January 2010: Highlights from week one

I'm going to bunch a couple of great events into one. It's hard to separate days so I'm going to give you some significant events.

-The six young girls got a great opportunity to visit Narasha's high school...we were welcomed with an assembly. They asked me and Tim to speak in front of 1000 people which was a little intimidating but went well. It was so amazing to meet all the kids so close to our age. At first they were shy but that changed in a hurry, they swarmed the girls...I could barely get video at the end because they all wanted to be on camera. It was so neat to be able to interact with the young kids. They had such joy in there faces, it was neat to see kids who are amused playing cricket and not attached to nintendos's.

-Narasha's family invited us for tea....all 17 of us. They welcomed us with such welcome arms, had a beautiful spread of goodies and tea for us. And it ended up that Narasha's father's sister lives in Ketakalawata. Her husband is a mason that works on our job site. It was so neat to see how it was all connected. It was the most touching experience to be welcomed with open arms by people we barley knew. The way they hug you makes you know the bond between us is everlasting. The more time we spend with him and his family, the more excited I am getting for him to come back with us. He's such a strong young man with great leadership abilities he will do so well.

-We went to the elephant park after Narasha's house. We saw so many elephants, wild boars, jackels...and we did it safari style. There is a picture of the jeeps we were in...you could stand up and see for miles. The wind was a nice break from the heat and humidity. One jeep was first called "the grumpy old men" but we changed it to "the comfy old men" because they had nice chairs to observe the animals.

-I just need to put in a quick blurb about the ceremony today before the internet is turned off. It was at a special needs school and one of there students is deaf. She has been dancing for 9 months and is AMAZING there is a picture to go with that. She performed two dances the picture is her peacock dance costume.

I will update you more tomorrow about the ceremony!
TTYL!

Leah Caldow
DWC Volunteer Participant