OceanStars :: Sunday 26th October 2025 :: Latest Blog Posts
Today was a much-needed day off. Breakfast at 9 - bliss! And the waiters know our orders now and bring them almost before we've sat down, making me feel most at home.
In the morning, George, Helen and I focused on relaxing which was an aim we achieved well despite a sombre drive through the tsunami-affected stretch of beaches. In amongst the monuments and cemetery were the odd collapsed well or in one place just a flight of steps up to a house that was no longer there. We felt the sadness and desolation. But Batticaloa is also moving on, with plenty of hotels now being built in this area too and the price of this land rising as its potential is being realised. Sudha also took us round some tiny shops selling clothes, material, flipflops, plastic chairs and children's toys and some colourful signage and garlands of flowers and we said a quick hello to the golden statue of Gandhi too.
Then it was back to the office for a quick meet up and a chat with Amali who arrived late last night and has now already completed her first session on future strategies with the OSL office team - such impressive stamina!, followed by a rest at the hotel (also involving some divvying up of our resources for the week) before we all piled in the van - Sudha introducing some of us to another wild Sri Lankan fruit 'Nelly' which was sour piquant and unforgettable! Then we congregated in a reception hall for a reunion with Calthorpe school - all looking relaxed and at home, and teachers and students from the various schools they will be visiting as well as the Beyond Boundaries travel team.
We filled the hall - so many of us and, as Dilanee and some of the secondary school teachers pointed out to me, so many young Sri Lankan students to benefit next week from mixing with native English speakers, which they never otherwise get to do.
We chatted, sang happy birthday to Chitra the OSL office manager - 70 years old! And we did not one but two lots of Hokey Cokey accompanied by Ross' ukulele and Gihan's roaring encouragement. It was also great to have a chat with Lorna, who will be a lovely lively addition to team 2.
By the end of all that, I felt very ready to go into the preschools next week, possibly helped by a few tiny scraps of Tamil for which Helen has led the way in learning useful phrases like 'very hungry caterpillar'.
Back to the hotel for a quick swim for some of us and then out to dinner. All good stuff and lovely to think our team is nearly complete. Only one more person to arrive tomorrow...
