Back to Preschool

I began my day at the preschool here at Sarvodaya Headquarters. There are about 10 kids who attend but today a few were sick. It's an open-air classroom which is nice. Many of the kids are orphans and live at the preschool. Once they are too old for Suwasetha (about 3-5 yrs) they transition to the preschool children's home. They are very bubbly and fun kids, although there is one trouble-maker. They began their day chanting to a mini statue of Buddha (on either side was Jesus and Mary) and then carried on with learning some letters, numbers, or just practicing using a pencil, depending how old the kids were. So there was no cohesive lesson plan, but the activities the kids did were all the same. We then went to the garden at the president's house (Dr. Ariyaratne) to look at the garden and pick flowers. I noticed the teacher hits the kids with a reed, or stick, or something like that when they are misbehaving. It kind of feels super old school and would definitely not be allowed in Canadian schools. The teacher was maybe a couple years older than me, and Sauri (from Korea) came with us. Luckily she speaks English and Sinhalese quite well. Since the teacher didn't speak English this helped. The afternoon consisted of play and work and play and work. It was unstructured and I felt left in the dark and not sure what was going on. I don't like relying on someone to translate every single thing for me. That would get annoying for them. I liked the idea of teaching English or anything really, but preschool is not the place for me. I think an after school program with students in middle school would be better, as they usually seem to know basic English and I could help with a variety of things. My floor-mate, Erandi, was working in a situation like this and had lots of fun. I'm not sure if I could make it work for my peace and conflict studies practicum though.

I went for lunch with Sauri in the canteen had the usual rice and lentil dish with a side of french fries. They were so good. They were the size of McDonald's fries but crispy (seemed like no grease at all) and salted of course. Oh my, they were fantastic. I could have that every day instead of the rice and curry and be happy!

Next I did my office work and chatted with Max on Skype at the same time. It was just typing, not voice or picture messaging. But it was still great because I hadn't heard from him in a while. It was super good to hear from him. I miss Max a whole ton! Every day I send him good vibes for tough days at work and body pain. Hope those vibes travel fast!

At 3:00 I headed over to the children's home and started out on the baby side, where I helped put babies back into their beds after being changed, bathed, and dressed again. I love holding the babies. They usually stop crying when I pick them up so maybe that means I'm a natural, or give off good energy. Either way, I'm happy with that. The babies played and then I moved over to the children's side. They were outside but went in shortly after to be changed and bathed and dressed again. I helped dry the children again and would throw the towel over them and make faces when I pulled it off and gave a little 'pat pat' on their bum to move on to the next station (getting dressed). They seemed to like it and laugh and run away giggling. They're just too precious! They call me 'ammaa' which means 'mother'. I think they do that with all the staff, but it's still really flattering since I just started. The kids climb all over me and hug my legs and grab my hands. One child pretended to put lotion on my face... maybe trying to make me dark skinned... maybe something else? It was cute. I just kind of helped out as I could until 6:30 when I returned to the hostel. I enjoy my time with them and have a lot of special moments despite various barriers we face.

Here I am in my room and just checking Facebook, email, etc., after dinner. I finished watching 21 Jump Street (from a few days ago) and am just waiting about another hour for my mom to come home from a walk with a friend and then we will Skype before I go to bed.

I have been waking up naturally around 7-7:30am which (if you know me) is very atypical. In Canada I would sleep 10+ hours at night and nap for a few more in the day. Here I work all day (no nap) and feel well-rested after 8-9.5 hours of sleep. I'm not complaining. It's pretty cool to actually be awake and doing productive things as much as I enjoy sleeping. Even when I have tried to nap here in the past, it hasn't really worked. Oh well. This new system is working so far.

I'm proud to say that I'm feeling stronger today and am eating more. I have not cried at all today (first time since arriving) and have been enjoying my days now that I have plans. Even though I am going to begin day 3 of work tomorrow, I'm really liking it so far, but am hoping to still explore some other programs offered by Sarvodaya. I will try to take some pictures of my surroundings so you all can picture what I'm experiencing. Thank you for all your love, prayers, and support for me as I go on this adventure. I've definitely felt it and it has really lifted me up! Thank you!