11th July 2013

A very early 2am departure for the airport. Arrived after long and bumpy ride in 8 hours. Breakfast of rice hoppers, roti and curry on the way! No waiting anywhere at the airport so came straight though. Had calls from Mansoon (of tuk tuk and hat fame) wondering where I was and could he take me anywhere!! Also update from Thasleem. Bye bye Sri Lanka!

10th July 2013

Last day. Called and then texted Tiffany – she still needs to talk to her husband about it all. No reply as of this evening. Don't want to pressure her so I wont contact again – can email from UK. Thasleem • Contract is signed for 2.5 years from now. All written in Tamil – but Thasleem read it to me. Seems fine • School to start in January – rather than September – which makes sense as start of new school year. • Ramadan 28th June to 28th July next year. I was concerned that summer holiday would follow this period, but school will be open next August 2013 so we can come then • April another option. School closes for one week but Thasleem not sure which week. • Quote is in for the grilles on the windows (12 of them) and fixing the wooden shutters. LKR 160,000. • Tree will cost about LKR 1,000 to take down • Tiles hopefully will be donated but we will incur small cost to place them on the roof. • Playground – still not discussed with grandma. • I expressed sadness about the problems with Rafeek and hope that they will resolve in time • I also expressed our confidence in Thasleem • He is excited • The logo is redone and I will send for your approval. He has managed to squeeze in some araliya flowers and put AEF on the petals of the biggest flower. I think it is great. • He has designed some headed notepaper too • I paid him LKR 10,000 to acknowledge the work he would be doing. I had meant this to take him through to September when I thought the school would open. Now that not till January we will have to get him some more money (how much?). I can send through western union until we sort out management situation Tiffany vs RMF. • I broke the first day of Ramadan fast with Thasleem and his wife. Special. Amusing story (totally made my day) Three days ago when I was moving hotels I left my favourite hat and a bottle of water in a tuk tuk. I was so upset to lose that hat after all these years. I have kept an eye out for the driver but there are so many tuk tuks. Anyway yesterday after mourning for two days, I gave up and bought another - and not nearly so nice - hat. Today I needed to go to the bank and so hailed a tuk tuk. Guess what - it was the same guy! I recognized him. I asked him about my hat and he said he had at home and he would bring it later. I suggested we go straight to his house and get it - via the bank. As we were driving down the backstreets I did wonder if this was a good/safe idea............ Anyway we went to his house and of course I had to go in and have tea with his wife and his little daughter. They produced the hat and the water! I gave them the water, of course, and when we got back I gave him the new hat that I had bought, I also paid him twice the tuk tuk fare. He was delighted and now Mansoon, the tuk tuk driver - sporting my new hat - is my new best friend! He's constantly waiting outside hotel for me. 'Where to madam' 'Im just going to the beach' 'I take you' 'No need - I only have to walk across the road' 'Okay - where to next?' 'The school - later' 'What time?' ‘5pm’ 'Okay I come 4pm' 'No - please don't. Come 5pm' 'No problem madam' And he came 4pm anyway!! So happy to be reunited with my hat!

