Aquarius Sports Resort Marawila

... house I was staying with 3 - 4 volunteers. We would have our food prepared for us every night by the 2 chefs who worked for us which always consited of a soup for starters, a main dinner of about 5 dishes of something like rice or pasta some meat and a vegtables generally normally always a curry. The food was lovely but after 2 weeks of it, it did get a little bit repetative. During my 2 weeks I managed to get in a trip to the ...

... a mountain range which continues under the sea to emerge in India as another peninsula. Between the two lies a chain of islands; the whole land mass being known as Adams Bridge. It's the obvious place for a ferry and one did exist but it stopped running twenty odd years ago and since the north is the dangerous area of Sri Lanka it will probably be a few more before it starts again. The only way to reach here is by air. Apparently the island was first populated by the Sinhalese peoples ...

... So that went well - obviously there was a lot of "I like to play cricket!". It's become a tradition with them, that for the last 5minutes I draw a clock face on the whiteboard, tell them a time in English and then the draw it on. They have now started being more adventurous now with 7.22 and 8.37! It's a nice early start tomorrow-heading off to the rainforest at 630, which is about a 4/4.5hour drive. Looking forward to it, should be good. Hopefully will have a few photos.

I gave into temptation today and had a Sri Lankan breakfast! It was strange to be eating vegetable noodles with a hard boiled egg and of course a bit of spice at 9am, but it was still good! Don't think I could do it everyday though - especially the days they have hoppers (a little like pancakes) with a banana and chilli paste! It isn't a meal if there's no spice, but the cook is very good and knows not to give our food ...

My purpose here has nearly been fulfilled because today, while singing "the wheels on the bus" with the preschool children, there was a definite Belfast twang when they said "horn"! That's what I call success! A new boy started today as well - always good to see a new face. From what I saw, he seemed to enjoy it. Today the afterschool class was more ...

Today is "Poya" day (Full Moon). As Sri Lanka is around 80% Buddhist, it's quite a big deal. There was a constant stream of traffic through Hambantota today - horns were beeping, people were shouting, flags were flying and there were more stalls selling drinks and fruit. They were mostly heading to Tissa, which is an hour outside Hambantota. Today we hadn't planned on going anywhere, but ended up in a 3wheeler ...

... weeks, but numbers were down. They did find it funny when I tried to swot a hornet with a rolled up newspaper. They mustn't do such things over here!! I've learnt the pace that each class goes it. With today's class, learning 3 shapes was good going, but with tomorrow's class, they would probably be able to learn about 10. The classes are split by abilities, rather than ages which ...

... there must be some strange looking fish saying "baa" in Sri Lanka! I stuck to animals I could vaguely draw - fish, sheep, cow, duck, pig and then the problem came with horse!! Fortunately there was a book of "old MacDonald" and lo and behold there was a horse for me to point to! improvisation is the way forward! Tonight Gordon and I have been invited to a "Pot Luck" dinner. It is arranged by the Chamber of Commerce as they realised there are "foreigners" in ...

... he was Gay, then he started telling me he does massages at the hotel behind the restaurant (yeah, bells started ringing in my head). He said if you book a massage from the hotel it's Rs1000, but if does it direct it would be Rs200. He tried to get me to have, but I declined the offer (there was no way in the world that was going to happen!), he was pretty persistent and when he said he would do me one for free! I finished what was left of ...

... just babies and really tiny. The keepers make a beeline for anyone with a camera and "special" close up photos are arranged for a fee. Maire had her hand bag expertly picked by a very small baby elephant....she could feel something inside her bag during a photo and found the young would be thief desperately searching for tit bits.....She has refused to wash the bag since! Feding time was fun but there were huge crowds and we could not really get close to the action. Those of ...