Dear Sarath,

Ayubowen!  I have just returned from Sri Lanka!  I spent 10 days there with 15 other teachers - and I LOVED it!  The natural beauty, friendly people, culture, and historical sites are simply incredible.   I visited Kandalama, Kandy, Pinawala, Wadduwah, and Columbo - during the SAARC conference.  Unfortunately I had to spend 5 of my 10 days in Durdans Hospital with a nasty infection (from India) so I missed some incredible parts of the trip: Mihintale, Dambulla, and Anahurdapura (spelling?).  Darn it... I'll have to go back!!!

Do you have any students who would like to email with my grade 7 students?  We start school on September 2nd.  

Sincerely, 
Mary 

Dear Mary, Thanks for your mail. I am really glad to read your mail and have you as a friend. Though we live in two corner of the world, it matters nothing as we are able to exchange our ideas. Now we have three: Joanna, you and myself. I am overjoyed to hear that you wish to come to Sri Lanka with your students. True, what you always hear about Sri Lanka is not pleasant as we seldom hear pleasant things. The conflict is confined to two districts in the North Province. Other parts of the country is very peaceful except one or two rare incidents. Such incidents are possible wherever it is. I sincerly suggest you that it's really worth for the students and you to spend your 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. You can see a lot. I'm sure you'll never forget those two weeks. Sri Lanka (pearl of the Indian Ocean) is rich in natural beauty, historical places and cultural events. Come and see for yourself, dear friend. If you want to know more about anything about Sri Lanka, please ask. It is a pleasure to help someone. Yours sincerely, Sarath Jayaratne.

Dear Joanna AND Sarath, I am Mary Hebert, a middle school English teacher in Maine, USA. I have been using epals for 2 years to connect my 7th grade students with epals in Japan, as I visited there in 2005 and we do a big unit called Journey to Japan. But later this month I am traveling to India for 4 weeks and Sri Lanka for 2 weeks - the first 2 weeks of August. I am fearful of Sri Lanka as all we hear in the USA is Travel Warnings due to rebel attacks! This would be very exciting for me to be able to learn more about Sri Lanka from you Sarath, before I go. And Joanna - I am 25% Polish! My grandmother left Krakow in 1915. Apparently her family was very poor and she thought the streets were paved with gold here in the US. I am always asking my mom to take a trip to Poland as I am intensely curious about my roots, but she is not too interested. I'm sorry to pop into your semi-private conversations, but I would love to communicate more with both of you. Sincerely, Mary

Dear Joanna, I'm very glad to read your letter. How wonderful it is to be friends like this and exchange ideas! I loved to read the seasons about your country. In fact I have prepared a Power Point presentation to explain those seasons to my students. Here, the students cannot think of them as they experince nearly 12 hours sunny day time and 12 hour warm nights. They see snow on films and on TV only. To find out more about the place I live, could you please type 'Malakariya' on any seach engines. And then you get 'Sarath/Malakariya Google Satellite Maps'(maplandia.com). Click there and you'll learn more. There are place marks too. Click and see them, Tell me what you found in your next mail. Next Saturday the 10th, the president of Maldives is visiting my school. I'll tell you more about me, Sri Lanka and Maldives later. I am waiting for an early reply. Take care. Thanks Sarath Jayaratne

Dear Sarath, I'm very happy each time I get an email from you:). Altough my oldest students have already graduated and are taking their final exams at present I'm still working till 20th June (when our summer holidays start). For you it must be a wondeful experience to travel and work in another country - now Maledives... Do you like living there? Is it much different from your place of living in Sri Lanka? Have you taught in any other countries before? For me both Maledives and Sri Lanka sound so exotic and encouraging... I envy you the hot climate, the nature, magnificent views... I'd love to go there on holidays one day... In Poland we have 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In summer it can be quite warm or even hot (up to 27-30 centigrade), in winter it snows sometimes and the temperature drops below 0 centigrade (2 years ago it reached even -20 centigrade). It used to snow a lot a few years ago but due to climate changes also this changes. This winter we almost had no snow at all! I'd like to tell you more about myself and I'm still waiting for your email account to start working. Hopefully it will. Lots of love, Joanna

