Day 16 - A Fine Dining Experience

A large bang woke me this morning, letting me know there was another power cut – the third already of 2017 in Jaffna. The worst part of these is not the lack of power, but the sudden surge once the power is switched back on. Karen has told many stories of the chaos that ensues when this happens. Televisions, fridges and other electrical items have been victims to an explosive end when situations like these arise.

My shower this morning was rather interesting, as ice chilled water hit me, waking me in a matter of seconds. There was no chance of a slow morning today, apart from the speed of the drops of water coming out of the shower head.

Today marks my last week at school, with my final Monday having been highly enjoyable. I can’t believe it’s coming to an end. Just hoping the next time I will be here is soon, and not that I have to wait a whole other year. These kids do truly have a very special place in my heart.

Sports meet practice took up most of the morning at school, although the kids are supposed to be doing their PACE books, but they have so much joy and excitement when they are with the children from the other school, doing the sports and getting competitive. The only reason we left was because the children were so hungry – other than that they would have carried on the rest of the day!

Once back at school I sat with Esther and her class and got the children to write a creative story. Esther wrote a story about me and her, and all the adventures in the future we will go on together. The first was a trip to the ice cream parlour – something I hope on my next trip we can do.

I decided today would be the perfect time to bring gifts and rewards for the merit shop, and so we stocked up the cupboard full of bits and pieces the children could buy with their tokens. There are now hundreds of bendy pencils, bouncy balls and balloons for the children to take home and proudly show their achievements to family and friends.

After lunch I continued with the English lessons with the four girls. We are now quite a fair way through our vocab lessons and moved onto something else as well today to mix it up a bit. Today we attempted how to tell the time, recapping the higher numbers alongside the usual ‘quarter past’, ‘half past’ and ‘quarter to’. It took a few explanations and confused faces, but I think we finally got there!

Tonight Esther and her mother made me dinner. To say the least, it was the most humbling thing I’ve ever had the opportunity to experience. Her family are so poor, and have absolutely nothing, but took their valuable time, energy and money on me – a strange girl from a foreign country. I had noodles, eggs and a type of prawn curry. Esther wanted me to have her favourite meal, and I got it. A delicious, nutritious and fabulous dinner. Not only this, but it was a great chance to spend the time with her family, getting to know her mother and encouraging laughter at the dinner table, despite the language barrier.

Man, talk about having a blessed day.

Tomorrow is my final day in the school, so here I am trying to pluck up the courage to write my goodbye letters to my favourite people in the world. This is going to be tough!