Teaching - SRI LANKA Daily Life

School

8.00 am - 2.00 pm

The school day begins at 8am with prayers from the resident monk, during which time you should sign yourself into the volunteer's book in the principle's office, then sit in the office and stare reproachfully at the vice-principle, until he notices you and utters one of the few useful words of English he knows: "Timetable?" You nod your head eagerly, and he'll keep you in suspense for a few minutes and then write one out for you. If you want to only teach the older classes, or have a horror of 6B then you can normally convey this to him by carefully calculated shakings of head, or just crossing the relevant classes out. In a full day of 8 periods (40 min slots) most volunteers chose to teach around 5. The actual teaching starts at 8.20am, and there is a break from 11.00-11.15am. Ultimately you have a large amount of flexibility concerning what you teach and where you go, and the staff seem quite flexible about it - just try to tell the vice-principal what you're doing, if possible using only hand-gestures and the word 'timetable.' If you have problems with this, find an English teacher to translate for you. Incidentally, if you have a free period with some time on your hands you can go to the staffroom and chat with the other teachers, not the most exciting of pastimes, but they're all desperate to improve their conversational English, (as is every other Sri Lankan) and they'll really appreciate it.

Free Time

12.00 noon - 3.00 pm

Most volunteers return to their host family for lunch, and then use their free time to go to the internet/Blue Water/Market etc. Most of the volunteers in the local area meet up at the Blue Water for lunch and a swim. The Blue Water is a 5* hotel south of town, that lets non-guests use the pool for 250 Rs, or you can buy a three month membership for 3,000 Rs which gets you free use of the pool, gym and 15% off all food and drinks.

Tsunami camp

3.00 pm - 4.00 pm

Volunteers from the local area tend to go along to Pinwatha tsunami relief camp (about halfway between the Blue Water and Panadura town) in the afternoons to help run a kids club. When there are lots of volunteers in the area sometimes they have a rota, so you don't need to feel like you must go everyday, but it's a great way to spend an afternoon!