Happy Easter to everyone back home

Happy Easter to you all!

The latest milestone that was passed this week ………3 months last Tuesday! Jacinta hates that I am "ticking off days" as she puts it but I find it helpful so, we agree to disagree on that one. It is amazing to think we arrived here on the 26^th of December last year. Easter here for us was very quiet with a public holiday on Friday and church on Sunday. After the service we went to Green Grass Hotel for lunch and a swim. No Easter eggs for the girls this year as the Easter bunny does not get to Sri Lanka due to visa difficulties. We have heard there may be an Easter Squirrel but frankly I have my doubts.

On the topic of squirrels, Sarah is continuing her efforts at squirrel training in the hope of bringing a trained one back to Australia with us (sorry Sarah..not going to happen). Her recent efforts have involved leaving out some bananas that are waaaaaaaaaay past their best-by date, on the disused shipping container next door. She then watches movement over the next couple of days. We have not seen the squirrels indulging yet but they did disappear over the 2 days.

Presenting the PD session.. those legs arghhhhh, oh the horror!!!!!

We had a busy week. On Tuesday we presented a professional development day on behaviour management. Jacinta spent weeks in preparation and research, I had the easy job as front man and presenter. We have ruffled a few feathers and challenged a lot of beliefs and cultural norms but we are very pleased to say that the cane is now no longer an option for punishment at the school. Either is hitting the kids on the head with a book, or making them kneel for the lesson if they didn’t bring their homework.  If nothing else we feel this is a big achievement and helps justify our time here, to us, at least. We spent a lot of time introducing a large variety of alternate strategies and there is still a lot of work to do. It was great to see how willing most of the staff were to embrace new ideas and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We think the majority of staff were ready for this move and just needed a little push. What was also interesting is that on the PD day staff were told they could wear casual dress. I think something was lost in the translation as their idea of casual was waaaaay different to ours. The ladies mostly arrived in the wedding saris. There was such a rich display of fabrics and colours and patterns and bling. It was amazing.

On Tuesday evening we went to Udivil Girls College, a girls boarding school about 5 km from Manipay. It is steeped in tradition, being the oldest boarding school in Asia.

Udivil Girls College

They had an Easter themed concert with traditional Tamil dances throughout. The costumes were incredible and the girls danced beautifully. We have to say however that possibly the highlight of the evening was when the huge floral centrepiece caught fire. Possibly unplanned, certainly memorable. On Thursday the AIS had its own Easter concert. Some special items were presented. We have some really talented students here.

AIS choir at Easter concert

We are finding the going a little hard at the moment. The weather is starting to be a problem, with temps of 35 degrees C max dropping to 28 at night and 80% humidity. What we find most draining is that the locals tell us as kindly as possible that it will get far worse and stay so for approximately 3 more months. Even coming from a sub-tropical area as Queensland that has its fair share of hot weather, we are questioning our ability to cope over the long haul. Only time will see. Jacinta has coped with the heat by wearing a sarong when at home, the girls don’t wear that much at all.

Jacinta has been missing home over the last couple of days. Over the Easter period she has been thinking of how we normally would spend our time. Easter egg hunts, rabbit foot prints all over the floor and so on…she is missing her family and home and feels deeply for the Sarah and Emma who are missing their Grandparents and beloved cousins Ella, Hazel and Kate. We are planning a holiday and this may help with the “blues” a little.

School is on the wind down to exams for end of semester. They do 2 hours exam sessions from year 2 classes. (That’s 7 year olds! Got to get something done about that one.)   We finish on 9^th of April (the students even turn up on Saturday this week for their exams) for 4 weeks but in the first week I will be working with senior students and tutorials preparing them for the Cambridge A level exams due in early May. In the second week, the school will be hosting 400 to 500 young people for a youth camp and I will be presenting a session (should be interesting as they speak little English and I don’t speak Tamil or Sinhala). If you have any ideas sent them over.  In the last two weeks we hope to tour central and Southern Sri Lanka and spoil ourselves as tourists for a while.

Take care everyone and please keep in touch, we really love it when people post comments on the blog or send emails. Your time in keeping in touch is greatly appreciated.

A,J S and E