

Sorruwamunai

The morning started in an unexpected way, as the minibus could not manoeuvre over the mud on what was a very narrow road so we got out and walked the last 20 minutes, carrying all our resources. When we arrived we were treated with beautiful paper garlands. The children seemed comfortable with us very quickly and happily joined in the Hokey Cokey.  They loved seeing the pictures in the story books and were very pleased with the giraffe hats they made. One of the highlights of the morning was playing with a parachute and a beach ball, although the children were also very happy to sit under the parachute too. The children then created a beautiful collage which had taken pride of place on the wall.  It was a pleasure to tell the children that students from Heatherside Junior School has made them cards which they could take home. All the children were delighted. After the children went home, we were presented with a delicious lunch by the pre-school staff. It was such a special morning.

Julie

Thevilamunai pre school report

This preschool is situated in a remote paddy farming area outside Batticaloa. The preschool has no well or water supply, no electricity or toilet facilities. The average daily income of  a paddy worker is £2.50 per day but work is not always guaranteed. 

The children were very timid at the start of our session but soon warmed up once we began singing sings and introduced them to Gerald  the Giraffe who also featured in the story. The collage with jungle animals was a big hit and the children loved using natural resources from their garden to add texture to the picture. 

The children loved all the nursery rhymes that Christine taught them especially the one about the turtle who swallowed soap and then went into produce bubbles. Compared to yesterday’s pre school, their  English wasn’t so strong but they did pick things up very quickly and were eager to learn. All in all a very heart warming and pleasurable visit.

Shona, Christine and Heather

Shahana - Tuesday

Early start again - we left at 7.30 to get to the pre-school. Hidden away in a very rural area with huge rice fields being ploughed in all directions it was hard to find the school building . It was slightly comical as the driver stopped to ask a man ploughing the field who nodded animatedly towards the road we were on suggesting it was straight ahead. After another few moments the driver stopped again and asked a busy woman with some cattle and she gestured with her chin that we needed to keep going straight ahead. After a few wrong turns and a few more nods from random people suggesting different directions, a kind man on a motorbike guided us towards the school building we were looking for.

We were by now well practiced in engaging young children - smoothly moving from circle time into mask making. The children were very excited when we got out the huge parachute and made our giraffe puppet dance. It was lovely to see smiles in their faces. We carefully noted what improvements the school needed - a broken slide, holes in the floor and made sure we left them with useful colouring pencils and resources. We then unexpectedly found ourselves being driven to the village area on the beach that was devastated by the Tsunami over 12 years ago. Quite moving to see the walls of roofless buildings still empty. Small dwellings have been built on the beach front 

Shahana

Chenkalady

Julie and Kamran and myself (Emma) spent the day at Chenkalady with 40 children. We started the session with a circle time and then did our giraffe hats which brought the children a lot of enjoyment, along with bubbles and beach ball games! It was a lovely atmosphere with spirited children who despite the small space were patient and smiley the whole time. 

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. 

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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.

Day 2 - Kilinochchi

Kilinochchi Nurseries

The team woke up fresh with 4hrs sleep. Breakfast was served and we were on our way to our first pre-school however today was slightly different. We were having a celebration as Ocean Stars were officially opening a new building, containing a well and a kitchen for the school, that OST had funded for them.

We arrived to the sound of loud music as we met the children and teachers, who presented us each with a flower garland. After a quick meet and greet Dan got the kids warmed up with a quick clapping game and Julie then read them the story (Giraffes can’t dance) which they seemed to really engage with and love seeing the pictures of the animals. When story time was over we all did the Hokey Cokey…an Ocean Stars classic.

Now to the opening. Dilanee and trustee, Jen, cut the ribbon, revealed the plaque and declared the building open. This was then followed by thank you speeches from a number of members of the children’s home, including the vice-president. As another very special thank you they also presented each of the team with beautiful a piece of Sri Lankan fabric.

After the thank you’s and presentations, we then split the team. One stayed at the pre school and another visited one down the road. We then all completed crafts and did songs with the children, as well as giving each of them a teddy that had be bought with us. They were so overjoyed with their gift and loved having us all there. We didn’t want to leave.

A Visit to the Young Boys Home at Mahdeva

Yesterday James, Keith and I (Dan) visited the younger boys who varied from age 8-14 at the Mahdeva Children’s Home in Killinochi. As soon as we arrived we were mobbed. We were simply overjoyed to be in each other’s company. 10, 20, 30, 40…there were 55 children at this part of the multi-acre Mahdeva site.

