Thursday 10th October 2024

We were due to move across to the Junior Department today, but they were still heavily involved with their concert performances, so we were back in the Pre-Primary Department for one final day, with a much lighter programme. In fact, we started with one of the Upper Kintergarten classes performing a Class Assembly in the auditorium on the top floor of the building, which was delightful. They even got us to give out some awards to the children.

At the end of yesterday's concert performance in the Town Hall, and at the end of the Class Assembly this morning, everyone stood for the Sri Lankan national anthem. I don't know if it is the longest national anthem in the world, but it must be high up there. The children certainly sang it with gusto, and their enthusiasm was quite infectious. I think having us around is really quite a novelty for them, and we are warmly greeted wherever we go in the school.

There were queues of people wanting to say goodbye to us at the end of the day - each group with beautifully hand-made cards, which was very humbling, as we were only with the Pre-Primary Department for 4 days. There is such a generosity of spirit here in Sri Lanka, which is one of the things I love about the people. I will miss the Pre-Primary Department, but we are needed in the Junior Department, which is more our area of expertise anyway.

After school we went shopping for a list of various things that we wanted for the apartment, including a drying rack for clothes, and a line and some little pegs for hanging up all the thankyou cards we received today. The main shop though was for clothes, and we spent a very long time in a Kurunegala batik shop, so that Valerie could buy a few dresses for school, although I did buy a couple of shirts and a sarong to wear at Sri Lankan weddings for me!

Today's photos are from the lovely Class Assembly we saw this morning, the farewell to one of the teaching teams at the Pre-Primary Department (because all Sri Lankans just love a good photo opportunity) and me hanging up all the lovely thankyou cards in the evening.









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