mattaCOOLiya!

hello hello!

we are here in the beautiful country of sri lanka! right now it is POURING outside, and we are sitting in the lobby of a hotel. we just got back from Mattakkuliya ("Center of Hope"). ahh we love it there! it is a place where 3-5 year old kids come in the morning for school, and then older kids (6-16) come in the afternoon for a meal and to hang out with each other and learn basic skills like sewing, English, cooking, and computer skills. the older kids come from very broken families, and so Mattakkuliya is a place where they can just relax, play, be hugged, and simply be kids. we all really loved seeing the joy on their faces from just playing tag and taking pictures (they are fascinated by our technology). we have gone for the past two days and plan on going back as much as possible!

 

oh, just a little taste of what our hotel is like: there was a dead lizard in our trash can when we got there. oh, and a live one in our closet. good times. our rooms are very interesting, to say the least. no air conditioning, toilets that produce strange sounds for hours on end, creatures in our beds, tropical plantlife right outside our window, birds that enjoy singing to us at 3 AM...gotta love it! 

 

adjusting to the new culture has been quite the adventure.

 

some things that are going to take some getting used to:

-extremely hot and humid weather (we sweat all day...every day.)

-drivers that don't believe in lanes, personal space, or pedestrian right of way

-food so spicy that our noses run and we sweat even more

-they don't believe in utensils...so our hands have become our forks

-squatty potties...enough said

-soldiers on every corner inspecting our van...they are very friendly, but the fact that they all have semi-automatic guns is a little intimidating.

 

and here is a taste of what we are going to be doing within the next few weeks:

-tomorrow we will split up and stay in host homes for the night to get a little sampler of what it is like to be a sri lankan

-we're going to cook for the kids and the center and visit their homes to really experience the extent of their impoverished life

-we are going to plant a garden for the elderly. that shall be thrilling!!!

-in about two weeks we will be venturing up to kandy, a city in central sri lanka, where we will visit an elephant orphanage and a tea garden. it will serve as some rest and relaxation in the middle of our trip

-we're going to visit galle, which is the southern portion of the country that was heavily affected by the tsunami

-we will be teaching the kids at Mattakkuliya english using the EFL (english as a foreign language) technique

-we will be utilizing Evangicubes and the JESUS film to share the Good News with the local people

-we will be "storying" (acting out Bible stories) to both the elderly and the children

 

melissa: tell them we taught the kids the macarena today.

heather: okay.

melissa: and tell them we tried to learn the native sri lankan dance. but we weren't very successful.

 

heather: emily do you want to put a quote in?

emily: no.

 

that's our team for ya...

 

alright the hotel men are yelling at us for sitting on the floor of the lobby...sorry, we have to jet! we'll update you all next time we have the opportunity.

 

currently the internet is not our friend...so we have a ton of great pictures, but it's deciding not to let us upload them. fret not, we will get those to you as soon as possible! sorry this post is so text-heavy...but we think you all will appreciate it and read it. hopefully.

CHAI HO!