It's been two weeks since my training on the Isle of Coll (see photos below), and I still miss everything about it. The people, the island, the fresh air. I left on the 30th of November and spent a couple of days with my family in London. We went to a couple of Christmas markets, which made me feel very festive. And London looks amazing with all the christmas lights! They really go for it, don't they?
I continued my long trip to Coll on December 3rd. The train to Glasgow was about 5 hours, but combining it with reading, sleeping, listening to music and looking at the landscape outside (when we got into Scotland the views were incredible!) the time passed by quickly. In Glasgow I met up with a couple of the volunteers I knew from the selection course and we all got the coach to Oban together, We arrived at 9 o'clock, and it would've been more sensible to go to sleep straight away because we all had to catch the ferry to Coll at 5 o'clock the next morning, but we ended up staying up a bit too late chatting about the past 10 months and our project. Luckily the ferry provided loads of space for sleeping!
When arriving on the island we were collected by some of the Project Trust staff and were driven to the other side of the island to the Project Trust centre. All the volunteers agreed that it seemed like it was only 2 months ago since we were on selection, not 10! We were all very giggly and excited, yet we didn't know what to expect when we would arrive at the centre. Nic Smith, who drove us, could hardly bear our excitement any longer when we saw the end of a rainbow! A childhood dream come true!When arriving at the centre we all had to settle down in our rooms. I was together with my three Sri Lankan partners, Rosie (whom I'll be living with), Gemma and Josie. (from the first day onwards the three of them had very bad colds so they snored really badly in their sleep, which meant I hardly could sleep at all. But my tiredness only kicked in when I arrived back on the main land!)
We were told what to expect from training. There would be sessions about health, dealing with problems with our partner, dealing with problematic children, learning more about the culture, learning how to teach, and many other things. Our first day wasn't too busy, but the following three days were packed from 9 o'clock in the morning until 10 in the evening! It didn't feel nice to constantly be inside, so whenever we got the opportunity (we usually tried to eat our lunch very quickly, so we would have about half an hour free time) we got outside to have a quick walk. The first day we went up onto one of the cliffs and the sea below uswas very active and it just felt really epic to stand looking out onto a wild and choppy sea.
So, more about the course. In all the sessions the staff tried to apply different teaching styles, so we could get inspiration from it. I enjoyed the sessions we had with our Desk Officer the most. We would sit together with all 4 Sri Lankan volunteers and an Indian volunteer, Jess. It was important that we get to know our Desk Officer, Jonny, well, because if we're in trouble or need any kind of help, he will be the first one we should contact. We talked about our expectations and fears about the country, we learned more about the culture and religion. Jonny warned us that we would get many marriage proposals if we went to the city, and that pointing your feet to someone (when you're sitting down in a relaxed way you might not notice that your feet are pointing to someone) is highly offensive! We did a lot of sessions on teaching, and we ourselves had to prepare 2 lessons (that's why the days were usually packed until 10 o'clock). The first lesson I did had to be 10 minutes and I taught the other volunteers how to introduce themselves in Dutch. It went alright, but I did feel a bit nervous. I also should have timed it more, because I finished two minutes earlier. I didn't expect them to learn so quickly! But while observing the other volunteers and receiving tips from the staff I made a lot of notes and did much better the next day. This time the lesson was about describing people and it had to be 20 minutes. It went really well and now I feel a lot more confident about teaching in Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka we will have to eat with our hands. Food with te right hand, drink with the left! One evening we ate our supper with our hands. Having rice and falafels was fine and actually a lot of fun, but it got a lot more unpleasant when we had our ice cream for dessert!
All in all the sessions were long and hard, but a lot of fun as well.
Before training I didn't know too much about my project, because my Desk Officer was in Sri Lanka and China to arrange them. But he has been able to tell us quite a lot during training.
I will be working and living in a big village called Mirigama, in the Western Province of Sri Lanka (I told everyone that I would be going to Galle, but I was wrong, the other volunteers will be going there). I will be teaching English in two schools, when we're there we'll have to talk about which age we would like to teach. And in the afternoons I will probably get involved in social and charitable ventures. Again this will have to be talked about on arrival. Throughout the week my partner and I will have to cook for ourselves, but in the weekends we were welcomed by our hosts. We have seen pictures of our accomodation and it looks very nice. Quite spacious, but apparantly the people in the neighbourhood will just come in and settle down with you for an evening. It's rather small, but very cosy. Jonny showed us a picture of the garden which was absolutely amazing, it's full of pineapple bushes. And when we thought it couldn't get any better he pointed out an elephant!!! (it was a really big backyard). He said that he thinks one of the people who lives on the same estate might own it, so that means we sort of have a pet elephant! I haven't been able to get hold of these pictures, but next month you will all be able to see mine!
To close off the training we had a formal reception. The boys and girls all got dressed up, Gemma was very happy to do my hair and we all had time to get group photos of all of us together.
When the reception was over we had a lovely dinner. The only bad thing was that the acoustics in the dining room were so bad we all had to shout to the people sitting next to us. We all gave a short speech to thank the staff and they did so in return as well.
After having filled our stomachs and had a couple of glasses of wine, it was time for the ceilidh! This is a traditional Scottish dance which we also did at the selection course. This was definitely the moment I was looking forward to most! It all went much easier than last time. Last year we even had a session at the beginning of the week to teach us some of the dances, and even then everyone was stumbling over eachothers feet on ceilidh night. This time everything went perfect!
So after two hours of ceilidh dancing we danced to other music and had a really good time together.
This week was definitely one of the best weeks of my life, and has prepared me and made me really excited for probably some of the best months of my life. All thanks to the staff not treating us like the nth group of volunteers who come in for their training, but just as individuals wanting to get to know us, and thanks to all of the other wonderful volunteers, having been able to bond with them much more since selection.
Yesterday I also heard I will be leaving on the 18th of January! Time to start counting down!
Hope you all have a very very happy Christmas and wonderful new year!
