I'm playing a bit of catchup as I haven't blogged in a few days, so this could be a long one!
Last Thursday I went to the street kids project. It's located down an alley in Galle amongst a kind of shanty village that I never would have come across. That's one of the things I love about doing volunteering here, I get to see the real Sri Lanka and experience things that I never would have got the opportunity to had I simply travelled.
The kids that come a long don't have a home and it's more than likely that their parents are drug addicts and their mums are prostitutes, sleeping with men for 100 rupees (50p). It's horrible but the harsh truth. So this project was set up to get the kids off the streets and to educate them and keep them clean and freshly dressed.
From looking at the kids, you wouldn't have guessed that they didn't have a real home to go back to. They looked clean and tidy and most importantly happy. The regulars and the teachers have become almost like their own family which is really sweet to see.
All the children were amazed by the front camera on my iPhone as you can see... One little boy had me sweating and praying for the life of my phone as he swung it round and frantically opened up application after application!
Thankfully he was finally distracted before drama went down, by a name the fruit game...
After the street kids project, we popped in to see the nurses, as they had let us know that they would be hanging up their finished lanterns. All of the lanterns were really beautiful and so detailed!
Afterwards, Sophie and I headed to the beach as we didn't have an afternoon project. The bus we went on had a flat screen TV which played Sri Lankan music videos. I find it very odd that the country is choosing to spend their money on things like that! An essential? Not so sure.
We later went to Galle Fort to meet up with the other volunteers for a leaving meal as a few of them were going home at the weekend after 3 months of being here. Whilst we waited for the others to arrive, we sat by the water watching the sunset. With it being so peaceful and beautiful, it's hard to imagine that years earlier, the Tsunami would have wiped me right from where I'm standing...
Check out the matching outfits. They then went on to pass a biscuit to each other via their mouths. Too much?
It's a really lovely group of people and I really enjoyed my first week with them all. Several left at the weekend and more are leaving this coming weekend which is shame, but I'm sure there will be newbies to get to know!
Another blog is coming right up 😊
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