The children were eager to do some activities, revelling in the 2 hour ‘games period’ after arriving back from school.

With the sun burning bright, the afternoon descended into a joyous sweat-fest. Relay games were followed by a hysterical hokey-cokey which descended into a raucous mosh-pit during the ‘ooooooooh hokey-cokey’ section. Understandable I guess, considering there were 55 boys in the circle!

Another highlight of the afternoon was playing duck-duck-goose. In particular watching Keith demonstrate an electric turn of pace to evade the young Sri Lankan ‘goose’ (video footage is available). Don’t think you will find a faster former Pastor!

The afternoon concluded with a short game of football, James and I demonstrating a woeful lack of fitness as we tried to get ‘stuck-in’ with the far more agile and energetic Mahdeva boys (the game ended 0-0, probably for the best).

We then gathered in the prayer room where the boys sat down in immaculate lines to receive handwritten cards and messages from Heatherside Junior School. We also provided each boy with a new toothbrush and toothpaste and grasped both items with sheer joy.

It really was a fantastic afternoon and a pleasure to share time with the boys. We all felt so at ease from the first minute to the last. It sure is true that sport is a universal language. Despite us not knowing any of the Tamil language and the boys’ having limited English language, we managed to connect, compete and laugh in harmony.

*Just as a side note, the Mahdeva Children’s Home in Killinochi is a truly remarkable project. They are currently 90% self-sufficient, growing virtually all of their own produce, serving 500 children 2-3 meals every day. The love and compassion provided by the staff to the children who have been displaced or orphaned by the Sri Lankan civil war is amazing. It was wonderful to be a part of their world for a few days, in what was my second visit to the home. 

On now to Trinco an Batti, cannot wait to see what joys await us!

Yattyanthota playgroup

Yattyanthota is a relatively new preschool for OST and is situated 2 hours east of Colombo in a region which is home to many rubber plantations. The children who attend this preschool mainly come from Tamil plantation workers who are on a daily wage of  around £3 per day and often do not get the opportunity to attend a preschool. However this pre school has only been made possible through the vision of a forward thinking young minister who saw this as an opportunity to break the poverty cycle.

On arrival we were greeted by happy smiling faces and were presented with flower garlands which made us feel like royalty! After a warmup session we then read them a story about a giraffe called Gerald who could not dance. The children loved the book and all its illustrations. Books here are very uncommon here so this was a real novelty. The children then followed this up be making giraffe hats and then parading them proudly round the room. After a sing song of English nursery rhymes which were sung fluently as English is now actively encouraged in all Sei Lanka preschools we finished our session with bubbles  and handing out of teddies ( which they all called Pinky) and toothbrush sets and lollipops. The children really loved our session as getting a visit from a westerner rarely if ever happens.

We then were asked back for lunch at one on the children’s home on the plantation where we got a chance to meet their families, enjoy the food they had prepared for us and to appreciate their living conditions. They may not have had much but they all had warm hearts and beautiful smiles.

Day 1 – The journey begins

The team had an early start, meeting at Calthorpe park school at 7am, where we met with the teachers and pupils to take the coach over to Gatwick. There was a constant flow of baggage coming into one small music room with most bags being larger than a lot of the pupils. At 7.30 the mammoth task of packing the coach began but amazingly we managed to hit the road to Gatwick by 8.

We arrived at Gatwick at 9.30…the M3 and M25 rush hour was kind to us. Check in was relatively simple and no queues as we had arrived 6hours before the flight… We killed time in duty free, restaurants and catching up with each other before the long flight to Dubai (7hrs).

We arrived in Dubai with no delays following a comfortable flight – everyone seemed to love the new Emirates A380. We then had a short wait at Dubai (2hrs) which was mostly taken up by security and walking to the connection. At 2.30am local time we sleepily boarded our flight to Colombo (4hrs). Again, another lovely Emirates flight, with a choice of Curry or Omelette for breakfast. Most opted for Omelette.

After landing we had a very easy time through immigration (nobody questioned the 500 toothbrushes and 750 teddies) where we then waited and waited and waited for our bags to arrive. We eventually got all our bags so proceeded to find our driver. We were then greeted with beautiful flower garlands that smelt divine. After approx. 40min drive to Negombo we arrived in a beachfront hotel where we had enough time to grab some food and have a much-needed freshen up before the group split. One group went off on a tourist trip while the other began a 10hr journey up to Killinochchi… A sleepless 27hrs and counting...