18th March

Working with Teardrop Relief/Impakt Aid

So here we are back on the West coast, and back to work with Teardrop Relief/Impakt Aid. Shane was due to pick us up at 8.15, but due to problems didn’t get here till 9.45.

It's nice to be working with Teardrop/Impakt again. We were working in the grounds of a Buddist temple in Kalutara. In total we think around 100 children showed up and took part. Even though we were late setting off, we were still able to start on time at 11.00 am, which was great. The Sri Lankan volunteers at Teardrop/Impakt are so familliar now, I consider them all friends - even though I still can't pronouce all their names! After the immensely hard work with IOM on the East coast, where just Charlie and I were providing entertainment for sometimes as many as 600 children for up to 2 hours, it seemed a little strange not having to work so hard - far less children, and far less for me and Charlie to do, as all the Teardrop/Impakt workshops take up the bulk of the session time. I did a little warm-up for Charlies clown show, and that and the show went down great, and then the children were off doing other activities - face painting, badges, bouncy castle, hat making and modelling balloons were out today. No balloon modelling book (I'm sure we left one for them on the bus in December), but Shane was doing his best!)

Show cut short

Timing was a little off today, as we were told the children had to go to lessons at 2pm (on a Saturday - tough break kids!) so there was no time for the second half of Charlie's show, which was a shame, but the children didn't notice, luckily, because there was so much else for them to do.

It was an enjoyable event, but a little strange for me and Charlie as we've become so used to being responsible for an entire programme on our own. I kept having to look for things to do as the Teardrop/Impakt staff and volunteers had everything covered. They really have become a very efficient team, who work really well together and who are also able to welcome in new volunteers and treat them as old friends - fair play to them!

Arabella's itinerary says 'shopping'!

We're not due to work again until Tuesday, as Impakt don't go out again till then. Arabella wrote on our itinerary that this is the day to shop for pressies! I shall have to check my bank balance first!!!

ARABELLA SAYS:

Happy shopping boys!

I'morry there haven't been any pictures up for the last few days - Chris is struggling with how to reduce them (which she has now mastered) and how to then place them in the text (which she hasn't yet). I think we are going to have to call, yet again, on the services of our wonderful webmaster David Parsons, and get him to talk us through it.

I need to know how to do it by Monday evening, as I am off to Australia at the crack of dawn on Tuesday for 5 days for my son's wedding, and then arriving with my husband, the brilliant juggling Haggis, in Aceh on 29th March to run a Performance and Workshop Tour there for children who have suffered from the tsunami - I would really like to be able to download the pictures I take straight away and put them into the wiki diary I will be writing - it seems idiotic to send them half way round the world when I could do it myself. I am proud to say I now know how to do the text in the wiki all by myself now, and can just slip Paddy's emails in and edit them in no time at all. Not bad for a technophobe!

Haggis and I leave England Tuesday, and Paddy and Charlie don't get back till Wednesday - so we will be passing on planes in the night probably, somewhere over the Indian Ocean - how strange! I would just like to congratulate them on a job very well done - they have worked with a massive amount of children (in great heat) and have clearly given a huge amount of pleasure. Well done both of you - Children's World is proud of you!

No peace for the wicked though - they will be straight back in English primary schools for 4 days in the last week of term, 27-30 March running Children's World's new one-day workshop on "Behaviour", working with 30 children each day, helping them make a film that can be used in PSHE classes.

CHILDREN'S WORLD INTERNATIONAL WOULD LIKE TO THANK TEARDROP RELIEF AND IMPAKT AID FOR LETTING US WORK WITH THEM ON THE WEST COAST, AND IOM FOR SETTING UP SO MANY SPLENDID SESSIONS FOR PADDY AND CHARLIE ON THE EAST COAST.

WE ARE REALLY DELIGHTED THAT TEARDROP RELIEF AND IMPAKT AID HAVE PULLED THEIR RELATIONSHIP TOGETHER SINCE WE LAST WORKED WITH THEM IN DECEMBER. THEY ARE NOW WORKING REALLY WELL TOGETHER. BASICALLY TEARDROP RELIEF HAVE NOT JUST PROVIDED THE PLAYBUS, BUT ARE PROVIDING THE ALL-IMPORTANT FUNDING TO PAY FOR WORKERS WAGES, VOLUINTEER COSTS AND GENERAL RUNNING COSTS FOR THE PLAYBUS. IMPAKT AID ARE MANAGING THE PROJECT ON THE GROUND, AND WE OFFER PARTICULAR CONGRATULATIONS TO IMPAKT'S SHANE AND ARUNI - YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB. WE ARE REALLY IMPRESSED BY THE WORK THAT TEARDROP/IMPAKT ARE UNDERTAKING IN CAMPS, AND LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH THEM AGAIN IN THE FUTURE (hopefully as soon as June or July when Haggis and I are visiting Sri Lanka on a paid-for trip to help celebrate the bicentenary of the Mount Lavinia Hotel - we hope very much that Haggis will be able to perform his wonderful juggling show with Teardrop/Impakt on the West coast and with IOM on the East Coast.)