14th March

This is our second day of touring in Ampara. Razeen, our translator, has worked really hard at finding the places with the most needy children who could do with some comic relief - and for that we are most grateful and thank him very much. Having a well-thought-out timetable, that takes us to the most needy children, makes our work feel really worthwhile.

Audience swells

Our morning show was held in a Methodist church grounds at Thirukovil. There were about 200 children, including tsunami orphans, waiting for us, and when our van dropped us off the driver was sent to collect more children. We were expecting around 300 in total, but by the time we were about 20 minutes into the show the audience had swelled to 525!

Why was she upset?

As ever the show went really well, with the adults enjoying the event as much as the children. Towards the end of the show, I noticed a lady having what appeared to be a heated discussion with Razeen. I thought worriedly that we might have offended her in some way, so I went to investigate, but it turned out she was upset because there were more children who she wanted to come but there was no transport available. She appeared to be blaming Razeen for this. I thought this was a bit much - after all, he is only one man, and it must have taken quite some co-ordination to get this many children there! Still - you can'’t please everyone!

A deeply rewarding experience

Our afternoon show was held at a camp at Maruthamuni. If I understood Razeen correctly, this was a camp for people whose whole village had been wiped out by the tsunami - killing 3,500 people! The performance space was quite limited, but around 250 children and adults crammed in to watch the show! I was pleased to note there were a few children here with special needs - as Children's World's main work in England is in special schools - it was good to see we were reaching these children here too.

To see these people, young and old alike, who have endured such tragedy, having a laugh with us was a deeply rewarding experience! Sometimes I feel people at home might think it frivolous to spend charity money on sending entertainment to Sri Lanka when there is so much more obvious work needed in terms of rebuilding houses, fishing boats and businesses, etc. - but there are plenty of N.G.O.'’s here dealing with rebulding - but not much is happening to give the people a chance to have a laugh and maybe forget, even for just a little while, the terrible situation they have found themselves in!

I'VE JUST DONE SOME QUICK CALCULATIONS, AND SO FAR ON THIS TOUR, CHARLIE AND I HAVE DONE 16 SESSIONS (2 IN THE WEST AND 14 IN THE EAST) AND HAVE REACHED A TOTAL OF 4,620 CHILDREN, AS WELL AS A LOT OF THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS. WONDERFUL!