In OSC we go on a week without walls in our host country of Sri Lanka, to gain a better understanding of the culture and encourage learning in the environment. From a CAS perspective it allows us to explore the strands of creativity, activity, and service. It allows us to learn outside the norms of a classroom and encourages perspective taking of the things we observe around us.
This journey consisted of 5 days of action packed activities and 4 nights spent gazing at the stars. At the end of every day I wrote a reflection in my journal which let my thoughts and feelings flow just like the ink on the page.
Day 1
We started our journey early in the morning at 3:45-4:00 am, when we all gathered at school. TO start the day off on the right foot, we went to the wrong train station! But not to worry we had plenty of time to go to the Fort train station. Once we found the recline button on our seats, we were all lulled into sweet dreams by the gentle rocking of the train. Once I woke up, I spent some time gazing out the window as slowly and painfully regained feeling in my leg. I had curled up into a ball in my seat as an attempt to shield myself from the cold AC sending a chilling wind down my spine. Once the group found themselves awake we busied ourselves over finding out what the buttons on my camera did (till this moment I still don’t know). After spending my time running up and down the aisle between Mr. Lockwood and Pep, we figured it out.
I jumped into nagging my friends to go take pictures with me, but after they saw my methods they were quick to return to their seats. It involved, and I deeply apologize to Mr. Lockwood, holding on to the bars on the OUTSIDE of the train and leaning out waiting for a bend to take that shot (figure __) of the engine pulling us around. I also discovered some interesting signs my favourite of which being the elephant crossing. Now I had a dilemma. To take the picture, I had to use 1 hand for the lens and one to click the button, but also had to hold onto the bar to avoid falling out of the train. So I had 2 options; safety, or a sick picture. And to add onto all of that I had 5 seconds to take the picture. In the end I realized how much I value my life, and just took a wide angle.
I do have to say, as much as I love my friends, the moments of solitude I had taking these pictures was beyond words. The air and soft rain beating against my face, turning my hair into a mess, and the scenery rolling by with many encounters to wild life put me in a state of euphoria. No drug in the world comes close to the one of nature (and its the only one with 0 negative side effects ;)) I pictured how my dad might have done it on his travels long ago. Equipped with only his backpack, hat, and trusty camera. He tells me his stories of his adventures through the world and I long for the ones I’ll make. The train started to slow and Anaradhaphura was in sight.
After a quick brunch we continued on our journey by bus. Along the way we slept a bit more before eating almost all our snacks. We made 2 halts on our journey. The first one was the memorial of a Sinhalese soldier who gave his own life to stop a (suicide) mission to blow up the Sinhalese base by the Tamil Tigers by the use of a bulldozer converted into a tank. It made me think over the reality of war and what stories memorials tell us and which side they honour. Surely we salute the fallen, all the fallen. No matter who was right or wrong, lives were lost. That’s what I decide to honour and respect.
The second stop was one made on a whim by Mr Lockwood when he spotted a massive flock of flamingos. We crossed the currently out of service train tracks and headed to the sandy banks of the lagoon. We looked through our binoculars and gawked at the birds before us. It was a well-needed stretch for our legs. We didn’t want to spend much more time on the road so we jumped back on to the bus and continued on to the Northern most part of Sri Lanka, Point Pedro.
Once we arrived at the coast, we lept out of the bus and headed over to the post-box. Ms Lockwood distributed some stamps and post cards and we wrote messages to our family. I spent my time writing sat on an overturned boat overlooking the ocean where from, moments ago, rain was sent our way and made us all panic about how we didn’t have raincoats and umbrellas. But all was quiet now. The waves gently rolled over and the wind brought us the sounds of firecrackers setting off a departed loved one to the afterlife in a funeral down the road. I finally posted my letter feeling gleeful before taking some pictures of the ocean and heading towards the ‘unity in diversity’ sign.
Mr & Mrs Lockwood had stumbled across it by accident on their trip to Jaffna earlier on in the year and found it the perfect place to take us OSC students. Not only did we appreciate our message being recognized across Sri Lanka, but also the beautiful coral we could see poking out of the shallow water. As we turned to leave we passed by a toddy farmer, and watched as he skillfully climbed palm trees to harvest.
From there on our day was pretty uneventful. We headed to our accommodations; settles in, watched the sun set and said goodbye to a beautiful first day.
Day 2
We arose early this morning for a nice morning walk on the beach. On the way we spotted a pair of birds entangled in a love story, and butterflies flitting between flowers.