9th July 2013

1. Trip to Pottuvil with Thasleem to check on school supplies. Arpico had some reasonable stuff. Lots of cheap stuff but some duplo type blocks and some wooden shapes and a few balls. Paper, pens, crayons etc. The basics. But enough to get started. Sharon says the only good alternative is Colombo. She has volunteered her van to pick up any order we might make when her van is up doing the shopping. Saved a trip to Acrupattu to find these things. 2. T. told me that the contract for the school was agreed and that he was waiting for a signature. We get two years and they will look for some tiles and get the water hooked back up – but we will pay for repairs to roof, windows and get tree cut down. These are small things. Before the contract is signed it has to be approved by a local authority meeting though – this is tomorrow apparently. 3. T. loved Shining Stars preschool as a name and it is now on the contract awaiting signature! 4. Tea with Tiffany at her home. She lives down behind the Buddhist shrine at end of AB. Pretty basic! A house with a couple of bedrooms and little sitting room and small kitchen. Nice porch and lovely big sandy space for a yard which they use to play games with her boys age 4 and 6. She home schools and she seems to do a great job. A couple of the local girls were there just hanging out – they do after school tutoring like everyone else here. Tiffany had a little girl with her too – daughter of an English mum and sri Lankan dad, who kind of scrap a living selling board shorts and jewelry in a shop nearby. I bought some jewelry for Saumia there. I broached the subject gently of helping us. She will discuss with her husband. I would see her paying Thasleem each month and T. going to her to get money for supplies etc. She is part of a Christian/missionary group called ‘surfers international’ or something. I think she could be trusted. Sharon agrees. 5. I went to visit Saumia. I gave her the jewelry from us all and a notebook with London tube map all over the front of it. She is sitting for three A levels – Geography, Agriculture and Tamil. She will go to University. The whole community are so proud of her. T. says she will bring a bright future to her family. What a responsibility! She lives in a very very basic house – held together by a lick and a promise – ‘not yet finished’ to use T’s words!! There are 4 girls – she is the eldest. The father is now working in Kuwait as he was a baker and could not make ends meet and so is over there as a driver. He is earning LKR30,000 according to T. It appears to be okay to ask these things as he did!! I took some photos. 6. Next Rafeek - a mission to mend bridges. I did as we agreed, said we wanted to open preschool and kids would get good education and then come to him very smart in 1st grade. He laughed. I explained that we would charge for education so not in direct competition. I said we still wanted to support him and asked what could we do. Clearly he had been thinking since we last met. He says he plans to move kids around and build one new ‘temporary’ classroom over the break and put the little children in the big classroom that was built for the rice distribution. That is a good space and lots of light. I said that if he did that we would supply the room for him. Hope that was okay. It won’t cost too much. He was very happy and I think relations are restored. I told him that we wanted to have pictures and that we would not supply until the children were in the classroom. Thasleem will monitor. I teased him that he needed to learn how to email and use the Internet. I asked him about the laptops (I knew but T said I must ask him and he must tell me himself that they were stolen). He did tell me and was obviously very sorry and sad at the loss. They had money in the office that night too which was also taken. T. thinks things are okay with Rafeek now too. 7. Back to Hideaway and met with Mr Croos – introduced by Sharon. He is paid by an NGO to teach English and computer after school to kids from a Sinhala school just here in AB. They did not have an English teacher at the time so the NGO set this up. He was a very nice (Christian) man. Very distinguished looking and intelligent with much integrity and we had a really good talk about education is sri lanka. He says a big problem in the after school classes he runs is that the children are badly behaved and just don’t turn up. He puts this down to the fact that they don’t pay. Interesting and makes me think we may be on the right track in charging some money for Shining Stars.

