Teaching English to Buddhist Monks
A Buddhist country, Sri Lanka has majority of its people respecting Buddha and following the peaceful and transcendental philosophy of Buddhism. Pirivena is the traditional name of the temple school where young monks study. In most cases, male and female monks are taught separately. This project is for those who are looking for cultural immersion by teaching Buddhist monks. The daily life of Buddhist monks is far from the experiences of most of the people who live using advance modern privileges. The project provides century-old cultural knowledge and experiences to the volunteers and has captivated the people who are interested to know about the Buddhism and Eastern culture. By teaching Buddhist Monks in such an environment, you will gain unique experience, happiness, peace and self-satisfaction at the same time. Any volunteers can choose to work in this project but female volunteers who are above 25 years of age are highly welcome.
Your Responsibility as a Volunteer:
Volunteers basically teach monks between the age group of 8-22 in the serene surroundings of a monastery. You can also teach them music, art, painting, drawing etc. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn, practice, and understand the philosophy of Buddhism while teaching the monks. Volunteers can also join in local prayers, rituals, and festivals. In addition to teaching, you may be asked to provide help in computer education, sports, and other works related to administration.
Skills Required:
English is widely spoken and understood by most Sri Lankans so there is no additional language requirement. For teaching monks, you have to be fluent in English; though need not necessarily be native English person. Monks are highly respected social figure in Sri Lanka. Monks follow decent and exemplary lives, so you have to demonstrate your disciplined manner with them. Your motivation and compassion to work for monks is highly anticipated. They should also be flexible, self-motivated with openness to new cultures and should have a willingness to learn.
Location Descriptions:
RCDP-Sri Lanka’s elephant orphanage project is located in Kegalle, a small beautiful town about 85km from Colombo to on the way to Kandy, a rural hill area. The orphanage is accessible from Colombo by car, bus or train. It is one of the tourism hub in the country established as a sanctuary covering 25 acres of lush forest by the Sri Lankan government in 1975. Recently the sanctuary has also started an elephant breeding program.
Arrangement of room/food/supervision
RCDP-Sri Lanka arranges room, food, and supervision for our volunteer from the very beginning to the end of the program. Volunteers stay with host family during the first week of language and cultural program. Host family arranges you a separate room providing Sri Lankan meal thrice a day. During your work as a volunteer, you will also live with host family in warm, welcoming and pleasing environment. They provide you a separate room. You may have to share shower and bathroom facilities with host families. We can also manage you to stay in hotel with little more additional fee, if you like. Volunteers will have 24/7 access to our office in Sri Lanka by e-mail or telephone. Our staff also will visit each volunteers in every one to two weeks to acknowledge their situation and to have feedback of the program.
