Well, I´m here in Sri Lanka for one week now and I think I´ve put myself in well. Now it´s time to start with my Blog. It would probably be the best, if I start at the beginning:
After I was brought to the main station in Karlsruhe by Samuel Degen and Susanne Konrad-Nagler, I went to Frankfurt Airport by train and flew then from there stop in Doha to Colombo.
At the airport of Colombo Reverent Vipassi was already waiting for me, together with Nadun and Gayan, two of the boys of the centre. After I had a short breakfast in a small temple in Colombo, where I was offered some unknown regional fruits, we drove with a van on the highway to Matara. After we arrived at my new place, I could recover a little bit from my journey.
I was picked up with the TukTuk at the next morning, to visit the temple and the “Karlsruher Children Center” for the first time. I was lucky, because it was a Saturday, so it was class for the students. As I arrived at the centre, the students formed a corridor with flags in their hands to show me the way up to the temple. Then I visited the temple together with Reverent Vipassi and Mr. Pathirana, one of the two English teachers of the centre. After the visit of the temple, Reverent Vipassi held a speech, in which he presented me to the students. The speech was crossed by some short contributions like dances of the students. To my astonishment a little boy presented a poetry in German.
Then the students went back to their classes. And I was shown around through the classrooms to get some first impressions on the children.
The next three days I was picked up by the TukTuk. Because no students are in the centre during the week, I had not much to do, so I had time to visit another temple at the sea, to go swimming at the beach and to get my first experiences in cricket with the boys. Furthermore, I was invited for a little football game at the sports ground next to my place in the evening.
On Wednesday I had some free time in the morning. I used the time to prepare for my first lesson at the next weekend.
At the afternoon, I was picked up by the TukTuk, because that day a trip was planned. With a bus, we drove to Colombo to the “International Book Fair.”
At Thursday, I had free time, time to prepare the lesson again.
Let´s see what the next days will bring
yours Felix