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Published: January 11th 2007
Thursday 11/01/07
Arrived safely on Sunday, even though I did have to run for my connecting flight at Doha!!!
It’s difficult to describe what it’s like here without making it sound awful and I certainly don’t want to give the wrong impression.
The Sri Lankan people are really friendly and most speak English which has made it a lot easier, especially when I wanted to buy a sim card for my phone, even my phrase book didn’t cover that scenario. But there is a lot of political unrest here and safety has to play a big part in your mindset when you’re out and about.
The drivers the company I came with use also arrange weekend trips, so a few of us are off to explore what is known as Sri Lanka’s ‘Cultural Triangle’ this weekend, lots of monasteries and ancient sights (just my kind of thing hahahaha). It’s a 3 day trip so I’ll be back at the children’s home on Sunday evening. I’m also planning lots of other activities so that I don’t waste a minute of my time here in this beautiful country.
On the day I arrived so did 16 other volunteers, one volunteer, Tina, is here with me at the home the others are at various projects, some in Colombo others miles away to the south of the island. Already at the home was Lisa, she’s been here 4 weeks and leaves tomorrow (Friday), Tina is here for a total of 3 weeks and I’m waiting to hear if there are any more volunteers due here before I go otherwise I could be a little Billy No-Mates, so if I start texting you all incessantly in a few weeks you know why hahahahaha.
So the children’s home, what can I tell you about it?
It was founded in 1983 when the ethnic violence began in Sri Lanka and 101 orphaned children were taken from refugee camps and bought here to Pitakotte (near Colombo) where the Vajira Sri Children’s Home was built, there are now approximately 330 children here with varying backgrounds and reasons for being here, not all of them are orphaned.
Most of the children are happy and friendly and appear quite accepting of their situation, the gates are always open but no one tries to runaway which says a lot, I think about how secure they feel here. For some of them there fathers are in prison and so they have been placed here because their mothers can’t cope, others have lost either one or both of their parents and sadder still are those that have been abandoned. Some of them are here with their siblings as well. But the amazing thing is, there is no sorrow, not even when you look deep into their eyes.
They love having us here and want to talk to us all the time and if they see your camera they just want their pictures taken. The average day for the children begins at about 5.30am and lessons begin at 7.30am and end around 1pm. For the last few days they have had sports from 11.30am but I’m afraid to say that ran will definitely call off any outdoor activities today, as I write this it is 10.15am and it’s rained incessantly since 4.00am. Lunch is about 2.00pm and then dinner about 8.30pm. The afternoons are their own and they occupy themselves playing games and talking, they’re not allowed off site without a teacher or House Mother so we’re hoping to arrange a couple of trips to the cinema in town for some of them over the next few weeks.
Definition of House Mother:
The Old Bag who looks after a particular dorm at night and who instils fear in the children.
I’ve concluded in my short time here that they have more clout with the children than the teachers do!!!
I must tell you about one group of boys though, I call them ‘The Lost Boys’, just like in Peter Pan, because they are Tsunami survivors and as in the story they don’t have a mother, not even a House Mother at the moment. They share a lot of similarities with the characters from the book, they are quite shy but boisterous at the same time, if you know what I mean. They spend most of the day in their dorm looking at the world from their veranda.
The day we arrived here we went to meet them and found them washing the floor and tidying the dorm, very self-sufficient. Their beds were all neatly made and each of them had a teddy bear placed strategically at the end. These are the sad ones, their whole world destroyed in a moment, whole families wiped out in a blink of an eye when the wave struck; they’ve been left with nothing.
They appear fiercely independent and solitary, I’m not even sure if they go to school, they always seem to be in their dorm!! These are the ones who don’t seek comfort or attention from the strange westerners that come here to work; these are the ones that tear at your heart strings.
No one knows what memories they have of that fateful day or even what memories they have of the families they lost, I will always remember them as ‘The Lost Boys’.
The group that I am working with are the pre-school children, there are 11 of them and they are like missiles, darting here and there, but they have the most amazing smiles. They cling to you like glue and laugh when you try and tell them off; even when I use my fierce voice and scowl at them they just think I look funny!!!!!
I’m hoping to get a decorating project up and running next week, the room that the little missiles (as they are lovingly known as now) sleep in is very dreary so I have a plan, I’m going to speak to the head teacher later today to clear it with her and hope to start decorating middl;e of next week. There won’t be much to clear out of the room as they sleep on the floor, there isn’t enough room for beds (not that there are any). I’m thinking cool, calming colours for the walls and then some brightly coloured curtains and wall hangings, very interior design luvvies.
Well wish me luck that she buys my idea and then I should have loads to tell you about next week.
If you want to read more about the home I believe there is a website: www.vajirasri.org but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work, they’re not very high-tech at the school.
Bye for now and lots of love to you all xxxxx
P.S. don’t forget to stay in touch especially by text, it only costs me about 4p to text, text my original mobile number and then I’ll text back on new number.
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Jayne
non-member comment
Glad you arrived safely and look forward to regular updates! Enjoy the decorating!!!