Sitting here in Colombo during my ‘free week’ I can hardly believe that the Project Sri Lanka 2010 program is actually over.  The past 10 weeks seems to have flown by yet I also feel as though I have been here so long that Sri Lanka is home. I have become so comfortable with the culture, the food and the people I have met here that returning to life in the UK seems surreal.  Saying my farewell to the many villagers and children in Kirelawela and the other Durham projects has been an incredibly sad experience, but saying goodbye to the close friends I have made here has been heart-wrenching and very emotional.  The only consolation is that I have not really said goodbye, just ‘until we meet again…..’.
The last few weeks of the program were very busy as we had the cultural show to organise, the painting of the murals on the wall at Kirelawela to finish and a number of practicalities to take care of.  The whole team pulled together and worked over-time to get everything done.  All of us girls bought sarees to wear for our cultural show and we thoroughly enjoyed going to the dress makers to have our blouses and underskirts sewn for the big occasion.  Our dear friend Krishanthi, the dance teacher from Rassandenyia came to Moon Bridge on the weekend before the show and choreographed a Sri Lankan dance for us to perform.  We also rehearsed the Africa 2010 World Cup song – Waving the Flag and the S Club 7 song – Reach for the Stars to perform too as both of these had proved popular with the children coming to our after school programs.  On the final morning of the program we were all up early to get ready for the cultural show.  Even though we knew it was time to say our final goodbyes, everyone was in good spirits.  Some of our Sri Lankan friends came to help us dress in our sarees as they are extremely complex to put on.  As a girl who never wears skirts, I was quite nervous as to how I would look in one, especially as my saree was a red-pink colour and very decorative; something I would never normally dream of wearing.  However, once I had it on it looked fantastic and it made me feel even more special for it being so totally untypical of me!
That final day passed so quickly and before I knew it, it was time to leave Moon Bridge and say goodbye to the team.  Everyone has made different arrangements for sight-seeing in this last week but there are plans to spend the last night together in a hotel near the airport.  Dhanya and I however, have opted to spend our week volunteering in a children’s home in Colombo.  We are working in a government counselling centre with 21 girls who have been raped or suffered serious sexual abuse.  Despite the trauma in their young lives, most of the girls are incredibly positive, affectionate and outgoing and are focused on rebuilding their lives.  They are an inspiration to me and my work here has been a humbling experience.  Like so many things during my time in Sri Lanka, working with the girls here is teaching me as much about myself as it is about the difficulties they have experienced and how they are overcoming them.  I have learnt so much over the past two months that it is difficult to pin point any one thing.  I think what has most affected me during the trip is the realisation of how little I appreciate my freedom as a western woman.  Having previously worked in Pakistan, I am well aware of how restricted women in some countries are.  However, in Sri Lanka I have formed close friendships with women so similar to me in personality and so full of potential, yet so completely bound by the constraints of both culture and family as to be unable to fulfil this.  It has been very difficult for me to realise that I am leaving behind friends that are care deeply about who are trapped in the ‘traditional village role’ of women and largely confined to the house.  To me this seems an unbearable future but whilst unhappy and sometimes tearful about it, my friends have accepted it and face it bravely as it is the only future open to them.  Their courage leaves me in awe of them and again, I find myself very humbled.
I am still absorbing everything I have learnt from my time in Sri Lanka but I think I am undoubtedly a stronger, more open minded person now than I was at the start of the trip.  I am staying on for an extra week after the rest of the team have flown back to the UK.  I am going to use this time to go to a Buddhist meditation retreat so that I can learn more about Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka, but also to spend some quite time in reflection on my whole experience here.  The last 10 weeks have been very busy, very tiring but very rewarding and I have a strong sense that my work in Sri Lanka has only just begun.  I hope to return here in the near future.  However, for now I am looking forward to a calm ending to this trip contemplating all that has happened and the impact it has had on my life.