(Everyone at the beach – photo cred: Ms. Desline)
Day 1 of Down South
At around 9:45am, we were off on the Down South WWW! It was definitely an understatement to say that I was excited for this trip, the last WWW I had was in 9th grade – so I was just itching to get out there with friends and have new experiences.
I believe that the bus ride to Kahandamodara was very relaxing, and the constant flow of conversation was highly interesting. Something that I found to be very interesting was the way in which the dry scenery at Kahandamodara was such a contrast to the Colombo cityscape.
We arrived at Back of Beyond Kahandamodara at took some time to choose our roommates and get settled in. Eleez, Jade, and I were in a treehouse-type room which was surely an experience and made for very interesting “MTV Cribs” videos.
After lunch and swimming in the pool, the entire DS group walked to the beach – which was surprisingly not far off, as from the landscape of the place and the paddyfields it seemed as though a beach would not be nearby. The walk was not tiring at all, I was definitely very pumped with energy and appreciated the exercise.
When at the beach everyone swam around for some time and played games. Mr. Lockwood informed us of a deeper part of the place where we were swimming, and after only a little hesitance many people – myself included – jumped at the opportunity to get in. It wasn’t all that deep, and amongst the splashing and crocodile jokes, I think that getting into the beach at Kahandamodara was one of my favourite experiences from WWW.
We stayed until sundown at the beach, which made for amazing pictures of the group with the setting sun in the background. The joy of this day was only a bit marred by some of the perverted old men we encountered at the beach – they started catcalling us randomly and saying things in both Sinhala and English. Although this was very disgusting, I believe that it did not put too much of a damper on my mood.
After taking some more pictures (and ignoring the perverts at the beach) we walked our way back. Along the way we were able to hear many different bidrcalls, the most prominent and distinct of which being the peacock call. After washing up (which wasn’t very fun, as our room lacked good water pressure – or even water at all), and dinner, the group went on a bug hunt.
I believe that this walk was one of the most exhilarating parts of this day, as tensions and screams were very high when encountering and trying to photograph any bugs that we saw. We came across many different thing’s I’d say, the most notable of which being: a tiny snake being eaten by ants, a praying mantis in a spider web, many maggots, centipedes, etc.
I had great fun during this walk, at the end of which we turned off all flashlights and meditated in silence under the stars. It was absolutely remarkable how clear the night sky was at Kahandamodara, it was an endless carpet of stars. It was a brilliant way to cap off our first day.
(At the pool – photo cred: Eleez)
Learning outcomes:
- LO1 – Strength and growth
- I think that the WWW trip allowed me to talk to a lot more people and I definitely felt the growth in interconnections between us all. I also got to observe my strengths in swimming at the beach and sort of push my limits when getting into the deeper ends and fighting against the currents.
- LO6 – Global engagement
- Although unsolicited, I think that we engaged with the global issue of verbal harassment – especially against minors – when encountering those old men at the beach.
- We discussed this incident during L and L as well, and I think that although it was unpleasant it brought more into our viewpoint this global issue. And the fact that we experienced it would bring forth ideas on how to avert or diminish it.