A volunteer's view of FLC: Natasha Wickramasekera

An unforgettable experience of our lives took place on 13^th of August, 2011.  Some of the prefects of Sacred Heart Convent got an opportunity to participate in one of the best leadership events in the country. The student council of our school got an invitation from the organization Sri Lanka Units to take part in this event. At first we had no idea as to what the event would entail. But, after doing some research, every member of the student council applied in June to get selected to go to the program. We got our conformation letter at the beginning of August; among 28 students in the student council 13 of us got the chance to participate and I was one of the lucky few.  The program was scheduled to run for three days in Kandy the central region of Sri Lanka, approximately 146km from my hometown Galle.

Our journey started early morning from Galle; the journey was long as we waited in anticipation, but we finally reached to Kandy in the evening. As soon as we arrived all thirteen of us were split into different groups. The group that I was selected was called Matara Magicians; groups were named after different districts in the country.  This grouping was unexpected and caused some panic among us since we had to spend the rest of the event with the assigned groups and not with our friends. Later I realized that the organizers split us up in order for us to interact with others who were there and to make new friends.

            The first day we got an orientation about the schedule for the reminder of the camp. That first evening I got to meet other students who were in my group; there were people from every corner of Sri Lanka, it was such a fascinating experience to meet people from around the country that I have never met before. At first I didn’t enjoy the time we spent together as we didn’t knew anything about the rest of the students in our group. But this changed quickly; the following day my group leaders helped us get to know each other. Through various activities we slowly started learning more about the people in our group.  The three group leaders (Milfer, Nuwan and Jerry) did a great job making us get closer day by day.

By the 2^nd day we had developed good relationships with all the students in my group. We worked together setting aside our differences, regardless of the students’ race whether it be Buddhists, Tamils, Hindus or Muslims; we acted as one family and had the most exciting time. We had to participate in several activities and games with our group members; these activities help develop strong bonds and reach many impressive achievements. By this time I enjoyed spending time with my group a lot and I had forgotten that I came with friends from my school because I had made friends from other schools (Jaffna, Matara, Colombo etc.).

Students in the camp represented diverse religions, for instance some of the students were Muslims. The camp was held during their fasting period, but somehow they respected their religion and continued with fasting, they were given transportation facilities to go to the mosque.           On the last day we wore our National costumes; we got to see different types of costume that we haven’t seen before.  I got to meet different people with different backgrounds; some were older than me while some being younger. One challenge that I faced was communicating with others who didn’t speak the same language as I. For example, it was hard to speak with Tamil students; they couldn’t speak my language Sinhala (official language in Sri Lanka). But we communicate with them a little by signing or pointing, or speaking with the little Tamil I know, which was really impressive. According to my opinion, I had the most amazing time getting to know different people with different ideas, and different back grounds. Before coming to this camp we had built up a myth/stigma in our minds thinking that people are different by their religion and their culture. But after going there and interacting together, you get to realize that the stigma is absurd concept people had built up in their minds. When you get to know the people you can see how incredible they are, with different ideas and different attitudes. On the last day of our stay Sri Lankan president Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha, also joined us and address us by saying how proud he is to see the up coming generation being productive in many ways.

The organizing committee did an outstanding job, getting together a whole country under one roof. The hostess Mr. Prashan De Visser & Mr. Christin Rajah did an excellent job encouraging us in many ways. The final hour was difficult as we had to leave a place where we had a wonderful experience, where we met new friends who we had to leave and might not be able to meet each other again easily. But, inside our hearts we knew that we had the most amazing time getting to know different people and spending time with them with out any difference among us. No matter if they are Muslims, Tamils, Christians, Sinhalese we are still people from one country, who our going to be future leaders of our country. If the present generation has differences amongst ourselves we cannot build up a country that lives in peace and harmony. This event is a witness to all the hurdles that Sri Lanka has successfully overcome in the past years. “Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.”

 Natasha Wickramasekera