Vajira de Silva at Horizon Lanka

(by Vajira De Silva, a Sri Lankan who emigrated to England as a school boy and now living in Spain.)

During my brief visit to Sri Lanka at the beginning of December 2009, I met Nandasiri Wanninayaka, “Wanni” and we decided to visit together Mahavilachchiya and Horizon Lanka installations.

Having lived abroad for most of my life, I was of course very much gotten used to a comfortable lifestyle: the long journey on the back of a motorbike on Sri Lanka roads was not the stuff made in Hollywood. However, there would be no better way to see the countryside, the people and taken in the local scents than this. We left early in the morning after breakfast and made several short stops and had lunch at Kurunagala.

We passed via the ancient temples at Anhuradapura, where I had not been since I was a small boy. The approach to the village by the large irrigation tank – quite a lake – was fascinating.

Mahavilachchiya has the energy of a unique place, yet representative of rural Sri Lanka. Perhaps the most striking factor was its people, many of whom had a desire to progress and so they have taken Horizon Lanka to their hearts.

We had a short meeting with the volunteers Thalia and Maryn. Curiously, I have also been an AIESEC volunteer many years ago in Europe.

Later we had a meeting with local farmers, objective which was to understand how they work and their difficulties with credit financing, purchase of seeds, fertilizer and other inputs as well as sale of produce. We had discussed about how farmers are a small percentage of the population in Western Europe and are generally quite rich, compared to the average incomes of the countries. There are many reasons for this wealth:
-Subsidies and other incentives offered by the European Union
-In general farms are run as agricultural business. Therefore, at the demise of the owners, the business or the lands do not get divided: often is left to the oldest son. Then this person has to take care of the education of the other siblings. This is the general custom in North East Spain, where agricultural reforms had taken place early, thus was able to industrialize. As land is not divided into small plots for descendents, the owners tend to make long term investments for the business to grow.

Most farmers are members of a local co-operative. These are independent organisations, with no state nor political interference, and owned by the member farmers. Most co-operatives will run a farmers co-op store with seeds, tools, animal feedstock, fertilizer, insecticide etc. with competitive prices. The local co-ops may have understanding with national co-ops so the prices of purchases for their stores can be negotiated at the national level with suppliers and so achieve highly competitive cost prices. Some large co-operatives have sales networks including supermarkets and restaurants.

In Israel, where I have also worked as volunteer, there are co-operative farms known as Kibbutz. All land is owned by the Kibbutz and all work is shared by the members. People tend to live in small houses as they eat in communal dining rooms. Children live together in collective dwellings. The business is run like a company.

After the farmers’ meeting I was taken to my local hosts Abeykoon family for the night, where we had dinner and some time chatting.  The children acted as translators for the adults and the two small girls also put up a song and dance show.

Next morning we had a meeting with some of the local youth at Horizon. Some were still at school while others had left school. In general, the academic system has not prepared these youngsters for any profession nor vocation. Nor have they had career guidance. The choices of Advance Level subjects in the rural schools are completely inadequate: sciences, mathematics, English, economics, ICT are all not available.

The two AIESEC volunteers also joined the meeting to contribute from their perspective.

Shortly after the meeting, we were on our way back to Colombo. We took a route via Puttalam and witnessed road works progressing very well. Our journey together ended at Ja Ela, from where I took a public bus (conditions have hardly improved since I was a school boy) back to Colombo.

I was very happy to visit Mahavilachchiya and Horizon Lanka.

Xin Li in the Hill Country of Sri Lanka

By Xin Li, Beijing, China – UPDATED Saturday, December 12, 2009

I never thought someday I would be so lucky to go to Sri-Lanka, and meet so many good friends, Achchi, Wanni, Ramani, Veronika, Waruna, Iresha, and a bunch of good little kids and my students . Horizon is a tiny little building in Sri-Lanka, but it is the most meaningful place to me. I had never been overseas. When I arrived in Mahavilachchiya, I was a little surprised at its differences from Chinese villages. There weren’t any draught animals.

