April 2011: Quick update from the Team Leader

Our 10 volunteers are working hard at repairing/rebuilding a school, so that the local children can return to a safe and productive environment. Working on the school is a fabulous volunteer experience and it is wonderful to see all our old friends.

You can further follow our adventure through the photo album on the TRIP Canada website: http://www.tripca.org/team8

Thinking about all of the volunteer teams and wish you could be here with us.

All the best,

Janet McKelvey
DWC Team Leader

Sri Lanka, April 2011

April 2011: Day four on the project

Day Four was another hot one in Tangalle. After a massive breakfast we headed off to a senior English class where we were interviewed about our favorite fruit and likes and dislikes. Surprisingly a lot of the students dislike mango and banana. I guess when it's everywhere you look you might get sick of it pretty easily. Since we were late getting to the work site due to class we knew had to work hard, so we got down and dirty mixing cement and pouring floors all day. Some of us got to whitewash the new walls, while others had the dusty task of breaking old plaster off some walls, followed by rubble clearing. A tough day, but a good one!

Of course any volunteer trip isn't a completely serious affair. We've had lots of fun working with the locals, giving each other nicknames and of course making fun of each other when we say silly things. We're starting to collect a nice list of silly things Westerners say. I won't tell you who said what, but one of the best has to do with inquiries about snow removal on the narrow back roads. And of course injuries are unavoidable with hard work. Pretty standard stuff, really: Sunburn, blisters, heat-rash, chafing. All signs of a hard work and a good time.

Kristian Bruun
DWC Participant

Sri Lanka, April 2011

April 2011: Our team's first couple of days!

Well today is the end of day three and already our bodies are sore (good sore, of course). The school we are fixing up is a hundred and twenty years old and in desperate need of some TLC. It currently has 30 students who learn in some pretty poor conditions and they hope to have up to 200 students when we are done rebuilding it. A lot of the students have to pay to get into Tangalle to go to schools which are over crowded, so getting this school up and running will be a great help. Everyone is getting in on the action: the Principal, the teachers, some of their children, the local workers whose houmes we've rebuilt in the past and even the Buddhist monks from the monastery next door!

For me it has been incredible coming back to Sri Lanka. So much has changed since December, 2007. For one we have wireless high speed Internet! Last time we used a really slow, old desktop computer to send our emails and it felt like regular mail would have been faster. We are also staying at a brand new hotel, Moonstone Villas, opened by a fellow volunteer who came to Sri Lanka and fell in love with it. She has partnered with the team of locals we work with and the place is beautiful. Sure there are a few kinks to work out, but we're the perfect group to test things out on.

Here's a quick recap of the first three work days:
Day One we got to the school and immediately started clearing rubble from the buildings and the yard. The workers were also ready for us to get plastering the walls, it took some time, but the old plaster skills came back to us. Getting that plaster to stick to the walls takes a bit of finesse.

Day Two started with a tour of a Muslim school in Tangalle that also needs fixing up. Janet and Bruce are always looking for the next project to do and everyone seems pretty keen to keep helping with the schools in the area. We also checked out an English class at the village before getting back to the work sight. More rubble removal, more plastering and then we started breaking up some poorly constructed cement floors. The day ended with one of the most intense downpours I have ever seen. We are getting close to the rainy season, so I think that won't be the last time we see rain. It rained so hard I showered outside!

Day Three we got right to business. First up was the punishing task of mixing cement by hand and pouring the new floors. By far the hottest and most humid day, we sweat our way through multiple batches of cement, pouring floors and breaking up other poor ones. It's always a little frustrating undoing work that looks good on the surface, but it has to be done. An improper floor won't stand the test of time. Mike Holmes would have a field day here! Tough day, but we were happy to clean up and check out a dance class back at the village before having dinner at Lagoon Paradise.

DWC Participant
Kristian Bruun

Sri Lanka, April 2011