Dear Joanna, It's ok and now I understand why I had to wait for many days to hear from you. By now, you must be very busy in preparing your students. In two weeks time my students too sit for their first term test. Today (Friday), though a holiday here, I spent much time in setting questions for grade 6 and 7. Still it is not over. Whenever you get some free time, please mail me. I am waiting. Still my epal account doesn't work well. Will you get a vacation once your students finish their exam? Feel free to ask anything about Sri Lanka or Maldives. I am pleased to answer. I am waiting for a reply. Sarath

Dear Sarath, I'm sorry it took me so long to write you back but I'm just overwhelmed with work. Some of my students are taking their final exams in May and I'm involved in many different preparations, conferences, etc. In Poland from 1st to 3rd May we have a public holiday so I'm going to have a few days off - frankly speaking I just can't wait... I promise I'll write soon again. Best wishes, Joanna

Dear Joanna, Thanks for your letter. It was really nice to hear from you. I checked mail yesterday too to see whether there was a mail from you but there wasn't. I tried as you said but my ePals account still doesn't open. Someone from Brazil too has sent a mail to my ePals account but I couldn't read it. So Joanna, you have been the only one I am connected with through this service. So now you are a special person to me although you are far away from me. Now I exactly know where you live. I searched 'Kotawice' and had a close arial view. It really is a crowded place with lots of roads and less trees. You too can do the same and see my village 'Malakariya'. Not only that, there I have added two place marks on it. If you read them you'll find an easy access to me. Here in my school I am preparing my students to Cambridge IGCSE. This year I am teaching students in Grade 6 and 7. They sit for their exam when they are in Grade 10. My students are very interested in learning English. Best wishes to you too. Hope you'll reply soon. Sarath Jayaratne

Dear Sarath, It's great to hear from you! I'm also quite new at ePals. I signed in just a couple of weeks ago. However, I've already spent so much time using this service that I've got used to using it without as many problems as at the beginning :). I'm very interested in the place you live, your house, job - everything. I live in Katowice, in the south of Poland. It's rather an industrial city, or at least it used to be some time ago. I hope you'll finally manage to send emails from your ePals account (or maybe another one?) and we will be able to share more information and details about each other :) Hope to hear from you again. Best wishes, Joanna

Dear Joanna, How nice it is to hear from you again. I will try to make it work. I am very new to this ePals web system. However we have met and now we are helping each other, aren't we? My house in Sri Lanka is situated in a small village called 'Malakariya'. You can just type the name on google search and find where it is. Do you like to see where my house is? I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon. Sarath Jayaratne

Hello Sarath, I had the same problem some time ago. I don't exactly remember what I did to make it work but I know that some piece of information was missing in my Profile, that's why I couldn't open my ePals email. Try to follow the instructions carefully and finally you'll succeed. Best regards, Joanna P.S. Hope to hear from you soon!

Hi, Joanna, I was very happy to read your mail. You have suggested to use our own ePals mail accounts. I like your idea. But Joanna, I find it difficult to open my ePal mails. Every time I try to open it, I am asked to update my profile. Maybe I am not aware of the exact procedure. Can you help me with this? I am looking forward to hearing from you very soon. Aubowan Joanna! (Our way of greeting. It means 'may you live long.) Sarath Jayaratne

Hi Sarath, It was great to hear from you! Don't you think it would be a good idea to exchange our ideas through our private epals email accounts? Mine is: joannabanas@epals.com. Looking forward to hearing from you and I promise I'll write something about myself in the next email :). Kind regards, Joanna

Dear Joanna, Thanks for your reply. I like very much to exchange ideas with you. Well I know a little about Poland. I'd like to know about you and the area you live. At present I am teaching English at a government school in Maldives. I came here in January initially for one year contract. I got overseas leave from my school in Sri Lanka. My house is near the unique Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Rambukkana, Sri Lanka. Have you ever visited Sri Lanka? I got my National Dip in Education and became a teacher. Later I did my BEd degree in English. Now I am 34 years old. So, Joanna, I will tell you more about me in my next mail. Please tell me about you too. Sarath Jayaratne

Hello. My name's Joanna. I teach English in a secondary school in Poland. If interested in exchanging experiences, please, contact me. joannabanas@epals.com