Housing and Habitat

Hambantota

20-42, January 2020

Day 1, Monday

On Monday, the day we arrived in Hambantota, we stopped at the Janoda foundation premises, settled into our rooms keeping our bags there and had lunch. Later on, we went on a tour around Hambantota. We visited the Mattiello towers which was a prison that was used in the 19th century. We also went to the National Park of Bundala and engaged in bird watching. Moreover, this helped me gain more knowledge about the biodiversity in Sri Lanka and helped me learn the names of different species that live in this park. Around the sunset, we returned to the Janoda Foundation where we were to stay, had a shower and lunch. Before going to bed, we had to meet with our teaching groups and go through the plans for the next day.

Day 2-3, Tuesday and Wednesday

On the second and third day, we taught the pre-school children at the Janoda Foundation. We did a lot of fun activities as well as educational sessions. Especially for my group, we organized five different activities such as the spider web ice breaker to make them familiar by introducing themselves to us and each other. Moreover, the second activity was the object and number match to teach the students counting in English from 1-10. As a team building activity, ‘Basket Ball’ was done where they were divided into 2 groups and given 8 balls and a basket each. They had to race to the basket and fill it with the 8 balls. The group that filled it the earliest was the winning team. Apart from that, to enhance their creative skills, paper plate crafts were done with them where they were given less instructions but more time and chance to complete the task. Another activity that was done to improve their creativity was coloring. Two different pictures were printed and given to each kid which they had to color using color pencils of any color they want. Overall, completion of those activities took both mornings of Tuesday and Wednesday.

In the evening sessions of Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked on the railroad track and the two murals. For the railroad track, we had to paint numbers and letters on the each wooden block that the track was made of. The mural contained a poem, flowers and clouds painted by two of the students in our www. The railroad track was the hardest job in the outdoor activities because we had to dig the ground to fix the wooden blocks on which we painted numbers and letters.

Day 3, Wednesday

On Wednesday, we visited a local potter and his wife in Hambantota. We witnessed how artistically a pot was created on the wheel. It wasn’t as easy as we expected, it was pretty challenging when we got to try it. But it was an interesting session as all of us had a great experience by trying to do something most of us haven’t done before. It also taught us how tiring the process of making pots is which increased our respect towards potters by a great deal. Currently, the pots are made on a wheel that is manually rotated, but on the other hand, now there is an electric wheel that replaces most of the work done by the potter which is quite sad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4, Thursday

We arrived at the Shangri-La and had lunch in the hotel. After having a delicious lunch, we did clean up at a local beach. The beach was full of dirt and plastic left by those who visited the beach. It was a tiring job, but on the other hand, it was satisfying to see a properly cleaned beach with our own effort. Furthermore, this activity created awareness of what is happening around us. After finishing the beach clean up, we headed back to the hotel and had some relaxation where some of us went for a swim in the hotel pool and the others rested. Later that day, we had a good dinner celebrating a birthday of one of the team mates.

Day 5, Friday

Unfortunately Friday was our last day. We woke up at around 7:30am and packed up ready to leave after having breakfast in the hotel. We left the Shangri-La hotel at around 10 pm and arrived at our school at around 2:30pm.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable as well as educational tour. Personally, this was very exciting for me as it was my first visit to Hambantota. Looking back, it feels very satisfying and memorable to recall how we worked together at the Janoda foundation for a good cause.