7th July 2013

Met with Thasleem today and we really made progress. I went to his house and was asked what I was doing for lunch, which usually means I am invited. I said I was doing nothing and that was good as he had ordered biryani curry from the ‘hotel’. He said his wife was embarrassed to cook for me as I would not like her food ☹ He and I ate and his wife watched us. I saw her later eating on her own on the floor in the kitchen. I met Jeza again who is now 5. She is as bright as a button and knows all her letters and numbers in Tamil and English. She could answer a lot of my questions. We did a rather hard puzzle together and she really tried and stuck with it. The community is not prepared to give the school building to Al Ishraq school –which is good actually as there is no way we could get all those kids from Al Ishraq into our building. Instead T. proposes to advertise with fliers and banners and get applications and will select 20 children for our school. He thinks the people will pay but I am not so sure. He proposes to meet with parents each month to explain what they are doing until he gains a reputation for good teaching at the school. He thinks parents will be happy to pay when they see what he is doing. I asked him about teachers. He proposes Reema, who is 24 has 3 A levels and has been working in Pottuvil at a preschool assistant. For some reason that arrangement ended and now she has a little preschool in her mothers house. Thasleem is sending his daughter to Reema as she hated Al Ishraq and he says she is learning (by SL standards anyway!). I asked him how he saw his role in the school. He definitely said that he wanted to teach. He wanted to model for Reema and teach her how to do a really good job. He certainly has had quite a lot of experience teaching older students, but not little ones. He thinks with his access to the internet he can come up with lots of ideas. I stressed how important education and continuing education were and we would expect Reema to attend the next preschool diploma training that was offered in Pottuvil (regardless of how mickey mouse it might be). As this happens at weekends only this should certainly be possible. I told him that we would want him to visit the Minhath preschool for example of good teaching and set up. He agreed to do this. I also discussed with him Minerva’s involvement. I wanted to clarify this as I wondered if he had been put out the day before by her presence. Surprisingly he thought she was a good addition and I explained what her role would be. I asked him how much he expected to be paid. He was shy about this. I suggested a teachers pay to start with as he would be teaching (LKR 9,500). He seemed pleased with this. He was very fired up by the whole project and excited. We went to visit the school again and the community guy turned up. Work that needs to be done: 1. About 100 roof tiles need to be replaced 2. Palm tree hanging over the roof over from next door needs to be cut down 3. Several shutters on windows need to be made tight 4. Grills need to be placed in the windows so that the windows can be open during the day 5. The toilets out at the back (one squat and two little urinals) need to be cleaned and made functional 6. Water supply needs to be hooked up again 7. Electricity needs to be hooked up too. 8. The front door needs to have the lock replaced 9. The whole inside needs a really good clean There are 4 little tables and 20 little chairs (all painted wood) and two lockable chest for toys. There is an office. There is a small space – really small and narrow - where it is perhaps feasible that a bit of playground equipment could go. The school building is right in the heart of the community and next door to the mosque. The man from the mosque was excited that religious lessons might be able to take place too. The community could definitely use the building in the evenings – perhaps we could charge some small amount for this. The community was keen to have the building cared for – our role. My idea – open for discussion - would be for us to pay T. Then Reema could be paid by the parent’s contributions. We would maintain the building and pay utilities. He would also stock the school. Thoughts about this?? T. wanted me to know that the community notice when a foreigner turns up and they wonder how T. benefits from this. It was helpful to have a bit of an insight into how we are viewed – which is with heaps of dollar signs over our heads. The credentials that the school should have eventually – that could all be handled by Minerva. Both Reema and T. will need the preschool diploma.

