During the eight weeks I spent in Sri Lanka at the Child Care and Community Work program, I got to experience all aspects of the country, culture and most importantly the beautiful people. I started off my time with the local team renovating temples. Getting to spend the day in such sacred buildings was a special and unique experience. It was such a great feeling knowing that we were helping develop the community by renovating these temples.
I then switched to the special needs program where we spent the day working with young girls and women. During the days I spent there I was teaching, playing games and both spreading and receiving so much love and joy. Special needs was my favorite project throughout the trip. As soon as you walk into their home you realize how much you are helping the family out. I always felt needed and important as a volunteer on this program.
The local staff of the organization were just the cherry on top of the whole experience. Getting to know and witness how hard these people are working for all of the participants to make sure we felt like our time and energy was well spent was truly inspiring. I have so much gratitude to the whole Sri Lanka local team, the Aunties who work tirelessly to feed all of the participants, Hemantha who somehow never forgets a single thing you ask of him even while he is being asked 10 things at once, Shyamala and Rashmini who I got the pleasure of spending a week on the Dambulla project with. They both came with me and the other participants and worked alongside us building and teaching the local village students. It was incredible to see how much the staff truly cares about us and the program.
So thankful for everything I got to experience and I can’t wait to go back someday!
