This next entry comes many days after the last. In this small of town of Unawatuna, life has become very slow - such a contrast from the first week here. The days have been filled with lounging and reading on the beach, eating, walking to other places to eat and sleeping.  We've finally met plenty of travellers to share stories with, which has been great - much needed from my side. On our second night we met some guys who were working at the turtle hatchery in Bentota. Seven weeks of tickling baby turtles' bellies might have been just toooo relaxing [View Full Entry]

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Ok, final post and possibly some of the best pictures. After an 11 hour drive from Horton Plains we arrived at Unawatuna at 1 am. This is a beach hot spot and for good cause. The beach is is amazing. The water temperature was perfect and the view incredible. We got up at 9 am to get our free breakfast then spend literally the whole day relaxing on the beach. A couple of us went boogie boarding and other took walks along the shore. But it was just what we needed. The boogie boarding was great other than the deep cuts [View Full Entry]

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So long, farewell, auf wierdersehen, goodbye! The boys at the pool planted a fruit tree and called it The Skipper tree at the pool so they could remember me every day. It really was incredible touching and totally unexpected, Chami made me a special lunch packet and bought me a gift! For people with very little money it shows what kind of hearts these guys have! In fact, everyone that made an effort to say goodbye was incredibly generous and overwhelming and there are so many things I will miss. My time in Sri Lanka has been something very special and [View Full Entry]

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28 June Much better weather today. I went for walk to the pagoda/temple this morning and sat at watched the water blowing into the blow hole, which is where Sunset Point is as well, a very nice spot to watch the sun setting, could be very romantic if I wasn't on my own! Will have to bring Bertha, Trin and Sal up when they arrive! Met a local man along the way who listens to ABC radio and knows an incredible amount about Australia. He was naming politicians left and right, along with long past ones, like Bob Hawke, Gareth Evans. [View Full Entry]

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As I sit on balcony at different times of the day there is any number of people walking past selling all sorts of things. We have the Maalu (fish) man selling his catch from the mornings run, we have the man selling Kiri which is milk and curd from his buffalo that roams in front of my home, on the weekends we have the ice cream man on his bicycle, his version of green sleeves is a pump type horn incessantly blown down the street (god knows how he keeps the ice cream frozen..), there is also the man selling lottery [View Full Entry]

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25 June No more Sri Lankan army wake up calls, just the monkeys as usual! For the past few days I have been at the pool with the Sri Lankan coaches and Dharmadasa! The coaches are really nice guys and so interested to learn new things, we are getting pretty good at broken English and Sinhala. They are amazed that my teaching is quite relaxed and fun for both teacher and students. The way they have been taught is very rigid and repetitious, so I think they are relieved to add some spontaneity to their classes. Today Sumit excelled and ran [View Full Entry]

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19.6.09 All good here, just working out my timetable and how things work, as in where to buy stuff. It has been quite fun! I generally go to the pool in the afternoon, on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next couple of weeks I am teaching kids from the international school and they speak english so that is much easier for me to teach. With the other classes I am trying assist the coaches to teach, however they don't speak much english, but in saying that one of the coaches yesterday speaks a little english and between that and sign language, [View Full Entry]

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21 June Headed back down to the pool on Friday afternoon to see more classes and the way the coaches are teaching. The young guys that are the coaches here are really keen to learn new techniques and between the language barrier we are slowly sorting things out. I just need to be more insistent that Dharmadasa helps translates, otherwise I will need to pay for a translator! I have women’s classes on Monday and one of the project officers for Adopt Sri Lanka, the charity I am volunteering with, has a young girl eager to learn to swim so she [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Galle, and got a tuk tuk round Fort to Khalid’s guest house. We had to direct the driver, and felt on familiar territory especially as the 3 wheeler turned into the fort, and swung right up past the ramparts. The calm solidity of the metres thick wall, with the sea rushing pointlessly against it was both beautiful and instantly reminiscent of happy times. Eventually the sea with its insistent movement will win the battle, but for now that is hard to believe and these walls will endure for centuries yet. Within the walls every building has its merits, [View Full Entry]

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17 June Well, the women’s classes and I will be one soon. Christina has had her visa extension rejected so I am it as her eyes and ears until she can work things out with the immigration department. It is a real shame as it would have been great to teach with her, now I have to keep her staff in line and they don’t speak English….. Prior to heading Tangalle later today, I had the morning off, as I was breakfasting on my balcony a tuk tuk driver I had met on my first day popped in for a chat. [View Full Entry]

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