We took a visit to the train station we were meant to arrive at. We walked between the tracks and posed with the sign giving our location.
Soon we discovered the opportunity to place ourselves between the storyboard of a Bollywood movie and recreated dramatic love scenes on the still train. These are the sort of things you wouldn’t do alone, but, as Mr Lockwood said it, we are a school of fish and follow one another. What started off as us climbing the carts looking for love, soon turned into a high-speed chase scene as a man started to sternly stare.
After packing up our bags and changing into our swimming clothes, we headed to the sacred springs on Keeramalai.
Not before stopping at a Hindu temple. Upon our entry we were decorated with a red paste to symbolize our third eye. As we entered the temple with out ghee lamps in hand, we were greeted by a vast array of bright colours primarily consisting of hues of blue. We took a walk around the temple and watched as our Hindu friends prayed. For me it showed an incredible devotion to faith and opening yourself up for thoughts and beliefs. Just as I was about to leave, the head priest sounded the bell.
It’s melodic sound enchanted me and led my feet towards it. The head priest saw my curious head poking through the door and beckoned me to come to him. Once I stood before him he placed the red paste on my forehead and commented how it fit me. I felt a sense of love for life bloom within me. This encounter had let me see the kindness of people as I haven’t seen it much.
This feeling carried me to the sacred springs. Ms Lockwood and Ms Gayani took us to the ladies section and we were delighted to see we had the place to ourselves. We soon dove into the clear water and shrieked as our feet came in contact with the muddy, soft bottom of the pool. As we floated on our backs, I let the light rays paint a picture on my eyelids. The water gently splashing onto my face kept me cool. My hair fell free in the water, and my limbs floated apart gently. We found seaweed at the bottom of the pool and dived down among the fish to retrieve some more. I soon made a crown and (after washing away the numerous sins) hailed myself as the new Jesus. We found different types of seaweed and placed them upon our heads for a master shot.
After some more splashing the waves, we got changed and headed towards some Pagodas at Kandarodai. Even tough we marveled at the sheer age and history of them, we seemed to be the main tourist attraction. A few buses blasting Tamil music, emptied a small army of school children who all headed our way after a few glances. We shared a few pictures together before making our way to Jaffna Fort.
Today’s Lunch granted me lots of shots among some funny ones of Oliver trying a chili.
Of all the things we will do on this trip, we probably did the most exercise here. After taking a few not-so-candid shots, we joined Mr Lockwood on his journey to Strava (an app that tracks your exercise) the whole fort and I’m glad I did.
I took my time taking pictures of people in their daily lives of being picked up, and a bride-to-be taking pictures with her friends.
My friends spotted a snake skin and I risked my life going where no man (or woman/person) had been before to retrieve it!
We noticed how the sun was setting and headed to take some pictures. Although the sun had other plans. It soon set and we were left to stare at the horizon with fishing huts scattered across the water.
We left to try our luck at taking some pictures of people worshiping but when we arrived, it was empty. I still wanted to see what I could do so headed in anyways to capture some shots of the moon.
After a long time of visiting temples, we headed out for dinner. We arrived at a Dosa/ Thosai restaurant and immediately placed our orders. We all sat together at the biggest table they had. As I sipped my mango lassi, I watched the bollywood movie play in the background and talked with my friends about the day and our favourite moments, unanimously agreeing that the trip to the sacred springs was a highlight. It took a while for the restaurant to accommodate for such a large audience but we eventually got our food.
Day 3
Today was a real life temple run. In the morning we clothed ourselves in white, and headed out towards Nainativu. An island for which we had to cross the ocean waters on the roof of a boat, our flowers threatening to lose petals on the wind clasped in our hands.
As I stepped upon the dock Mr Lockwood quickly explained to me the spiritual importance of the island, and although it was small, it held a great amount of history. Legend has it that the Buddha visited the exact temple we did hundreds of years ago. Whilst we visited the temple I observed a monk helping some builders out in making a massive Buddha statue. What I so loved about this was how involved he was and that he was hands on in the process. Even though he chose a life of servitude, he worshiped and honoured his beliefs by incorporating his talents into his journey.
We then walked to another temple. We struck gold as when we entered we were greeted by the sounds of a drum and the Shehnai a wind instrument similar to a clarinet or a snake charmers flute and like a snake charmer it enchanted me further into the temple. I wasn’t the only one blessed at this ceremony as a Brahman priest blessed a family and their young girl. The women wore beautiful saris. Draping shades of purple, pink and blue over their shoulders. We stood in front of the temple for a few pictures before getting back on the boat.
