Hello!
A change in format from my old blog posts. Since my last official post in 2015, I've never stopped writing. I've filled multiple diaries with my excursions, food consumption, poetry, emotions and daily thoughts. Although my pen-to-paper work has been pretty good, translating this online hasn't happened. I can't promise my organisation will improve, but here are a couple of emails from the last 15 months since I left the UK that I've written to keep everyone updated! ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... Just a very quick email to update you on my life here! Well, it's amazing! I have had an extremely hectic start here. I live in a homestay with a lady who we call 'Amma' (meaning mother) and Perrera, her 30 year old son. I get my own room (where I've put my birthday cards up) then there's space for 9 other volunteers. The last lot have left today until January though so I have the run of the house for the next few weeks! They cook me breakfast and dinner everyday and do my washing (rice and curry which we eat with our hands). A/C is non-existent and only in posh restaurants but you get used to a ceiling fan and being permanently sweaty pretty quickly! I'm currently sitting in our office which is in a place called Maharagama, about half an hour by tuk tuk from where I live in Ethulkotte. We are opening a new office in January in Rajigiriya which I should be able to walk to and has a gym next door so may even be able to shift some curry weight haha. There's one Operations Manager called Dave and 2 other English Supervisors then we each have a team of about 5 national staff who are all fantastic and anything from 20- 60 volunteers. I have 21 volunteers who will live in 3 different homestays that I manage coming in January for my area (Kotte). Then there are 2 other areas (Colombo and Horana - more rural - the Elephants live opposite). In the area I manage I have up to 10 projects running each day which include English teaching with children and adults at schools, temples and community centres, Special Needs projects at day centres and residential homes for all ages and projects at the National Institute of Mental Health (the 3rd largest in Asia) and Halfway House - both psychiatric residential centres. All of the volunteers in my area do Mental Health or Graduate Mental Health placements for anything from 4 - 12 weeks. My role is largely to organise the volunteers and national staff in my area and make sure they plan their lessons and get to all the right places on time. They also get a chance to do various trips including a project to Killinochi (about 8 hours drive north) to work with one of only 45 psychiatrists in the whole of Sri Lanka (he has 1.5 million potential patients in the area he covers!) We had our staff Christmas party on Tuesday evening which was a pool party and curry! We had to be especially nice to our homestay family however as we were two hours late back past curfew! (curfew is 9pm). I spent last weekend on the beach in Mirissa and this weekend myself and the other Supervisor Jenny are going to another beach - Tangalle. For Christmas we get a long weekend so will probably head to the beach again and then maybe go further afield or to the city for New Year celebrations. All the nationals are extremely nice and speak amazing English, it really is one big family! I have started learning some Sinhala so if nothing else I can direct a tuk to go right and left and tell someone I'm hungry (essentials!). I'm now writing up some lesson plans for the new year and trying to translate/explain typical English Idioms, homophones and homonyms. If anyone has any dance, music or drama games they fancy passing on to me I'm also working on a folder of ideas for the new volunteers! I hope you are all well and have a lovely Christmas and New Year!
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Members of Parliament have just voted in the House of Commons for the British Armed Forces to support other countries in leading air strikes in areas of Syria. I have never before written publicly about a political issue, and don't for one minute think I am eloquent or knowledgeable enough to explain it fully, but I'm scared.
I'm scared for the millions of innocent children who are currently 'in the way' of conflict. Either being manipulated without choice into fighting with weapons that are heavier than they are, for causes they don't understand, or simply by staying still, and going to sleep in their own bed at night. Why are these millions of children any different from you, your siblings or your parents as children? I cannot begin to fathom how the MPs who just voted in Parliament would feel, if they were watching the voting outcome in Syria. Powerless to stop the decision, only able to go home and tuck their children and grandchildren into bed, crossing their fingers that their neighbourhood was not pinpointed as 'majority terrorist', and enabling them to live to see the sunrise. I'm scared for the children who are not yet born - your children, your grandchildren. What fractious world are we leaving for them to sort out - one where we may no longer be able to live democratically and peacefully. One where the very Government that is meant to support its people is so out of touch that it cannot see the millions of innocent victims this will cause, without a bed to go home to at night, much less an MPs second home. I'm scared for you and I'm scared for me. Great Britain usually prides itself on its peaceful, democratic union, but not any more; the sails on her ship have veered us into very stormy waters. How can the Government justify the billions it will spend sending aircraft to throw bombs on areas they cannot confirm do not have civilians living there? How can they do this, when there are almost 4 million children in the UK alone who live in poverty? The Prime Minister is so far removed from his own constituents that he cannot even quote the approximate price of a pint of milk, yet he believes it is just and fair to spend money making even more children homeless across the world, then rejecting them at the gates of our country. The average age of MPs in the Houses of Parliament in 2015 is 50 years old. If they are to represent us, they must understand the plight of the poor and the passion of the young, the realistic ideology of the nation, and the reason I am scared. I am scared because these people are more than double my age, and yet they are making decisions of which we will have to pick up the pieces. Yes this is just my opinion, and yes I understand that the decision was made democratically, but yes,I do think that the Government are making an undeniable and irreparable mistake. One that will affect you and me for generations to come. I have revisited my blog and website numerous times in the last 18 months, but have had so many new experiences, I think not had the confidence to keep writing. Since March 2014 I have travelled alone to New Zealand, Fiji, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. I also visited friends working in Italy and France, rekindled my love of singing for a wedding performance, started a Graduate position as a Housing Officer, spent New Year in Ireland, travelled and fell in love with Sri Lanka, bought a flat, continued dance teaching, and been back to the West Country and Wales numerous times.
I have now finished my Graduate role and am at the end of my second day not working, preparing to move to Sri Lanka for 6 months next week. I had the most amazing experience as a Housing Officer; one which has definitely altered my perspective of the 'Welfare State' and the crucial role of Social Housing in the UK. I have embraced daily challenges and striven to keep growing (though definitely not in height!) in my knowledge and understanding of social housing. I was fortunate to complete my Chartered Institute of Housing Level 4, to practise some academic writing, and have just finished my TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) to take abroad with me. I hope one day to have the time to explain further some particular joys and grievances that have punctuated the start of my career, but with just 4 days left before I move, I best start packing! I hope to use this blog to keep you all updated as often as possible on my life and work in Sri Lanka - wifi permitting. |
About meI enjoy writing and have had experience from my degree and through working on news posts. I hope to use this blog as a summary of extraordinary things I've discovered or witnessed in everyday life. Archives
March 2020
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