6th July 2013

Today started at 3am as we left for AB. It was pitch dark and the middle of the night but there was a fair amount of traffic on the roads. Lots of buses. Minerva explained that buses run at night to get people to where they want to go for first thing in the morning. They didn’t think anything of a 3am departure! We stopped at 5am at a roadside shop for egg roti and tea, which was being made on a an open fire. I went to find the loo afterwards – I know, but I had to go – the driver lent me the torch on his phone and I was terrified that I would drop it down the hole!! We got to Pottuvil by 7.30am and stopped for breakfast in the main drag. Pottuvil looks so much smarter now there is a tarmacked road running through it. This little restaurant had tiled floor. Then we went to meet Thasleem and this is when things came slightly unraveled! Minerva called and we agreed to meet at the Stardust just over the bridge. We pulled over and there was ‘Thaseem’ – but not our ‘Thasleem’. Minerva and I had been talking at cross-purposes for the last few days about this person. I was surprised that she had been in touch with our Thasleem but when I said that she said that the director at Minhath knew him and I just assumed that it was the same person. I had been in touch with our Thasleem and told him when I was coming but had not communicated so much as Minerva was always on the phone to him. So it was her Thaseem, (no L). that had organized a parent meeting – but of course at another school. My heart sank at this muddle. Credit to Minerva she was really positive, said lets go and find my Thasleem and talk and then come back for the parent meeting. So I called Thasleem and no answer so we drove down to his shop and I wandered in the at the back as I was not quite sure which was his house. I met his wife’s sister I think (I recognized her) and asked for T. She took me to his house and I saw his wife and someone was dispatched to get T. He turned up a few minutes later. He seemed a bit put out and would not make eye contact. I explained the mistake and asked him if he would like to accompany us to the parent meeting, which he did. The meeting was at Al Aqsha school – the big school which is almost opposite the Stardust. It was washed away in the tsunami and I think you visited it originally Alex. There is a memorial to the children who died just inside the gate. Anyway there is a private preschool at the back. Up until very recently it was funded by World Vision who paid the teachers salaries, utilities, uniforms, stationary supplies etc. World Vision have now pulled out of this arrangement and this has meant that the parents have had to not only pay the teachers (they pay 500 rupees a month = £2.50) but also run the school – electricity, gas, school meal, uniforms, supplies etc. As a result about half of the normal 52 children have been removed from the school. The parents were gathered for the meeting and there were about 17 – 20 of them with their children and they expressed their worries which all revolved around finding enough money to keep their child in school. They valued the school and wanted their children to come. There were some tearful moments from mothers who had had to remove their child. I listened but did not make any promises. We had some juice together and then we left to go and see the school premises near Al Ishraq. The building is in need of some repair – but not extensive and I will get a quote for the repair. There are two drawbacks – one, it is not that big and two, there is no outside area. As we left and returned to the van I saw some vacant land about 100 yds from the school. I asked T. about it and he said it belonged to his grandmother! It would be ideal for a playground area if we were able to lease it from her. That cheered me up a bit as I figured the school building was a non starter without an outside area. We then went to meet with Principal Rafeek as I wanted to see the school and wanted to make sure it was okay with him to open a possible preschool on his doorstep. Al Ishraq was …. a mess. The gardens were lovely and so there was lots of greenery but the buildings are in a sorry state of repair. The roof on the assembly hall is way worse than the last time Alex and I were there. It’s a real danger – but kids were playing in the space anyway ☹. The classrooms were very shabby, the roof we put on 2 years ago could do with some help, but will probably last another year and there were an additional three outside classrooms to accommodate the increase in students – now 650. The additional classrooms are lean to’s and are made out of corrugated iron and leant against the main buildings with some corrugated iron around the edge to form the ‘walls’. They look pretty messy and the whole space is so cramped. The main problem for us was the preschool, which has been moved to the old ‘staff room’. Honestly the room is probably 10’ x 12’ and DARK and there are 52 children enrolled in the preschool. It is simply not possible to fit them all in there – I have no idea how they do it. Presumably not all of them come each day. But even if only half came you would be hard pressed to get them in. There are two ‘teachers’ who have both been through the diploma in preschool education (which T was quite dismissive about saying it was Saturdays for 6 month period and taught by someone from Accrupatu). His daughter had been attending the school but he pulled her out as he said she was doing nothing each day. The teachers are not paid either. It is difficult to tell if Principal Rafeek is incompetent or just worn down by no response to his pleas for help from the government. The government owes him a half way decent school but no help has been forthcoming. From our last experience here I would not say he is incompetent and that he does care – but somehow he doesn’t have the authority to demand what he needs really urgently. I think the poorer the area the less you get – counter intuitive isn’t it – but seems to happen the whole world over. We discussed the school down the road and I asked if we could take his preschool children to that school. He said 'no' unless the building had been given by the community (who currently own it) to the school. Thasleem is checking that out this evening. I must say I was quite depressed after I left the school, they are so in need and seem to have no way of getting what must be owed to them by the government. Do we know ANYONE who could intervene on their behalf.?? They are not asking for extra – they are just asking for what is their due. They don’t have a parent body who either have the time (they are all trying to earn just a basic living and have to work incredibly hard to do that) or the know how to make a petition or demands. These are my thoughts this evening. 1. We could easily support Al Aqsha school. Two teachers salaries of LKR9,500 would do it (LKR 19,000 = £100)each month. The school is in good repair, it has two reasonable teachers and parents who are interested. There are additional costs of utilities, uniforms, supplies, food but I think the parents could fund this themselves with, say, a fee of LKR100 per month (50p). 2. I will get a quote on how much it will cost to fix up the community preschool building. 3. If we could get that building given to the school then we could at least provide a better space to the preschool kids at Al Ishraq. The trouble is that there are over 50 kids enrolled and that is too many for the building. Perhaps we could split them into three groups – two at the new school and one at Al Ishraq?

