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.