The first person I met in Horizon Lanka was Ramani, a beautiful little woman. Although I could not speak English very well, we talked a lot about the feelings, my country, my culture, even man. She worried about that I would be afraid of sleeping alone, so she lived with me. “Good morning” and “good night” became the most essential words to me. I liked that. I liked sharing feelings with her, she taught me a lot. She is a wonderful woman and a good teacher. I wish she can find the greatest guy in the world. Achchi is a traditional Sri-Lanka woman, kind-hearted, good cook, loves her children. She is my grandmother, sometimes I want to call her “nainai” (in Chinese it means grandmother). She can’t speak English so we can’t talk. But you know, sometimes we don’t need words to communicate; we can use body languages or eye contacts. I remembered Achchi once said I was her child in the preexistence. She always told me “banana”, “tea”, only single words, but I knew she was afraid I couldn’t eat enough or have a good time there.

I only stayed in Horizon Lanka for forty days. It was a short time, but I had a really good time here. Veronica (other volunteer) always said I was a sky fan. I like Sri-Lanka’s sky, always blue, always with white clouds. you can’t imagine how beautiful the sky is. I want to see it all day long. I like sitting outside, feeling the breeze of the wind, and watching the little squirrel finding food. I have a dream that one day I can buy a house there and grow old.

I taught students oral English and computers. Although I wasn’t a good teacher, all the students listened carefully. I had the feeling that I wanted to teach them everything I know. I liked the three years old kids. I taught them English songs, playing games. Once a little girl told me she loved me, and her father took some overseas coffee, and she invited me to her house to drink coffee. What a cute girl. I think it is the feeling of happiness as a teacher which I never had felt before. I was so proud that all my students loved me.

The Sri-Lanka food is not as good as Chinese. Everyone knows china has the best food. But I like the food they cook with coconut. Sometimes, when Achchi is cooking, I like to stand aside and watch it. Wa, I can still feel the smell, it is sooooooo good. I believe there is nobody who doesn’t like Sri-Lanka fruit, they are so delicious, the pineapple, pawpaw, durian,J my mouth is watering even now. J I like the way they use hand to eat. At first, Ramani was afraid I can’t get used to it well, but I did it really well. I am really proud of that.

During the time in Sri-Lanka, I travelled a lot, Kandy, Nuwara, Colombo. Ramani took me to many temples, some of the names I can’t remember. Actually, I don’t believe in Buddhism, but I like the temples, and I want to see how piety they are. Buddhism teaches Sri Lanka people to practice kindness, love, passion, and the rest I can’t remember. Three is enough, I think. Haha. Anyway, I see so many beautiful temples, maybe you don’t know, there is a rule in temple, you can’t wear shoes in the temple. But the stone was so hot that I couldn’t walk on it, so I sit on the stone and cry out loudly, everyone looked at me and laughed. I felt so embarrassed. I also went to Nuwara Eliya, the coldest place in Sri Lanka. The tea there is the best, even my mother likes it. It has an international garden. As I mentioned it was so cold there, when I went to the garden in the morning, I put the hotel’s cover on and so funny, everybody looked at me. I don’t care because I wouldn’t be frozen only in this way

It took me almost three days from Mahavilachchiya to Beijing; it was really a long trip. I only slept five hours in three days. When I reached home, I was so sleepy. Anyway, it is the most exciting and meaningful experience in my life, thank you for all you guys. I will always remember this wonderful journey.

(Miss Xin Li, an AIESEC intern from the Mainland of China worked at Horizon Lanka, Mahavilachchiya from July 20, 2009 to August 25, 2009.)

Two volunteers of Horizon Lanka using mesh internet in the Wi-Fi Zone

With funding support from ISIF http://isif.asia/, Horizon Lanka embarked on a project to expand its mesh internet network to the entire Mahavilachchiya village. Earlier, coverage was given only to a section of the village.

