Sunday 22 October 2017

Day 4 - Trinco

Trinco – Young boys – James
What a day. Arrived in the village greeted by all the sponsored children who shook our hands as we walked up the stairs. The welcome consisted of samba bands, songs and lots of happy faces. After the welcome we found ourselves in an open field with 40 boys aged 6-14. Let the mayhem begin. We had all sorts of team games and relay races going on, duck duck goose, hockey, football however the morning ultimately ended with a very competitive game of cricket. A brilliant morning shared with brilliant kids. They all seemed so pleased to have us there and playing games with them. A very lovely experience and one I will not forget…especially the sunburn I now have for forgetting to apply sun cream in 35 degree heat and no shade…

Shahana Ramsden
It was 6 months ago that I started thinking about the session I was due to teach to the 13 to 18 year old Muslim girls. The idea was to make “self care” boxes - a special place where they could put their precious items focused in the 5 senses - something that smelt good, nice words they could hear, pretty things to see and materials that felt good to touch. Thanks to the very generous donations from friends and some careful online purchases, I came armed with a large suit case full of resources. Even without an interpreter, it was easy to show the girls what to do. The session went exactly as I hoped. The young girls immediately  began to construct and decorate their boxes showing true creativity, their behaviour was excellent and as soon as I explained a task, they were keen to show me how well they could do it.. Once boxes were ready, I asked the girls to make personalised cards and with positive words about themselves, and again I was pleasantly surprised by how beautifully they could write in English and how many positive words they found about themselves. We headed straight from the session to meet a sponsored family and had fund showing them family photos and seeing what we had in common with each other.

So as I headed back to the mini bus with an empty resource bag I felt physically and emotionally lighter - having had the privilege of spending time with some amazing people.

Kamran
Our session with the older boy’s at the school in Trincomalee was inspiring and fun! Dan and I started with a simple exercise designed to test creativity and inventiveness - we provided the boys with dried spaghetti, string, cello tape and a soft ball and tasked them with the goal of creating a structure that could support the ball. Of course, the team that won were the ones who worked together as a team and tested their ideas constantly! We then gave the boys a MasterChef inspired challenge - create a fruit cocktail using only a handful of fruit, some teaspoons and a glass of water, then create a name and present it to the judges in just 15 minutes. The winning drink - creatively titled in English ‘New Fashion Drink’ - tasted great and was presented creatively in a hollowed out water melon. We finished the day by teaching the students two classic British schoolyard games - broken mirror and flinch ball - followed by a short tour of the school.

Ultimately, my experience of the school in ‘Trinco’ was incredibly positive, particularly considering I was completely unsure what of to expect. The students ultimately made the experience great: their confidence and enthusiasm for the future was genuinely inspiring to witness and I really hope to visit again to see their progress.

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