UN Day

The UN was celebrating its 61st birthday and an event at a local school had been organized. I turned up about midday, watched some speeches and dancing, and then on my way to the lunch tent was approached by Saroja and friend. It turns out the friend had organized a peace game but it had been decided the game wouldn’t work. So could I think of something? Bear in mind the place is heaving, 400 kids and parent, teachers, INGO’s etc. no pressure.
I had my lunch trying desperately to think of something appropriate. All the activities I could think of needed equipment of some sort. I thought of one with 2 hoops but there weren’t any and the school was in a remote location so couldn’t get a couple of bicycle tyres. Anyway I then tried ringing FCE to get the truck to bring my walking planks out, no luck the truck was being used, and then Bob from IOM offered me a driver so I headed back to Ampara.
We got to our office and I went to get the kit, it had been hidden behind several bicycles and under lots of newspapers and other assorted junk. I got the planks out and loaded them on the vehicle, and then I noticed 2 of the blue ropes were missing! Typical somebody had taken them off to use for something else, we managed to find them and headed off. The ropes go through holes in the planks and were hell to fit in the first place, very tight. I managed to fit one rope while the driver went to get some more food in Ampara. Then I fitted the other rope back at the school with seconds to spare.
The parents were watching me while the children played musical chairs, so they came over and started playing with the planks, in the end we couldn’t get the parents off so had to let them have a go first to show the kids what to do. I tried to get some photos but the crowd just surrounded the activity so not much chance.
The activity went down well though as they put different ethnicity's on each team, peace building!

UN Day

Ampara Tank

Shades of Pinky

Well now the rainy season has arrived and it’s a little cooler it seems my neighbours have decided the house may be getting too hot. I haven’t complained, it is in fact a cool house so quite comfortable. It would be quite light if the neighbours didn’t keep shutting the windows. Anyway the new sun blinds are up, plastic and cotton ones so no chance of any sunshine in the afternoons now. I didn’t ask and wasn’t consulted, as for the guy putting them up, check out the ladder, nice man but takes a few risks.
Just a note about the heavy rain, it is common practise here for the cows, goats etc to wander the streets and of course there are cow pats on the roads. During the dry season they just dry and turn to dust and blow away. However in the wet the roads just become covered in slurry. You have to roll your trousers up then wash your legs when you get home as you get covered! Smells bad!

There's nowt like a cuppa

Peace Prayers

Sunday morning at the Japenese Peace Temple outside Ampara, a peace meeting intended for the youth of Ampara District. Unfortunately it's now the rainy season so had to be under cover as it rained first thing. I arrived a bit late as it was raining and I am on my Motorbike.

Lego Tower the Results

Everyone dashed off again and began building. As I walked around it became evident that one team was ahead of the game, others had got stuck with foundations, not being aware of the time, or not really understanding what was meant by a tower.
At the end of the build time we stopped everybody and I got my tape out, it wasn’t really necessary it was obvious who had won. I measured anyway as I need the info for another version of the exercise, the winning build 138mm high. The winning team was led by Vithy who was very pleased about it as you can see.
It seems everybody enjoyed themselves and the messages of planning, teamwork, delegation, time management seem to be appreciated. We’ll see what happens when we do the next bit of activity based training.

Lego Tower Construction

I give the start planning instruction after pointing out four areas of the office to use for planning, immediately two teams head outside! Not part of the plan.
I just go with the flow and walk round all the teams checking they know what to do as nobody asked any questions so far. I also gave some time to go advice as nobody seemed to be checking the time. It is also fairly obvious that Lego bricks are a new experience for some and the novelty value is more interesting than the task.
At the end of the planning I got all the buckets back and checked the bricks to see they were all separated, sure enough some were still pieced together. I separated the bricks then gave the 5 minutes to build signal.

Lego Tower Planning

I was planning to do a short training exercise after the weekly staff meeting. This was planned for Monday about 12- 12.30, however I was told that the staff meeting would be on Wednesday. On Tuesday when I was talking about the training I am told the staff meeting is now Thursday. Anyway on Thursday I turn up at work with a big bag and my 4 buckets of Lego bricks. After the meeting I get the staff sorting themselves into 4 teams every time we get the teams sorted more people want to join in.
Finally four teams are sorted and I give them 3 minutes to choose a leader, I also ensure there is an English speaker in each team.
When the leaders are chosen I give them the leader instructions and point out the timings I have written on a board, 15 minutes to plan, 5 minutes to build. This is the basic tower version, just build the highest tower you can in the time allowed, tallest wins.

Hooded Cobra

Whilst chatting to a neighbour I noticed a snake slide under a bush, I only saw the tail end, my neighbour said it was a cobra. His father in law came out and started to poke about in the bush. He then lit a piece of sack soaked in kerosene and poked about with that. No sign of the snake so he chopped the bush down and started to burn it, all the time barefoot! The snake never showed out of the bush. However an hour or so later it appeared at the back of the house, so did half the neighbours, the snake went into a bush again but this time made a run for it when the poking about began. The dog was barking at it, so the snake turned and did the whole hooded cobra bit, I took a couple of photos till it headed my way.
Last I know the snake had hidden in some bricks, I went out, a safe option if I had stayed then the safest place was on top of the garden wall as demonstrated by the little girl.
It turns out that the snake had started the day three houses away and was been chased house to house?

Nursery School over the road

I was setting off to work Friday morning when the lady from the nursery/primary school over the road came and said they were having an open day. I asked when, she said NOW. So I went to have a look, this is how it works in Sri Lanka, things happen and the first you know is when they start, you are expected to fit things in.
I was impressed with the work all 3-5 years, made from yogurt cartons, straws, dried seeds, very blue peter. I was the first visitor, will now save my yogurt pots for them.

Wild Dogs

There are lots of dogs here, few in good condition, most have mange, I am sure all have fleas. I am sure you would be doing most a favour if you put them down as they have really bad injuries, diseases and sores. They wander about out of control and are just ignored most of the time. At night they can be really noisy, howling and barking, nobody seems to mind. A few of the INGO’s seem to adopt the dogs whilst they are here, although what happens when they go I am not sure. After being woken up last night by a pack howling I wasn’t too sympathetic when an email was circulated from the German INGO, HELP, saying they had lost theirs, including a picture!

Termites finally arrive

Well the termites finally found where I live and invaded with enthusiasm. They politely come in through the front door, under it actually, go the length of the lounge, and into the kitchen, a distance of 40 ft. They are into everything, especially ginger biscuits and the bin bag, they are tiny but hunt in such large numbers it’s quite impressive. I haven’t tried to kill them off, just thrown out the food they got into and check everything regularly.

Lego arrives at last

The tables and chairs I spent a whole afternoon creating for the production line training task.
Four buckets of bricks for the tower building task.

Japanese Peace Temple at Dusk