By 2009, Dialog Telekom had erected a high-capacity tower in Kiralpetiyawa, an underprivileged area which was considered ’the Siberia of Mahavilachchiya’, due to lack of basic facilities in the hamlet. Horizon Lanka thought its ideal that the mesh internet coverage could be extended to Kiralpetiyawa, but it had not been included in the original budget planning. This was explained to Dialog Telekom and Horizon Lanka requested Sri Lanka’s flagship telecom service provider to consider providing their tower facility to install mesh internet equipment free of charge as a CSR initiative. Usual monthly fees charged by telecommunication firms to share tower facilities are prohibitive for an organisation like Horizon Lanka. The much anticipated positive answer came readily from Dialog to use their tower. LankaCom, the mesh implementing company fixed mesh equipment in the Dialog tower few days back. Now the entire Kiralpetiyawa area enjoys mesh internet signals and a 500+ meter
Wi-Fi network exists around the Dialog tower. Signals from Dialog tower are strong enough to reach even distant Pemaduwa, the ‘downtown’ of Mahavilachchiya.

Dialog Telekom has been helping Horizon Lanka since 2002. First they provided low cost phone packages to Horizon Lanka staff and parents and then provided mobile access to a 50 meter radius exclusively around Horizon Lanka computer lab at a time Mahavilachchiya was not covered by Dialog. In 2006, Dialog donated IT equipment and paid salaries to one of our staff members for a year.

In December, 2006 Dialog covered Mahavilachchiya with its network on Horizon Lanka’s request even before they covered Mihintale, a bigger township.

Dialog was the first mobile company to cover Mahavilachchiya. In 2009, Dialog even expanded its coverage to entire Mahavilachchiya by providing coverage via its newly built tower in Kiralpetiyawa.

Horizon Lanka wishes to thank Dialog for its continued support over the years. We wish the company every success in its future endeavors.

Thalia with the nursery kids

Miss Thalia Fotaki from Greece came to Horizon Lanka in early November to work at Horizon Lanka as a volunteer teacher for two months. Thalia is the third volunteer sent by AIESEC, Sri Lanka Chapter. She is teaching both computers and English at Horizon Lanka.

Marijin Mostart

Miss Marijn Mostart from Holland came to Horizon Lanka in early November to work at Horizon Lanka as a volunteer teacher for two months. Marijin is the second volunteer sent by AIESEC, Sri Lanka Chapter. She is teaching both computers and English at Horizon Lanka. On Sundays she works at the Dhamma School in the village temple.

The group opposite Horizon Lanka building

A group of ICT teachers from Hanguranketha, led by Mr. D. M. S. D. Dissanayaka, the ICT Coordinator for Zonal Education Office, Hanguranketha visited Horizon Lanka, Mahavilachchiya on Friday, November 06, 2009. The trip was organized by Mr Dilina Priyanga Bandara, the Chief Organizer of their ICT club. The Horizon Lanka staff did few presentations about Horizon Lanka and how it uses technology to educate the village children and the youth.

Fixing the water pump

Horizon Lanka fixed a water pump to provide continuous water supply to its building and the garden. This year Mahavilachchiya faced a long drought as a result the pipe borne water supply was disturbed.  Hence Horizon Lanka decided to fix a water pump.

Inside the Office

Horizon Lanka building needed a color washing for a long time. Due to difficulties in raising funds this kept delaying. But we got the necessary funding from few generous donors from the United Kingdom last October. We thank those who contributed to this. Now the Horizon Lanka building looks anew. Now the youth at Horizon Lanka are volunteering in making the Horizon Lanka garden beautiful.

This is the list of the donors who contributed for color washing.

Mr. & Mrs. Roshan Hewavitarne
Mr. & Mrs. Dashantha Hewavitarne
Mr. & Mrs. Nimal Ekanayake
Ms Manel Wijayasinghe
Ms Surangani Piyadasa
Mr. & Mrs. Aneil Sirisena
Mr. Gavinash Sirisena

Originally Horizon Lanka had planned the upstairs of the building as the computer lab and downstairs as the multimedia lab. Since upstairs was rented to the BPO, both the computer lab and the multimedia room had to be functioned downstairs. But it did not have the proper electricity lining for computers.

Mr Ananda Sirisena and Subadra Sirisena who visited Horizon Lanka in August were impressed about Horizon Lanka and donated money in September 2009, to do the wiring for the computers. Now all the computers in the lab get electricity properly. We thank the Sirisenas for their generosity displayed.

