POC

see all photos »

Oh my God! Here I am again starting yet another exciting adventure. A 6 month volunteer program where I will be spending all 6 months, (3 in Canada and 3 in Sri Lanka) with a person I have never met, and a Sri Lankan person at that. Will this be as rewarding and memorable as katimavik or will it turn out to be a disaster? Time, effort and a spirit of adventure will only tell. It seems like a minute ago I was waking up at home and going through my things one last time in an frantic effort to ensure I have everything I think I need for the upcoming six months. I blink and I have said goodbye to my family, have boarded a plane and am sitting in the winnipeg airport playing scrabble with the people I will be sharing this experience with. Both the Brandon and my group of Canadians load our things onth the bus which takes us to Camp Woodlands where we will be breifed on what's in store for us. In my group there is Brittany, Andria, Nikita, Audree, Max, Nick, Mike, Goran and I. At camp we all participated in activities to get to know our roles and responsibilities throughout the program. Virtually the same as Katimavik. The first three days it was just the Canadians at camp but on the thirteenth the Sri Lankans arrived, and after only one half-ass Sinhala lesson we were hard pressed in our Ayubowans and kohamadah's. But we were all so full of energy and excitement, we hit it off not caring at all that we could barely understand eachother. We hugged, shook hands, and laughed with anyone we bumped into. It was here that I realized that this is going to be by far one of the most informative, difficult, and rewarding things I have jumped into yet. It was a huge game of cherades for the first little bit until we got used to their broken english and British accents and were able to learn a little bit of Sinhalese. For the most part they all had a good grasp on English so it wasn't as hard as I first thought it may be. We had temporary counterparts for the first few days the Sri Lankans were at camp so that the PC's could match us up with who they thought we matched with the best. Goran and I had Karuna, he was from the brandon group, cool guys but he didnt really talk much. Though I cant blame him. Then a few days in we were "given" our counterparts as much as we were "given" to them.  My counterparet is Rohana. He is from The Badulla, Uva Province, South Eastern district. He seems a little quite now but when he is talking with the Sri Lankans he is very outspoken so I assume his quietness is due to the different language. That I hope to break soon. Between getting to know some of the Sri Lankans in my group: Rohana, Maza, Viki, Devinda, Janika, Anusha, Giyani, Prathima and Pathum I tried to get to know some of the Canadians as well. Mathieu, Max, Audree and I would go for midnight walks every night no matter how cold, rainy or dark it was. Good times guys. Another time Nikita, Devinda, Maza, Viki and I went for a walk. Nikita fell off the hay bail that we star gazed on and Maza was trying so hard to win over Viki. She's a weird one that girl. But she'd continually let Maza hug her and whisper sweet things in her ear then get mad at him and push him away only to let him do it again..... Sri Lankan lovin I tell ya! (PS. Nikita i think we opened Devindas eyes to North American Music, he seemed to like it alot :P) One thing I didnt really like about POC was that after getting to know the Brandon group quite well, I dont think we'll get to see them again.. But I suppose that isnt really the aim of this program! So after a total of 8 days of lectures, energizers and activities we finally boarded the bus to take us to our new homes. Neepa-what???

midnight walks