Describe your day to day activities as a volunteer.
I spent two weeks in Badulla, which is in the Uva Province in central Sri Lanka. I worked at three different projects; an elderly care centre, a kindergarten and an orphanage.At the kindergarten I taught a group of 55 children aged between four and seven years old basic English language skills, art and crafts projects such as painting and games designed to enhance their language skills.
My time was also divided between an orphanage with kids aged five to 18 years old and an elderly care centre taking care of 40 old people. At the orphanage I did some teaching, and some games such as volleyball and learnt some Sri Lankan songs with the children. At the elderly care centre I was involved in some painting and cleaning to improve the quality of the accommodation.
Ten years from now, what's the one thing you think you'll remember from the trip?
I have many wonderful memories from my time in Sri Lanka and hope to return to visit on a regular basis to witness the progress the many wonderful people I met are making. My abiding memory is the positivity, joy and friendly disposition of all the great children at both the orphanage and the kindergarten. I imagine that is the thing I will remember the most. Sri Lanka is without a doubt the most welcoming country I have ever visited.
Has your worldview changed as a result of your trip?
I was a fairly experienced volunteer before my time in Sri Lanka, having previously volunteered in Ghana, Australia, Laos & Malaysia. I am not sure my world view has changed but it has certainly been enhanced. My experience in Sri Lanka has reinforced my view that volunteering with committed, well-organised local organisations provides great benefit to local people in a variety of ways. It is also important to recognise that the benefit to the volunteer is huge; I have learned more about myself and the world around me by volunteering than I have in any other aspect of my life.
What was the most interesting cultural difference you encountered?
I spent a large proportion of my time using public transport and observed a couple of interesting differences in relation to the Buddhist faith that the majority of Sri Lankans follow. Each bus trip no matter how long would begin and end with the bus conductor offering a small donation and quick prayer at a temple asking for a safe journey. This would occur no matter how busy the bus was or how short the journey was.
Sri Lankans roads tend to be overrun with dogs, cows, chickens and even birds. Due to their belief that all animals are sacred and worthy of protection, bus, taxi and tuk-tuk drivers would all slow down or swerve to avoid any animal in the road no matter how small. Like many cultural differences after a few days in Sri Lanka this struck me as completely normal and I came to expect it.
Where would you most like to travel to next?
Travel is a lifelong obsession for me having travelled to 54 different countries so far. My criteria for selecting new travel destinations is very simple:
1. Is it somewhere I have never been?
2. Are there interesting things to see?
There is nowhere that I am not interested in travelling to but Japan, Bangladesh, Iran, The Philippines, Namibia and Malawi are a few of the places I would like to visit in the next couple of years.