Veronika Betakova

Veronika Betakova, the Czech Republic – October 5, 2009

Every day here is like an adventure and full of marvelous surprises. I love countries, in which I must use my brain, where I need to use usual things by unusual way. A southern life, a more careless life . In this country the time doesn’t play any role, nothing is in time, but the people are very friendly, willing and you must love their simple life, because it will be also your simple life .

My first feeling, when I came to Mahavilachchiya, was ooouu, unbelievable, like land of nobody, small cottage, nothing, nothing, small cottage, nothing, nothing… After three months here I still cant understand one thing… in the land, in which people going to sleep with the darkness and wake up with the first sun beam (very practical by the insects), has all the village Wi-Fi connection, ok, its slowly and with many power cuts, but still its like a miracle .

I live in a 5-members family and they know only a few English words, so my Sinhala is becoming better and better day by day . It’s interesting to have 2 small brothers and one sister, the best contraception for next years . But no, they are very nice, I have all one room only for me and with mosquito net, what more to wish???? My new mom still spends some time by me, usually only smiled and tried to turn away all insects, so lovely . Even they try to cook no spicy food for me and I can take a spoon and also I can stay in flip-flops, because I never before tried earth floor . Who doesn’t love them??? Amma (my hostess) never forgets me , when I go on a trip, she adds me some food. Usually in newspaper, if my Sinhala or Tamil will be better I can use it also other way .  She has my big admiration, from September started school also here, so Amma wakes up every morning around 4am, irons school uniforms and prepares food for children, of course rice and something. I spend every week 2 long hours by hand-washing, but she needs to wash clothes for all family. She still persecutes me, tried to putting up my skirts and shorts and putting down my T-shirts, I have to look like a good girl .Last times I was on something like acceptance of new house and she ran to me with fork and reboiled water, dear Amma . I felt so special like never in my life, can u imagine around many people, just sitting, praying and then eating on the floor only with hands and for me prepared table .

I start to be really nature girl in a good words meaning… wake up with the birds, in worse case with ants and mosquitoes. In the toilet find frogs, in the garden dogs, cats, turtles, squirrel and sometimes also scorpions, but don’t worry, usually they have antitoxin at home and you still have 1-2 hours of live (if it will be my last words, remember, 2 hours are NOT enough ). Be or not to be??? No, no, the question is little other: Take a shower in “bathroom” or in river??? They still use for the cooking…fire, normal, open fire in the kitchen . In my might is still one of our folk’s songs: she was putting clothes in the water and a frog jumped there…. ye, ye, ye, they don’t have washing machines, but you can find here a washing powder and also iron, jajaj, luxury . By every washing I feel like in a TV-spot for washing powder,  just put dirty clothes in the water, add washing powder, wait around 10-15 minutes, then wash every piece in hand around 10 minutes and your clothes have never been so clean and white like now . I saw here only one really big rain and as u suppose it was when I finished with hanging clothes .

I have new nick name, I try to teach them to pronounce  Veronika or Nika, but no, I’m Miss or Teacher, haha. I have only Basic English from travelling, movies, books and I have never been a teacher, so I was little (maybe more than only little) scared of teaching English. But now I see the teaching is nothing difficult, you must be just careful, hear them, make  fun and make compliment for every improvement . And they love controlling of notebooks and don’t want to go home without homework . On my first lesson I made fun with my Sinhala knowledge and then played with small game draw and describe and they liked it . Also I didn’t know, that I can describe so many words only with my body without using words.

With the small children we only teach ABC, also how to write ABC and numbers till 10, then some songs and small sentences about name, age, family… Drawing is still very popular and we start with singing, poor children by my music antitalent .

In second group are children around 9 and they are very clever. They know only a few words, so is very hard to explain their grammar, but it’s not a problem, step by step and now we know how to introduce myself, use “to be”, possessive pronouns, buy a chocolate in shop (because this I know also in Sinhala), some new verbs, animals, things and they want also singing, ajajaj, why, why with me???? One day I used a DVD and till they were watching a movie, I repaired swings; for sure I had to test it like first . We play football, volleyball and also they teach me cricket . The popular game is “hide and seek” and “karam” (kind of table games).
Every class we start with a repetition, I’m going to sleep and waking up with ABC and numbers till 20 . I teach them how to play “hop” and also I prepared for them small Olympic Games.

