Two weeks down...
- Nov 14, 2017
- 4 min read
The beginning of my second week here in Sri Lanka, and I guess my first week of working in the school got off to a great start! The assemblies this week have been full of so much joy and excitement from the children, and great enthusiasm (from the younger ones!) in singing the classic Christian songs, all prepped and ready with actions too!
Wattala school has around 250 children in it at the moment, with a few due to graduate at the end of December with 'General' or 'Advanced' level ACE qualifications. ACE is a great schooling system, and definitely is helping to improve these children's lives. Their English is 'top-notch' and some of the vocabulary they use is way more advanced than what I know... and I'm supposed to be the ESL teacher here in Sri Lanka!
I think my favourite song from this week was "rejoice in the lord", which has lots of bending down, standing up and hand actions, which to the dismay of the older classes seems to be a popular choice among teachers and the younger classes.
This week led me to be introduced to 'team life', albeit for a few days rather than a full team trip. We greeted a team made up of individuals from US, Canada, UK and Bangladesh, who came to Sri Lanka (both Wattala and Jaffna) to carry out the ILSOM course, run by Catch the Fire, Toronto.
They were in Wattala school, dealing specifically with the older classes, including Shalom (my class), and the Father's Love. For a lot of the kids here, relating to the love of God as a Father is difficult for them, as many have absent fathers due to death, separation or lack of interest from the father. Alternatively, a lot have the problem of having alcoholic fathers, or those who never show affection to their children. It was a great few days getting the kids more and more knowledgeable about what it means to have a personal relationship with God, as a loving Father.
Alongside these amazing adventures, I also had my first experience of sitting in a Jeep, on a plastic stool, facing backwards to get to a restaurant. It was a wonderfully life-threatening experience, but I'd do it again in a jiffy. This is Sri Lanka, so you may as well see Sri Lanka the proper way. I also had a chance to briefly explore Colombo a little more, which was nice, as the team trips here are always so action-packed and straight up to Jaffna there is no time.
I met some great new friends this week, watched my first Tamil movie and hung out with some great people, both from teams and local people who I have met through school and other friends.
At the weekend I thoroughly enjoyed what I hope to be my first of many trips to the beach, my first of many cricket games with children and first of many selfies with strangers!
I attended my first Church service at the church in Wattala, which was really enjoyable. Worship was something completely new for me, and the message was completely in Tamil, which I think is something I will need to begin to get used to. Luckily I had a top-notch translator there with me, so I knew exactly what was going on.
School the start of this new week (Monday and Tuesday) has been a new challenge for me, as I have been in charge of 26 children, all aged either 15 or 16. Many of whom are very unmotivated to work at all. It was hard work, but the lessons went really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Alongside dealing with my own class, I began helping some of the more senior students with completing, or at least progressing correctly towards the end of their French studies and PACE books. I feel totally under qualified, but no teacher in the whole school has any understanding of French at all. I think Mrs Newstead would be having a meltdown if she knew what I've been up to with educating these children in Sri Lanka!
I decided it would be beneficial to encourage the children to all write assignments reflecting on the two days of ILSOM they took part in, and it was truly great to read everything they had learned and enjoyed. I however hadn't realised I would need to mark these essays, and so spent a whole evening correcting grammar, spelling, punctuation for all of the essays. Teachers definitely don't have an easy life, that's for sure!
Today, the 14th, has been a real wake up call to the heat of Sri Lanka. There were planned engineering works, and no electricity was sent to the school, the house I'm living in and the surrounding areas. From 8am - 6:30pm we were left fan-less, air-con-less and most shockingly fridge-less. As expected, the children were in no position to do any school work, and Shalom class used the heat to their advantage. With the usual class teacher away, it was my responsibility to ensure they did their school work. It was a battle I was sure to loose, so I decided to use my imagination and encourage some team-work games, fun learning activities all focussed around English.
After two weeks I have already learned so much, and been given so much responsibility. I've thoroughly enjoyed everything I've got up to, and cannot wait to see what happens in the coming weeks here in Wattala, before spending Christmas in Jaffna.
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