After a wonderful lunch we headed out for the Jaffna library.
There’s a lot of history to it as it was burned down by arsonists from Colombo in 1981. We were able to take a look at the newspapers, old records and many books from decades ago. Whilst looking around a thought struck me. It’s disorganized. Books weren’t sorted according to the catalogue system and were placed upon other books and shelves. However difficult it was to look past the clutter, I did spot beautifully decorate book covers embossed with gold leaf. Thanks to Chiraths internship recording audio books, we were able to go into places that visitors couldn’t.
We then headed to the temple we attempted to visit yesterday and experienced the ceremony of laying the God’s statue to rest for the night. Once again the task was accompanied with beautiful music that awoke my senses. Although I wasn’t able to capture the event with my lens, I was able to with my soul.
Before heading to the fish market, which had no lack of strong aromas, we visited a “haunted house.” We saw how it blended a colonial architecture with typical Sri Lankan arches. The empty frames of the windows made for excellent pictures framing the surrounding nature and the staircase leading to banisters which I can only presume held the 1st floor made for the best photos.
At the fish market we took pictures of the dried remains of these sea creatures, ate vidai, bought even more snacks, and explored the markets under the cover of darkness decorated we set off for dinner back at the hotel. I was lucky as today’s menu was a Western one with Wattalapam for dessert (a favourite of mine.)
Day 4
Another great day on our northern narratives. This morning a few of us woke up before the sun to see it rise. On the causeways we took pictures of passing fishermen with boats full of freshly caught fish. One man even proudly presented his catch with a dance as he spotted us atop the bridge.
From here we continued on for bird watching. We saw pelicans, painted storks, gray herons, green bee-eaters, pintails (ducks), spot billed ducks, plovers and many more. But my favourite, were the glossy ibis. Unlike their white counterpart their body is covered in black feathers that in the sunlight reflect different colours like an oil slick. Growing up in Egypt I was familiar with the shape of the bird and I have to say its one of my faves. It’s curved beak is perfect for catching bugs in the water, and their beady eyes know when we approach them and fly away as soon as we stop.
Kritika slept the entire bus journey and only awoke as we arrived at the hotel.
We quickly packed our belongings and jumped in for a long ride south to donate books to the school in Omanthai. Omanthai, during the war, was a crossing point for the two sides. The school is tiny. With only 23 students ranging grades 1-5 and 5 teachers to educate them. Our books in Tamil and English will hopefully help them on their mission to educate their students. It was very inspiring to me to see the perseverance they had to continue the school despite the small numbers.
After the library we continued on to the Mihintale meditation gardens. We did an entire loop around and (or attempted to) climbed every rock in sight much like the monkeys we found around us. Maelle and I shared many shots together and photographed the same things, risking our cameras and falling in the water. Mr Lockwood told us about the mountain the King of the area had a meeting with a Buddhist monk who introduced him to the way of life making it an important part of Sri Lankan culture. I took many pictures through empty doors frames perfectly capturing the window to the natural world.
We then headed to Back of Beyond to settle down for the night. The girls rejoiced as we were given the treehouse to sleep in. Tomorrow we will get up early a 5am to go for a morning kike to see the sunrise above Lions rock.
day 5
We awoke with greater ease than I had expected this morning. Kritika complained about the cold but I found the chill quite nice and didn’t disturb me at all. It was like a hug without a promise. After quickly clothing ourselves and sending the sick among us back to bed we headed off to Pidurangala. The sun was obscured by the thick coverage of clouds but the hike was still enjoyable. Although I was miles ahead with the rest of the group struggling to keep up behind me but in my defence they were slow for the morning.
The view was much worth the sweat dripping down our backs. Like the biking group who had come up here only 1 day before, we posed before lion’s rock (although Thisath was doing some other kind of posing 🤨). We pet the dogs up there, hid our snacks from the monkeys and laid down to admire the view over Sigiriya.
Upon our return to the BoB we quickly packed our bags and took some more pictures of the toads Albert (the big girl) and Johannes (the small boi) before eating breakfast and setting off for our journey home.
(And taking pictures of the green pit viper Mr Lockwood found the day before)
We were the earliest group to arrive at 2pm but it was worth the bragging rights.
(Featured Image Credit: Mr Lockwood)