Final phase of power plant project.

Batuwangala evillage utilized inside the Batuwangala Maha Vidyalaya, along with the Practical Action started A hydro power plant project. Batuwangala evillage experiences difficulties to pay for electricity.Mr Rohitha, From Practical Action programme Came to help us.There will be a power plant,generating 400W for batuwangala evillage.Using this power supply ,The computer lab may operate computers by Charging battery panel. We believe that this will be a sound Experience to the youngsters in the village.They are observing the process of how to generate electricity from the Hydro power.All So Mr.Rohitha Explained each and every step to the BMV students. When we start this project work we, as Batuwangala evillage wanted to have local CBO support.We would like to thank the villagers who let us to build the power plant in their small tea plots and paddy fields to run wires.Also our special thank goes to Miss Harini and Mr.Rohitha for their kind consideration about batuwangala maha Vidyalaya and Batuwangala e-village.

This project will supply 300W power to the computer lab and will contribute to our electricity bill.Batuwangala e-village Faces the problem of paying electricity bills and we wanted to have this kind of project from the beginning.Our well wishers are also thanked for their support to pay the electricity bills and their kind contributions for students’ ICT education. The project now has reached to its third phase where only wiring the lab is left.With in another two weeks The power from the plant will contribute with the computer lab.

Sinhala Tamil new Year.

In April (the month of Bak) when the sun moves from the Meena Rashiya (House of Pisces) to the Mesha Rashiya (House of Aries) Sri Lankans begin celebrating their National New Year Aluth Avurudhu in Sinhala and Puththandu in Tamil.  However, unlike the usual practice where the new year begins at midnight, the National New Year begins at the time determined by the astrologers. Not only the beginning of the new year but the conclusion of the old year is also specified by the astrologers. And unlike the customary ending and beginning of new year, there is a period of a few hours in between the conclusion of the Old Year and the commencement of the New Year , which is called the nona gathe (neutral period). During this time one is expected to keep off from all types of work and engage solely in religious activities.

This also coincides with the time when the harvest ends, so the colorful fruit from the trees is collected in bulk to fuel the week-long celebrations. Festivities are prepared well in advance and most of the country grinds to a halt as hundreds travel home to be with their families and stores close down in their wake – it can be impossible to track down the simplest of things just before it all starts.

The rituals begin with the cleaning of the house and lighting of an oil lamp, and women congregate to bash on the raban (drum) to warn others of the incipient change in the year. If you fail to hear this, a storm of firecrackers is bound to hammer the point home.

Families indulge in a variety of rituals which are carefully determined by astrological calculations – from lighting the fire to making the kiri (milk rice) bath, to entering into the first business transaction and eating the first morsels.

Once these are done, the partying really begins as families mingle in the streets, homes are thrown open and children are let out to play. The ubiquitous plantain is dished out alongside celebratory feasts of kaung (small oil cake) and kokis (crisp and light sweetmeat, originally from the Netherlands).

Aurudu has become an important national holiday for both the cultures of the Sinhalese Buddhists and the Tamil Hindu Sri Lankans, and is unique as such, as it is not celebrated elsewhere in the world. Indeed wealthy Sri Lankans make it an excuse to come home from wherever they are to make it a long holiday season.

Those who can’t handle the heat of the pre-monsoon season in the south escape to the cooler hills and indulge in the expensive pastimes of the elite – such as polo, golf, tennis and motor racing.

An English Teacher From germany Visits batuwangala e-village.

Batuwangala e-village students got a nice chance to participate in an English course conducted by Miss. Heike Sonntag,Language department head of Robert Gerwing Schule of Germany. She visited Batuwangala e-village last 29th and was here till 31st of March 2009.She was very happy to be here with the children and she worked all the day along with the children.
Miss. Heike is the first ever Foreign Volunteer who visited the Batuwangala e-village. Villagers and the children were very happy to see her here in Batuwangala Maha Vodyalaya. She conducted separate sessions of English for children from junior e-village team and senior e-village team.She also conducted English workshop for grade 12 Students of batuwangala maha vidyalaya.Students were confident enough to use English and Miss Heike made student to speak the language which they havealready learned.

Junior e-village children participate their common English class this week with Miss Heike and this Session went on more than 3 hours.End of each and every session children wanted their new English teacher to be with them even for One mounth.How ever she left Batuwangala e-village with the promise of she will come back.The Principal of Batuwangala Maha Vidyalaya,The staff and Parents gave their thanks to the New English teacher.

We would like to thank Miss Heike for her dedication to teach English to our e-village children and of course we would like to thank Mr.Mangus from Germany and Mr.Chandrapala from Sri Lanken Embassy from Milano for their kind consideration of Batuwangala Maha Vidyalaya.

Batuwangala e-village moves to Web 2.0 technology

Batuwangala e-village has moved to the latest web developing technology, web 2.0. Now we use the latest web technology in the universe, becoming the first ever evillage using web 2.0. Web technology with open source content management System is the most updated technology used by the professional web developers. Batuwangala e-village would like to express the extreme thank to Mr.Denuwan Wejewardena, a sound gentlemen who is toiling to teach web developing to the all e-villages. He is the force behind this mammoth move of batuwangala e-village. Previously batuwangala e-village experienced the difficulties to upload web sites and updating them in a convenient way. We had to spend hours in front of the computer to upload our sites. Thanks to Mr.Denuwan, the new Batuwangala evillage web site was published within 4 hours. Now we only want a computer with an internet connection to up load our web sites.