The children are watching us with curious eyes. It is difficult to concentrate on the teacher, when 15young Danes together with 20 young Sri Lankans dig holes and carry large stones of granite only a few meters away. Obviously, it is not an everyday event to see pale Europeans working with the sweat pouring off them.It is one of our first working days at the school, and we are about to turn the schoolyard into construction site. On the road outside the school is a large heap of granite stones, which we slowly move into the schoolyard. We did not have any machines to help us and only a few wheelbarrows, so most of the stones are carried all the way. It is hard work, but we spend the time by learning words in each other‘s languages. It is quite difficult for us Danes, because some wants to teach us Tamil words and some wants to teach us Singhalese words. I am beginning to appreciate, that we only have one language in Denmark.
We are going to make a new building inside the schoolyard. After the tsunami, the school received many new students, because their former school, which was situated very close to the sea, was destroyed by the tsunami. To make room for the new students, there were some temporary classrooms, but an open shed made of palm leaves or sheet metal is not enough when the monsoon sets in. 
In general, the physical conditions are very different from a Danish school. The small, worn-out chairs and tables stand close together directly on either sand or cement floor. Some places the cement is broken, so there are large holes in the middle of the classroom. Everywhere there are small pieces of garbage like paper or plastic. The school has a place for garbage in a corner behind the buildings, but not everything ends up there. Photo:srilankabrigaden 2005 The garbage place is just next to the toilets, so there is a—nice“smell, when you get near this area. Actually, I would not call it toilets. It is nothing but a hole in the earth. There is not even water for washing like the most other places we have been. Even the Sri Lankans from our brigade agree,that these toilets are very bad.
In spite of the poor settings the children are happy and smiling. They run around playingand make just as much noise as Danish school children. The most brave of them gather in small groups and say —hello“ or —what‘s your name?“ to the strange looking foreigners. When we show an interest in them,they are eager to show us their books and read tous. Every child is wearingaschool uniform. The girls lookvery descent in awhite dress,which ends just below the knees. Often their long hair is arranged in twobraids,soeven girls from the eldest grades look like small schoolgirls. The boys are wearing blue shorts and awhite t-shirt. Both boys and girls are wearingatie. In general the dif-ference in sex is marked very clearly. I don‘t think there is any room for boys playingwith dolls or girls climbingin trees. 
In the afternoon school is over,but some of the school boys come backin normal clothes tohelpus with the work. The small,slight boys are working very hard œ toohard sometimes,we thinkwith our Danish view of children‘s work. Iguess most Sri Lankan boys are used tohard workfrom an early age. But the boys alsohave time for fun. They thinkit is very amusingto get aride in the wheelbarrows œ the faster the better.
It was nice tosee that our workinspired the children todosomethingon their own. It made them apart of the project,sothe school buildingwas not only somethingthat some strangers came todofor them. Iwonder if Danish children would be willingtoworkfreely toget the opportunity togo toschool?Iguess not. In that light Danish children seem very spoiled.
 
The workwas hard and sometimes frustratingbecause of poor or missing tools and misunderstandings in the communication. Everythingtookmore time than planned,sowe didn‘t have time tofinish the school completely. Even though Ifeel, that we did something useful. Ithinkthe most important was not the result of our physical work,but the result of our presence. The attention we showed tothe school children and tothe community has hopefully given the people there new hope and spirit and made it easier for them torecover from their great losses.
Pictured by Mie Andersen
