Hannah's Year in Sri Lanka

Hello everyone! I'll start with this. Lots of great things have been achieved over the past couple of weeks - we're now qualified PADI Open Water Divers, have begun running a series of educational 'Earth Days' in Unawatuna, and have got a handle on the lizard problem in the toilet. Unfortunately, our teaching has come to an abrupt (but temporary) stop. As of last week a very serious flu-like illness has spread through primary schools in our area. Only young people are affected, but it's already resulted in 12 children passing away. While the government try to cap the spread of the disease, all primary students are given 'leave'. This is supposed to last for at least another week but will go on until the spread is halted; of course, this means we have no one to teach. It's a heart breaking situation, but we have accepted that there really isn't anything we can do. Everyone is sitting tight. To make matters worse, monsoon season has crept...

Ayubowan! If you would like a different kind of insight into our April holiday, click the link below. I made a my first video as a montage of our best (and worst) bits from two weeks of travelling, so I hope you enjoy. Montage of our April Holiday My partner Jenny has been making videos every two months, so check out her channel for more! Jenny's Channel Bye for now! x

Hello everyone! I'm really sorry about the lack of recent updates. We spent all of December travelling and on our return my laptop decided to give up on me, so I've only just managed to get something sorted. We're back in the classroom again, and it's safe to say the holiday bubble has officially been burst. We had an month of incredible travel around this little island - eight locations, but countless stories.  So if you're interested, here are my top 10 highlights. Learning to surf in Weligama. We started the holiday only 50 mins from where we live, but Weligama is a haven for surfers of all abilities, no prize for guessing where we fit in on that spectrum, and cool yoga people, which we are not. Still, it was nice to spend all day on a board getting sunburnt and doing the tourist thing for the first time. Breakfast and dinner with a not-too-shabby view Being the only people in Arugam Bay. The famous touris...

Hey! A game of job themed Splat! Jenny and I joined in once  and absolutely demolished the competition There is currently what I can only describe as a monkey clan war going on right outside my house, and it's making blog writing a little tricky. Monkeys make quite a horrible sound when they're fighting so apologies if this blog seems a little less coherent. We have had a hectic last month and a bit, coming down with what feels like every sort of illness and getting our head around how to teach properly. I can proudly say that we have just about completed term one of three without any disasters, a huge achievement for us amateurs. The teaching has genuinely been a bag of surprises but I feel very lucky to get to teach some absolute gems who make me laugh every day - whether that be because of their funny questions, or our lengthy arguments over why toes aren't called 'leg fingers'. The result of 'make your monster' game to teach parts of t...

Hello everyone! Lots has changed since my first post, but we expected as much from the first month of being here. Although it is very cliché to say so, it really doesn't feel like we have been living in Sri Lanka for such a short length of time. Every day has been packed with lesson planning, teaching, dodging three wheelers, and learning how to survive on our own; so I'm struggling to imagine life without the humid heat and coconuts. I do look back fondly to a time without mosquitoes, however. Coaching in the sun Since I last wrote I have been assigned my schools for the year - Unawatuna Maha Vidyalaya, SGV (Welhengoda), and Thithigalle. This means my week will be broken up between the three, which is nice because my teaching partner Jenny and I get to see more of the South than if we were confined to one school. Whilst UMV and SGV have both primary and secondary pupils, Thithigalle is a very small inland school, and the teachers there are especially keen to impro...

Hello everyone! I'm writing blog post #1 from the lovely Padma's house, our host for the next week while we adjust to the culture shock of Sri Lanka. Apologies for the delayed post - the WiFi at the airport left much to be desired. The journey to Sri Lanka was relatively easy - being reunited with the rest of the Lanky girls definitely lifted my mood after saying goodbye to family at the airport. The afternoon in Heathrow was spent talking about all the peculiar things we've packed (Natalie with her favourite spoon, Jenny supplying her saxophone for some smooth tunes, and Megan with a big bottle of her favourite BBQ sauce) and everything we're looking forward to doing over the next year. We also had our last pizza for a long time :( Heathrow departures The heat upon arrival nearly floored us, with one American gentleman summing up how we felt when we left the airport air-conditioning  by shouting, "OOOOFT, there it is." On the drive into Col...