All good things must come to an end
So to start with I want to apologise for the late update, I unfortunately picked up a bug in Sri Lanka and so have been laid in bed since I got home. But I am finally on the mend :) and just so grateful that I didn't start to feel unwell until my last day so it didn't spoil my trip!
My last day was incredible, I went to the children's centre to say my final goodbyes and thank them for having me for the past two weeks. All the teachers and children gathered round to thank me and prayed for me and blessed me for coming to help them! It was actually really emotional, which I really didn't expect to feel, as I hadn't been there for that long. It's amazing how involved you can feel after just two weeks. I gave Atali a present of my nail varnishes, a nail file, some nail varnish remover and a dotting tool. She seemed over the moon, I said thank you to her mum and dad, who are the owners. I gave all the teachers big hugs. It was just a beautiful way to say goodbye to everyone and so unexpected. I will never forget that.
In the afternoon all the girls that I had spent my weekends with came to Mount Lavinia to say goodbye, it was a pretty stormy day so we went out for coffee and cake and literally spent hours chatting and laughing. I am really going to miss these girls, to say two weeks ago I never knew they existed, I feel like I have known them for years, we all got on so well! You would never think that we were from different countries, with completely different backgrounds and different ages. It has taught me so much! In the evening me and Ida treat our host brothers to pizza for tea and we all sat round watching a film.
Its strange to start with I thought I was going to struggle, I thought the two weeks may even go quite slowly or be difficult but by the end it had flown by. I can safely say it was the best experience of my life!
Arriving in Sri Lanka and suddenly realising I had flown across the world to do this... alone!
First meeting my host dad who was so friendly and welcoming
The way the fan followed us around the host house because they didn't want us to be too warm
Playing in the ball pit with one of the children and him giggling and smiling so much
Atalis face when I first painted her nails
Having a leech stuck to my arm... and my embarrassing freak out because of this!
Swimming in the rainforest!
Everyone being obsessed with my white skin... including Ida who said she had literally never seen anyone as pale as me!
Fascinating the girls with words like Brolly and Dawdling
Us all singing to nouties songs in the minibus
Fitting five of us in one tuk tuk!
For anyone out there who is thinking of trying an experience like this, go for it! I have no negatives to say, yes it is hard work it's not really a holiday but it is the most rewarding thing you can do, you will make good friends and have so many laughs. Some of the realisations will make you cry. A lot of people thought I was mad just going for two weeks, that it wasn't enough time, but every minute of your time that you can give is worth it and I think I have proved you can do a lot in two weeks. I managed to see half of Sri Lanka, even if I did spend a lot of time sleeping on buses and I made some children smile and hopefully made a little bit of a difference to their lives!
So thank you for all who have followed this adventure and a huge thank you again to all those who donated and sponsored me! Also a big thank you to Theo and Mollie who are one of my customers two beautiful children who went through their books and gave me loads to take with me, those books have started a library for disadvantaged children!
I hope you enjoy the pictures and until next time, keep dreaming and keep smiling!