5th July 2013

Today I was picked up at 9am and we headed off through Tangalle inland to the school called Palathudwa. This school was again started by RMF in response to a need in a poor area where children were not going to school, as it was too difficult to get them to Tangalle. The school is probably only several miles from Tangalle but there is no transport and if there was I am not sure the parents could afford it. The school building was built by the City of Hamburg! Go figure! It is in the grounds of a Buddhist temple and is for Sinhala children. Apparently the German connection came through the temple. The building is good - a typical SL school design and spacious as there are only 12 children enrolled (only 8 present today). We were greeted with great excitement and all handed bouquets of real flowers this time and bunches of leaves, which apparently is a sign of welcome. Once again school was suspended for our visit, which is frustrating as I would so much rather see the teaching happening. The school was not well resourced like the previous one – in fact it was rather bare and I was wondering if there were ANY resources (reminded me of our first visit to Al Ishraq when there was nothing there). There was the inevitable metal cabinet and I was dying to see what was inside and did manage to position myself for a look when it was opened! There was plenty of paper and books in there and the children’s copy books were produced. The drawings/activities were very prescribed. Each book was identical and there were only about 6 pages filled which is not many given that we are half way through the SL academic year. It is so difficult to get an idea of how much teaching is going on. Anyway I was able to talk to the children and they know how to count and they knew their colours. The children performed a few songs as the teacher sang the music (she does not like having a tape recorder as she likes to teach the words of songs herself and think the children learn better that way). The children then played with some old lego-like blocks they had and I was glad to see there was something to play with. The playground was in a bad state of repair. They told me the children used it – but on more pressing enquiry they admitted they didn’t. It was just too dangerous. The morning finished with sweet tea, plantains and some lovely sweet treats the parents had made. Minerva explained that RMF pays for teacher’s salaries only and the rest parents have to do. In Minhath they had a more affluent group of parents who were able to help out. Tomorrow we leave at 3am for Arugam Bay. Its about a 6 hour drive and we have a meeting with the prospective parents that Thasleem has organized at 9am! I am looking forward to that to get an idea of what the parents think/want and if we can provide it.