We find the best way how to teach and learn. For example, I explained them ordinal numeral on the winners and “want” with a game with ball. The explaining of preposition I started with drawing and then we played a game with chairs. Smaller ones are also very clever, they remembered very quickly words fly and plane, yes, yes, yes I showed them this game and from this moment, also because of cricket, start to be my biceps and triceps nice well developed .

They are very nice, also give me chocolate and sugar, jajaj, corruption in so small age and I give them support in this, jajaj, where is this world moving towards????  From they found, that I can be happy from everything, they start to take me flowers, fruit, shells and also feathers, for which I find nice places in my hair, so sometimes I’m teacher Winnetou.  By presented shells is good to check if their owner are not more inside and peacocks feather is very danger for eyes .

The second part of my work was to create a strategy analysis with the business plan for HLF. It was great; I prefer, when I can organize work by myself and with Wanni I was only in online contact.
I like cycling, so sometimes I make a trip around, where you can find nice lakes with lotus flowers or rice fields. At the start was for me difficult became on left riding or crazy drivers, but now it is for me funny, you have a occasion to try a way by bus, train, “toc toc”, tractor, motorbike.

The food its very, very, very spicy, so when I ask for not spicy and have enough water I can pass it and if not, here are many poor animals, that like also spicy food . Did u remember the part of movie Forrest Gump, when Bubba want to say all the ways how to prepare shrimps??? I can do the same ….with a coconut, when u think u can imagine all taste, try coconut with chilly or with onion, hmmmm delicious . Rice on the lunch, rice on the dinner, rice between its ok, but really not rice on the breakfast , in this time I prefer their bread, they have only one kind of white bread, so easy choice Interesting, that when u ask them, which is their favorite food, usually is answer rice with curry. For salty juices I was prepared from Taiwan, but pineapple with pepper?!?! Amma starts to know, that more than various mashes and spicy masses I like salad from fresh vegetables, Cinderella has competition, I can find every peace of chilly . And I don’t spurn of fresh fruit, but I prefer only fruit, without salt, chilly or other spice. I made also special dinner for my family. The Ceylon is famous by the tea and it’s true, it’s so delicate. They have many kind of tea, but the most popular is black. I saw nobody with coffee, but says is terrible. Because of English colonization drinks tea with milk and sugar, sugar, sugar, jejejej, it’s sweet and sweeter.  My family has special way, they have in one hand small tea cup and in the second sugar and the proportion is almost the same.

From any times I start to call these people “hummingbirds nation”. And do you know why??? Any idea? No??? Because when they agree usually make with the head a symbol of infinite, u know like horizontal 8, the same like hummingbird with the wings. At the same time say ou, ou, ou (yes, yes, yes), so at the start I was really lost, I didn’t know if it means yes or no.

I still don’t understand school uniformity; it’s not only the same clothes and shoes, but also the same look. Girls only long hair in 2 rolls with black bow at the end and with hair path really in the middle and boys very short or slick on the side. No exceptions!!! It’s like effort to wipe out the property difference, but how to wipe out something so manifest?????

I learned how to make classroom, better small hut, only from wood and palm trees and also how to make a floor. It’s a very good smelling cubby . Even I helped also in kitchen, jajajaj, from Verca start to be cooker , ok, my “papadam” was a little bit black, but pancakes with imagines or short messages were famous .  As u know by cooking we use fire, but u don’t have fire so easy. One nice day I visited with my new family their plantation and we prepared some logs.

I visited also many nice places around and we were with the staff also on a few motorbike trips in the most famous places.

Sure it’s the next unforgettable traineeship, which give me better writing (it’s terrible to spell every word), a feeling that the children are not a small monsters, teaches me a simple life and change my looking at the world. Thanks, thanks for this great chance. I have still a few days here, but I’m sure to say good bye will be one of the hardest things in my life.

(Miss Veronika Betakova, an AIESEC intern from the Czech Republic worked at Horizon Lanka, Mahavilachchiya from August 2009 to October 2009.)

Access original page with pictures at http://www.horizonlanka.net/volunteer/veronika/index.html