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| Sunday, 17 July 2005 |
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Expanding horizons by Ranga To say it in their own words, it was a novel and futuristic experience.
The District Director for Ananda College, Chamindra Goonewardene, was also there. According to him, Learning about another culture is always interesting. It's a great experience to interact with people from other cultures, learn more and teach them about us. The fact that we got to represent Sri Lanka to a group of Papua New Guineans is also a vital part.
And as the Interactors said, the meeting was a novel experience. The Papua New Guineans were about 20 minutes late. They were not organized, they showed some powerpoint presentations which was done for some earlier project and they were anything but formal. They were spontaneous in their conversation and always tried to make the discussion more dynamic and personal. On the Sri Lankan part, our Interactors had some well planned items; a group song Udarata Kandukaraye which was accompanied by the Guitar, and a well structured presentation. But we always seemed to be at the receiving end for questions. The proactive role of the discussion was completely taken over by the Papua New Guineans. However all the Interactors were happy about the whole event.
I certainly feel when I think about it I have pictures of that country now, how diverse a country can be; 800 languages speaking, 140 dialects; 20 provinces and each of the participants coming from a different province. But I guess pretty much all of us are from Colombo. The Distant Learning Center which provided the VSAT satellite link is one of the state-of-the-art ICT providers in Sri Lanka. It links our country to 52 different countries which are connected to the World Bank's Global Development Network (GDLN). DLC Ltd's theme is connecting minds across geographical barriers, says Ranjith Kumarasiri, the Business Development Manager for the DLC. But in the education field we've lined up ICT courses for school leavers, teachers as well as principals. According to Shalika Subasinghe, the Learning Development Manger for the DLC, the usual video conferencing is targeted for professionals in the public or private sector. To develop and share knowledge as well to correspond with desired personnel elsewhere in the globe. But this is not the first time we had kids to take part in a video session, she adds further. We had scouts, guides, little friends and kids from the age 10-13 selected from their schools to represent Sri Lanka in some programs. And after each session you can easily see from their expressions that they are really excited about the whole thing. For them it's all about the fun. But for the young Interactors of the five schools it was more than about fun. It was about the pride and pleasure in representing their own country and getting to know their Interact movement was far better than the existing P&G Interact movement. They haven't done anything significant but we as Interactors in Sri Lanka have done so much to the community, says Ruchintha Eriyawa of Nalanda College. Since Sri Lanka is a small country, we have a lot to be proud of. With pride and triumph in their eyes, it was obvious whether or not they'd want to do it again someday. But the question was popped nonetheless, to which they all resounded in chorus. Sure do! |
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Through a contact we got to know about this place, said Sanjaka de
Silva, President of the Interact movement in Ananda College. We were quite
interested not only in the Interact arena, but the whole school movement.
No projects had ever been undertaken in this field. The young Interactors
didn't talk about hobbies or the stuff they do for fun, instead they
talked about the cultures of both countries and the community service
projects they did as Interactors. To be frank, International Understanding
is one of our main avenues of service. So we were promoting our culture
and the Interact movement to P&G. said Sanjaka. 
They talked about fund raising projects, the Rotaract and Interact
movement in tsunami relief and on simple matters like how they induct
members and so on. But for both the parties it was probably the
interaction and watching how the others react, that gave more insight into
foreign culture. 
I personally wanted to continue it a bit longer but it was limited to a
certain time, says P. Saranraj of Wesley College. Seriously I learned a
lot, like talking to some guys from a country I didn't know and sharing my
ideas. That's a lot. I guess this is the first time we got to know how
Interact happens in-depth in another country, says Vikum Rajapaksha, the
Interact Project Chairman of Ananda College. 
