Sri Lanka Itinerary – Southern Team – The Blue Bucket Play Friends

Team Members

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Anne Stewart– APT Playmate and South Team Leader
Pat Clark– APT Playmate Karen Renzema – APT Playmate
Surangani Ginige - Translator
Kamari de Silva – Translator
Margaret de Silva - Translator
K.G. Jayatissa – Driver

2/3-2/6/05 Thursday – Sunday

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Travel from Harrisonburg, Virginia to LA - Singapore – Colombo, Sri Lanka
In Singapore- Tour and visit Thian Hock Keng Temple in China Town, Sri Mariamman Temple, and Al-Abrar Mosque

2/7/05 Monday

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Cultural training by Operation USA staff
Briefing from Team 1
Travel from Colombo to Galle Visit - Buddhist Orphanage (30+ children and their caregivers)
We played songs on the guitar, did a puppet show, blew bubbles, and tossed balls with the children.
The entrance to the orphanage was guarded by young men with machine guns. We encountered a few check points with armed guards but the team in the east was stopped by many more. Surangani had obtained permission for us to visit the sites with worked with and occasionally government officials accompanied us on the visits. This seemed a very appropriate protective measure for the children and families we were seeing.

2/8/05 Tuesday

Visit - Ginthota Camp (IDH Preschool Camp) (40 children, caregivers, and teachers)
We approached a camp consisting of tens of bright blue tents on ridge about 300 yards from the ocean. In the space between the ridge and the ocean, we were told, was where their homes, orchards, and gardens once stood. All this was destroyed in the tsunami and the families now live in the tents. Because of the embankment many people were able to get away from the tsunami, but we were told at least two children died from this neighborhood.
The teacher said she needed a fan and a small cook stove and grain. She reported that the children receive food once a day, but do not like the taste, saying, ‘It does not have their mother’s spices.’ The teacher would like to cook a more traditional breakfast for the children. We purchased the fan, stove (from friends of Pat Clark) and grain (Mustafa (11 years old) and Abbas Abid (8 years old) and Hannah (10 years old) and Zander Pellegrino (11 years old) donated their own money to purchase items for children in Sri Lanka. I call these Children to Children purchases.) and presented them to the teacher at the mayor’s office on Friday.
We sang, did a puppet show, and asked the children to draw something that helps them feel better.

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Visit - Thelwatte Camp- Buddhist monastary (We visited here again on Friday and left many materials and new balls (Children to Children gift) for the children with the monk.) (50 children, caregivers, and teachers)
This area lost over one thousand people in the tsunami and everyone now lives in the Buddhist monastery. The school was washed away and the oldest students are acting as the teachers for the younger children. We saw this protective care of the younger children many, many times in the camps and schools we visited.
We sang, did a puppet show, asked the children to name people who helped them feel better, and led the children in the "rebuilding your village" exercise. This group of children rebuilt their village with a temple, school, roads, and strong houses with sticks, leaves, and rocks.

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Visited - Weligama (30+ children, caregivers, and teachers) Young girls performed beautiful, traditional dances and surprised us with a performance of the "hokey-pokey" in English. The song was taught to them the previous week by the first APT team and they had obviously enjoyed and practiced it in anticipation of our visit. The caregivers joined in the drawing exercise and were eager to share their products. We sang, did a puppet show, asked the children to name people who support them and help them feel better, and led the children in the "rebuilding your village" exercise.
The teacher of this group used to have a small sewing factory. This and her home were destroyed. She lost her brother. She wrote a message about her experiences for us. The children from this area wrote paragraphs about themselves for us.

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The teacher and a few children gave us brief descriptions of their experiences.

Click here to read some

2/9 Wednesday

Visit - Preschool (50 children, caregivers, and teachers) We sang, did a flower growing exercise, asked the children to draw a picture, and led the children in games to increase their ability to self-regulate with a bubbles, sheet activity, and balls in the courtyard.

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Visit - Matara Camp (50 children)

Little boy sang tender song about picking flowers with his mother. (See Little Boy’s song.)

Adults seemed much more subdued and less responsive. This area has sustained a great deal of damage and loss and were displaced from their home communities. The children seemed to exhibit more trauma related symptoms; namely, were less well regulated and had a few episodes of being aggressive toward each other.

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2/10 Thursday

Visit – Preschool (60 children, caregivers, and teachers)

We bought (with Children to Children money) and delivered milk for 155 preschool children for 7 days. The children, teachers, and monks told us, “Ping!.”

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Visit - Hambantota Muslim Camp (60 children, caregivers, and teachers)

Children sang many songs and the teacher translated for us from Sengalese to Tamil.

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2/11 Friday

Conduct Training - Teachers (22) and Community Development Officers (3) Invited to meet with the mayor of Galle to discuss our work and relief efforts. Distributed grain/fan/stove at mayor’s office.

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Visit - Thelwatte Camp - Temple in the afternoon (40 children) We sang and led the children in exercises and songs with the sheet and balloons, and had great fun with the “Elephants went out to play” song.

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2/12 Saturday

Visited Mayor of Galle again in the morning. Visited Muslim camp by roadside -distributed notebook, pencil, and pen packets and playground balls. (40 children, and caregivers and leaders)

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Visited Thelwatte Camp and left materials and playground balls with the head monk.

Thelwatter Camp Photos

South Team Photos

Traveled to Colombo