Week 15
- Feb 15, 2018
- 4 min read
Every week I feel I end up saying the same thing – that I cannot believe another week has passed here in Sri Lanka, and especially Jaffna.
As I read back through my diary for the last week, I can’t help but think about how great this week truly has been. There has been so many laughs, a few tears, but overall a successful week of breakthroughs at school – I feel this is setting the precedent for the coming weeks and months here in Jaffna. I can feel a shift, and a change happening, and I’m pressing into the good, and pursuing what’s meant to be.
For the majority of the week I have been joined here in Jaffna by a team, who have been digging a toilet pit in the village where I stay, for one of the school children’s family. This gave me a good opportunity to explore that side of the village a little and spend some quality time with a few of the school children that I don’t normally get to hang out with. Alongside this, I was also able to meet new faces and have lots of fun playing classic Tamil games with children.
With the team being here, I have been invited out on many dinner opportunities this week, including Magoes – the only half-decent Vegetarian restaurant I’ll happily head to. Alongside this, I also had the most enjoyable experience at KFC on Friday night. The joy on my face, the fullness of my heart, and the fat pumping into my veins was the perfect combination to finish off my week perfectly. All my worries drifted away, as I gulped down my large chips, Zinger Burger and Pepsi. (A bit dramatic, but I hope you catch my drift!).
Alongside being taken out for dinner, I have also had the chance to hang out at the children’s home, not as a tutor but as a friend to the girls. My days are usually so wrapped up in tuition, and being many of their teacher, it has left very little time to chill with the girls, have fun and do activities, play games and be silly together; something I hadn’t realised I actually missed! There were a few rather dangerous, or slightly violent games the team enjoyed playing, and I attempted to get involved in, which the girls turned very competitive and scary!
This week has also included TWO National Bank Holiday days, which I definitely cannot complain about – Friday was a day given off to allow nationals to travel to their home towns to vote in the Presidential election on Saturday, and so this gave me the opportunity to head to the pit the team was digging at for the whole day with Esther and a few other school children. I was ready and prepared to jump in the pit and give it my best attempt at digging, but with the pit quickly filling with water, and the risk of another infection in my toe, I decided it was probably not the best idea. And I guess if you ask Angel, she would tell you I only headed to the pit to make it seem as though I was helping anyway – apparently I am allergic to hard manual labour work. She’s pretty accurate this girl! This time to watch and survey the scene allowed me to practice my Tamil with some of the local children, which I think I did okay with. Later in the day however, I did get roped into shifting heavy bricks from one side of the land to the other, and this was indeed difficult work, but the spirit of being part of a team definitely helped with morale.
Tuesday 13th February was also another public holiday to celebrate a Hindu festival, unfortunately the team was not here at this point in Jaffna, but another team happened to arrive, and were running church workshops, which made an interesting day off. We also managed to head to the supermarket, stock up on the important things in life, such as Milos, chocolate biscuits, Mango Nectar and vanilla wafers.
At the weekend, we had a great few days of exploration – On Saturday I was able to head to the DP Store, and also into Jaffna town to visit a market where food was unbelievably cheap. 3kgs of Iced Gems for 200r/s (less than £1). I also managed to squeeze in a visit to Jaffna Fort, which was very enjoyable; and of course, a visit to Lingham’s Ice Cream Parlour. It’s ALWAYS about the Sunday Special. I was put in charge of sorting out and organising orders by Karen, which proved to be a little more stressful than I could have imagined. Eventually everyone ended up with the correct items, and most importantly, EVERYONE RECEIVED ROLLS! (If you know, you know!).
If the last week’s anything to go by, I am 100% certain this coming week will be fantastic. I’m praying for great things to come in this village, school and church, and I cannot wait to see how God will use this set of people here to change Sri Lanka for the better.
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