For siblings, I only have two brothers. So when my friends tell stories about their sisters I always imagined it would have been fun to have grown up with a sister.
How we first got to know of this specific children’s home is another story. For the Batch Queen contest that is held annually in the faculty of science, we invited Mrs. Faith Landers as a member of the judge panel, considering her experience of having represented Sri Lanka as Ms. Sri Lanka in 2008. She asked us as a favour, if we can help out the little kids in Tudawe Children’s development centre by spending a day with them. We were more than delighted to help.
When we first arrived at the Thudawe Children’s development centre, it was about 2.30pm. The little kids were already in a small hall that was the size of a general classroom. All 29 of them were seated nicely in rows of chairs. I was amazed on how well behaved they were.
We started off with Bhasura asking the names of the little girls and the grades they were in. They replied very shyly, then it was our turn to introduce ourselves. Although they were a bit confused when we said our grade was either 3rd or 2nd.
After we were all past that initial awkwardness, everyone got into singing. I was amazed at how forward they were. Because the moment we ask a girl to sing, she would without hesitation, start singing. There were two little girls who showed us how talented they were at dancing too. I imagined what someone would have to go through to convince me to sing.
After everyone was comfortable and dust was starting to settle, we brought out what we had planned for the evening. When we thought of coming to the children’s home, we wanted to make sure that we add some science flavour, and also to make them interested in science and one day invent great things. That was the plan.
So we planned to make elephant toothpaste, a chemistry experiment that gives out lot of foam which looks like toothpaste, a very simple experiment. But what managed to prove was Murphy’s Law. All the same the kids had a good laugh at the failed experiment and of course at Warren’s silly jokes. Hopefully we proved that science is fun, even when things do not go as planned?
After that we had Sahan with his Card magic tricks. He had me wondering how he guessed the card every time, but the kids were smarter than me. Sahan was no match for them because they guessed correctly (I believe) every single time.
We also had a great support from the Batch Queen committee too. Weeks before they went around in Pettah arguing what’s best to give to kids. And now it was time to give those gifts to the kids and say good byes. And amazing day has come to an end.
When we were walking out of the gates, what we felt was, one day wasn’t enough. But that day or half a day rather, was packed with fun, laughter and bit of education would be remembered by us and those little kids for a long time.
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