There is no 6:30 a.m. wake up call like the smell of coconut curry and the sound of my auntie, my host mother, saying her early morning prayers. In Sri Lankan culture it is custom to address any one older than you as auntie or uncle. After eating the breakfast my auntie prepared for me it was time to jump in the van and head to Little Steps Pre-school where I had been teaching English for the month that I was living in Sri Lanka. The warm welcome from my students shouting “good morning!”, their way of proudly showing off one of the only English phrases they knew, was well worth the drive.

The first thing the kids do when they get to school is recite a Buddhist prayer while incense burns. The smell of the incense, however, is quickly covered by the mix of curry smells as the kids have breakfast right after saying their prayers. Sri Lankan people normally eat with their hands, so needless to say, in a pre-school, breakfast left just a little bit of a mess. Meal time was followed by whatever lesson that I had planned for the day and activity which would reinforce the newly introduced vocabulary. One of my favorites was teaching animals and then making monkey and elephant animal masks.

After singing some nursery rhymes at the end of the school day and putting back on all the children's shoes for them (they take them off for school in the morning), it was time to go home to eat a traditional Sri Lankan lunch. This normally consisted of some type of meat (chicken or fish), rice and a few different vegetable curries. By 1 p.m. I could not help but take a nap until 2 p.m. when I was than picked up to go teach English at a community center for older children and mothers.

By this point in the day I was too sweaty, way too tired, but above all way too excited to wake up to the smiley faces of my students at Little Steps in the morning.