4th July 2013

An interesting day! Minerva picked me up with Nishantha at 8.45am and we headed off to Dickwella. We twisted and turned down little back streets and got to the school which is opposite the main national school that the kids go to for 1st grade. I was not ready for what happened when we opened the gate though! I went through first and saw all the children lined up alongside the building to welcome us including a little boy (who had a learning disability) with a garland was pushed forward to hang it around my neck. He took one look at me and burst into tears. He was then, literally, dragged along to give the garland to me and the closer he got the more petrified he became and the more his screams intensified!! Anyway the garland was placed around my neck eventually and then each of us was presented with a bouquet of plastic flowers. The outside of the school had been prepared for a show and little chairs were laid out in rows and a stage set up. We sat down and a little boy welcomed us in Tamil. Then a girl who had graduated from the school last year got up and in a very loud voice – and only referring to her script once – thanked me for coming and for wanting to open a school for her ‘brothers and sisters’ in Arugam Bay and then also thanked Real Medicine Foundation (RMF). There followed four sweet performances of dances. After the performances I visited the school. There are three fully qualified teachers (High Diploma in Early Learning Education) and one assistant as well as the Director. There was one room, brightly painted and divided into two areas by an open shelf to create a space for the 3,4 year olds and 4,5 year olds. The divider stored some of the school supplies. The school was quite well stocked with puzzles, blocks, little exercise books, and construction toys and more. Children’s work was up on the walls along with the schedule and a list of the special activity that they do each month. There is evidence of support for imaginative play – a shop, a telephone and a postbox where the children can play. There was a playground with slide, swings, playhouse, climbing frame, balance equipment, coconut climbing ladder etc. It was rather worn but serviceable. There is no other playground in the town and the children come early in the morning before school and stay on after school each day to play. The parents do not pay fees at the school. The teacher’s salaries are paid by RMF. Parents are, however, very involved with the school though and were responsible for putting in the playground equipment amongst other things. The Director was a kind-hearted man who speaks English well and his involvement with the school is voluntary. He is not paid. He is self taught and bright and works for his community. He is the town coroner too and I am sure he has fingers in other pies, which produce an income. His wife is the head teacher at the school. Overall I was very impressed with the way the school looked – I did not, however, see the children being taught! Our visit ended with the usual Fanta/Sprite bottle, plantain and biscuits. After the school we went to Nishantha’s house to meet his wife and one year old son. The wife is an ICU nurse and she takes the day off when Nishantha has to leave home – thus they share the childcare. Nishantha works from home for Real Medicine and so does Minerva. We were entertained to tea, plantain and biscuits! I then went to Minerva’s house as she needed some help to download the photos I had taken. She is about my age I think. She has six children (all grown) and nine grandchildren. She was married to a doctor who died 13 years ago. She has some ‘qualification’ to buy and prescribe medications and people locally come to her for this service. She also teaches English to hotel employees. She lives about 100 meters from the sea. Her house was washed away in the tsunami. She was not there, she was in fact in the church (she is a Christian) with her family remembering the anniversary of her husbands death. Her housekeeper was at home with others preparing a special meal. The helpers ran away when the sea came but her housekeeper is disabled and could not run and so she clung onto some house structure and miraculously survived. Minerva lost her house and most of her possessions (her photos are a particular loss). The government assessment and subsequent pay out was slow and inadequate. Minerva had lost her means of making a living as she was teaching English and lost all her books. She ended up working for an NGO called GTZ and they funded the rebuilding of her house. The government have abandoned the rule about no building within 100 meters of the sea (mainly because people refused to be rehoused) but they do require you to put a second floor on your house if you are within 100 meters of the sea. Minerva has finished the bottom of her house and is working on the top floor now. She seems competent. I think RMF’s interest in us is a financial one. They will earn a bit more money and it will give them a bit more to do. Real Medicine is a small charity in SL started by Dr Martina Fuchs who came to SL after the tsunami and started a clinic, which was needed at the time. Out of the work at the clinic grew the need to start a preschool for the poor Tamil community. The other school I presume started the same way. The original clinic is now closed but another one is running in a Tamil community where there is a doctor visit three times a week and the consultations and medications are free to the community. Martina does all her fundraising in the US and the charity operates in a bigger way in Pakistan, India and Indonesia. Tomorrow is Palathudwa school. Alex’s summary Aerian visited Minhath Preschool and was greeted with lovely performances from the children. Here are some notes on what she discovered: • There are 3 paid trained teachers and 1 helper/assistant teacher (salaries paid by Real Medicine) • There are 44 children who attend the school (a group of 3 and 4 year olds and a group of 4 and 5 year olds) • There is 1 large classroom space divided into 2 spaces by shelves where they keep materials • There is a lovely playground like the one we have pictures of • Lots of materials like puzzles and arts and crafts things • Children do age appropriate activities such as arts and crafts, some notebook work. • They learn Sinhalese and English as well as Tamil • Families do not pay tuition • The director is also not paid • Parents are very involved (they occasionally come to organize activities with children) Tomorrow Aerian is visiting another school. I will be logging in at 3pm my time to find out more about Aerian's day :)