Lights began to gradually vanish into the dark as batting eyelashes transitioned into rest. The flashes of shutterbugs that captured moments of utter ලැජ්ජාව woke the drooling Rotaractors for a snack right in the middle of the night. The tiny huts lined by the side of the road whose දුම lifted into the thick mist provided උණුසුම for that night. The උණු උණු roti served with a warm cup of plain tea brought the young strangers together for the very first time.
About 10 hours later
The Rotaractors stepped foot on the වියළි grounds of the North where they were greeted and accompanied for a breakfast of idly with a පරිප්පු curry of simply goodness! With a tick-tock, freshened up Rotaractors headed to the grounds accompanied by the RAC Club of Jaffna Midtown, where they completed their first task of literal stalking. It served as the first initiative in building unity among Rotaractors as it involved completely getting to know a particular person by avoiding direct conversation with that person but through a කතාබහ with the rest of the members. Followed by the session of impersonation the day’s activities began. One of the activities that stood out included two members recovering a gem from a පිඟානක් full of පිටි and handing it over to the next two teammates to begin their lap; a wheelbarrow race followed by another two teammates running a කකුල් තුනේ race, a blindfolded partner යෝගට් කැවීම and another hurdling through ලණු ensuring that the gem reaches the finish line. This goes to show how each person’s role and commitment affect the collective and the power of group work.
බිත්තර passing between two teammates with an increase of the පර්තරය between each other per pass was another task of a gainful activity! This goes to prove how responsibility can easily ලිස්සා යන්න through our fingers costing the whole team. At the same time teaching to foster ඉවසීම and නොපසුබස්නා උත්සාහය when challenges increase in complexity. Each team comprising of 8 members also engaged themselves in a හකා to break the language barrier and express their නිර්මාණශීලීත්වය.
The organizing teams, Rotaract Clubs of Colombo Mid Town, Colombo Fort, Jaffna Mid Town, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Wattala, Informatics Institute of Technology, MSI, Colombo North and ICBT surely contributed in creating opportunities for each member to utilize their strengths, put their අපහසුතාවන් and බිය aside in helping one another, facilitating real team spirit.
The sun set in glory and the සුළඟ brought tingles on the bronzed skins of Rotaractors as it touched the waters of the Kankasanthrai beach that soaked them all, signaling the අවසානය of an insightful day leading Rotaractors to their accommodation for dinner.
They say හොඳ කෑම brings family together. Indeed! For the Rotaractors of the උතුර and the බටහිර shared their last meal as one family under one roof before parting ways after an exchange of not only a culture box but values, memories and much more.
Rtr. Tashya Wickramarachchi
check out our cluster video created by Rtr. Anjana Gajanayake,
https://www.facebook.com/516963321716053/posts/2878189605593401/?vh=e&d=n
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