and still it
rains.....
Hi
T-peepers,
We have been
assured that the dry season is upon us, if this is correct then it's the
wettest period of dry we've ever experienced! Lightning follows sun, follows
rain, follows sun, follows thunder........
The gods are
really moving around up there.
Hopefully
you will have noticed that we have developed our website; if you haven't then
please take a look - www.theteaproject.org.uk
We are really pleased with the results and our thanks go out to Radiant
Point Technologies for providing their services and time free of charge. This
new home will be enable us to promote The TEA Project more effectively and hopefully
increase support.
We are still waiting for our
NGO visas to arrive, basically the usual red tape wrapped in more red tape. Anyway,
as our current visas terminate at the end of this month we must leave the
country to re-apply for Sri Lankan visas oversees and then return. It's an
unfortunate and costly necessity for us but one we decided to accept and use to
the advantage of The TEA Project if we could. So, following some hefty research
we sent a proposal to a number children's charities in India; the response that
came back was very positive. Around 60% of the organisations responded and
requested our services and we eventually chose to work with an organisation
called 'Our Home Community' - www.ourhomecommunity.org. OHC are a fantastic
charity who are based in the south west of India providing a permanent home
& community to homeless and orphaned street children. We feel fortunate
that the opportunity has arisen to work with a charity that shares our
ideals and are confident that this is the right time to deliver and pilot a new
model of training called 'Child Centred Community Development'. We hope that
explains our plans in a nutshell.
We have
begun a partnership with a school in Kandy which we mentioned wanting to
achieve on previous TEAblogs where a large number of the children we work with
attend. Recently we supported an English
Camp running activities and games with children from four of the poorest
schools in Kandy and we plan to continue running workshops and teacher training
every week for them. Our workshops and
training will be really important as government schools have few resources to
rely on. The school we support does not even have a computer.
Our Project
with The British Council is going well. Up to five centre children will be
receiving free English tuition for a year worth £2,500 as a result of Racheal's
efforts. This will create a fantastic and rare opportunity for very poor
children.
Carl is
nearing completion of the new Library which he designed for the centre in
Kandy. We managed to run a series of workshops in the new library to get
feedback on the project and ask the children to name it, help develop ground
rules and set consequences for breaking the library rules. The children can be very destructive and act
impulsively so before the library is formally opened we needed to establish
clear boundaries. They suggested rules
such as no stealing and being relaxed in the library with consequences of
cleaning the library or having to leave the library for a period of time if
they break the rules. They did also
suggest going to prison for 2-years and being spanked for breaking the rules
but we felt these to not be appropriate punishments for the crime! The library
will be named 'the space'. We will post a blog when it is fully up and running.
This week we will run our first day of Personal Development training with
teenagers in 'the space'. We hope at least 20 young people will attend; ice
cream, biscuits and lemonade are our trusted recruitment tactics. Watch Facebook for an update.
We still
have our weekly workshops with 7-11 year olds and 12-15 year olds which are
always fun, active and the children never cease to amaze and amuse us. They recently made some excellent paper mache
hot air balloons in an arts workshop but destroyed the final results before
anyone could paint them. They come from families with few or little boundaries
so this is the nature of the kids and the work.
Racheal now runs additional weekly English classes for centre managers
and staff. Some of the young girls were noticeably
intrigued by Racheal's make-up so following their interest Racheal ran a
make-up workshop. We can optimistically
say it will be a few decades before they reach the catwalk scene!!
Carl is
working on designs which will be used to brighten the pre-school area. Work
will commence on completion of the library space. Designs for a mural will also
start on the entrance steps and walls to the centre providing a positive
greeting to the children and parents who attend.
We are also working
on a number of innovative ideas for new workshops in the future including a
collaboration with a British artist who works with sound and a contemporary glass
company. If anyone has an aspirational workshop idea and feel you would like to
share your skills and guidance with us we would love to hear from you so please
get in touch.
Outside of
The TEA Project life is Kandy continues to become more familiar and feel like
home.
Racheal and
new friend Kylie (no, not that one) have somehow managed to find the time to
start a weekly toddlers group and Asia-Lilly may start nursery in December
which will enable us to work together more during the day which we are finding
is essential. Rumours of a snooker club in town have surfaced offering Carl
with an opportunity of 'exercise' with new compadre 'Rotherham Al'. Kyan is liking school more & more and has quite a
group of friends now all with mostly unpronouncable names. He has taken to
swimming like the proverbial duck and Asia-Lilly is following close behind in
his wash. We unfortunately had to say goodbye to our friend's 'the Hulses' recently
who made such a positive impact on our first few months in Sri Lanka. We would
like to thank them again for their inspirational support & real friendship
which we will continue cherish. Thank
you guys.
We are excitedly
looking forward to a visit from 'the outlaws' in 2 weeks time. Racheal's dad
and her sister Tracey and nephew Leon are arriving for a 10 day holiday. We are
looking forward to seeing some of the tourist sites that have so far eluded us
and showing them the centre and some of the work we do...but mostly we are
looking forward to the chocolate and proper coffee they have been ordered to
bring with them.
Finally we
would just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to an inspiring young man from the
UK who has recently shown his support
for The TEA Project. Theo Thomson from Clitheroe, Lancashire, organised a cake
sale at his school and helped raise the financial equivalent of 2 weeks wages
for the average Sri Lankan. We think Theo is a great role model for young
people.
Love &
respect as always.
Carl, Rach,
Kyan & Asia-Lilly. xxxx
