Last day in Galle

Teaching in Galle

On Saturday we went Saree shopping in Galle.  (You can read "Uncle Ted's" description of that experience in another post.). We wore those sarees on Monday when we visited another school in Galle.  

We began the morning by going to a salon where they dressed us and we made the unfortunate mistake of accepting their offer to do our makeup.  I can only compare the final makeovers to that of 3 call girls.  (No close up photos were taken due to the atrocity, but I can give you a brief description.). If you know me (Erica), I am very fair in complexion.  My eyebrows were painted black!  I felt like a circus clown!  It was bad!

Getting dressed in the saree was also quite the experience.  They use about 20 pins to keep the saree in place. The saree is slightly uncomfortable and shows off your side and belly.  I was personally very uncomfortable both wearing the saree and with the awful makeup.  But the teachers and principal at the school seemed to enjoy the fact that we were wearing them!  (The traditional dress of teachers in Sri Lanka is to wear a saree, so we thought  we'd try them out.). The saree experience was very uncomfortable for me (probably because I was very self conscious of all that makeup and you could see my belly!) so I'll honestly admit that I wasn't as present at this school.  But it was a good experience for all of us! 

The teachers here asked us to teach a lesson.  We threw together a morning meeting and co-taught it together!  It was brilliant! 

Lexie captured this beautiful moment that really showcases the partnership we were striving for with this project!

On the way home...

After we got back (and I wiped all traces of that makeup off my face), we boarded a train to return to Colombo.

The plan was for me to get down (The Sri Lankan way of saying get off) at a different station from everyone else.  My host lived closer to a different station than the one in Colombo.  The plan was for Ted to get down with me and make sure I connected with my host.  

We got down onto the platform and literally had 3-4 minutes where we frantically searched for my host.  He was nowhere to be found so when the train started to move again Ted told me to get back on!  (It should be noted I also had my suit case in hand and had to jump back on the slowly moving train!)

As the train began to pick up speed, Ted spotted my host running down the platform.  He turns to me and says:  "Can you hop off?"  

Um....no I'm not jumping off a moving train!  Are you crazy????? :). 

It wasn't funny at the time, but now I just giggle at the absurdity of it all!  We got home in one piece (barely!) and spent a relaxing evening with our host families.