Family and Sisters [SRILANKA ll]

 I was trying to snap a picture of mamapu's yummy dishes but was then interrupted by two attention-seeking hands *troll face. From here you can imagine how noisy and nutty when my sisters and I were all together,

.... and so the people I'm gonna introduce in this post are all my honeybees that made everything in Sri Lanka even more sweeter! :3

I really do believe in fate. See how people from different countries with different backgrounds and religions, came together in Sri Lanka, and shared so many joyous moments together, with a unique bond between us.

                                           i love you you love me we are happy family :*

Let me first introduce you my Sri Lankan family!!!

From the left:
Pulani the choodedoo (means little daughter in Sinhalese),
PapaPu , MamaPu, Cece and I!

As we were actually staying in the school, so we will only be back to our Sri Lanka home when we travelled to Colombo. (fyi, it takes 3 hours to travel from Kandy to Colombo by train.)

                                  This is the Pu family's house! A very cozy place full with love!

And this is a small lane that we will have to walk pass to hop on to the bus at the main road.
"Take the number 100 or 101 bus and get down at Golumaudama junction." Haha! this is papaPu's favourite quote after all. He's  always reminding us to not miss the train, to get off from the bus, to take the earliest train, etc etc.
Great papa, cool papa!

A close-up photo of papaPu! cheeeezeeee :)


And this is my beloved mamaPu!
Beautiful and humble, a caring mama with a young soul in her body!

 

mamaPu with her favourite kitchen!
She's a really good chef and everytime when we were homed, she will cook all the yummy traditional Sri Lankan dishes for us!

And she treats us like her real daughters. In fact, we are her daughters! :D 

Also, meet my Sri Lankan brothaaas and sistaaa!
If you read back my old blog posts, you will find Rajitha, Chadthura and Pulani in one of the pictures! And yes, we met up again in Sri Lanka!!

Chad and Pula picked me up from the airport and it was really heart-warming to be welcomed by familiar faces once I landed in a foreign country.
                                                          Raj, Chad, lucky me and Pula! :D

Ohmigosh now im gonna introduce you guys the most important person whom had been dealing with me on my exchange, assisting me with my visa, planning this and that for us, the woman behind this project-

 PULAAAAA the choodedoooo!

My capable cutie pie Pula ♥
She's the project manager of 'Ayanna'!
Congratulations on your wonderful job and thanks for everything my friend. :) 

And i'll kill to see you again hahaha ok not so serious la
I'm waiting for you here in Malaysia!! And whatever you do, keep keep going and make papamamapu proud kay!
we know you will! ;D  

And next is Darshy the half SLankan and half Malaysian!!

He brought me to a nice local restaurant for lunch and the moment I met him it's like AHHHH MALAYSIANNNNN then we started to do what we do best- speaking in our very own Malaysian accent! wooohooooo

and he went wild with his new dialogue 'Are you insaneeee' despite of the old one 'Bojioooo'.
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA #Darshyisawesome!


Also, thanks Darshie for rushing right after your work to join us at the Global Village, to represent Malaysia, and to spread the wise use of the Malaysian's 'Lah' practice in Sri Lanka :P



Out of two hundred plus of awesome people from all over the world, there is only me the only Malaysian.
And so, having Darshy to back me up made me extremely happy and also proud!!
One and a half Malaysian waved Hello to the plenary!! :DDD

Once again, Thank You Darshy!
And now you have a new half-a-SriLankan back in Malaysia! :P

*********************************************************************************
YEAY! Now meet my awesome sisters from alllllll overrrrr theeee worldddddd!!

Yeap! We were all there for the same purpose, lucky to come under the same batch, though we were separated at different places in Sri Lanka, but we will meet up during weekends and off for a weekend trip! :D

Wheeeee! Spot sweetie Valerie from Holland, AhMi and Cassidy from Taiwan, Mai from Vietnam,
Yaya Cece and Lyric from China & Hira and Zeenat from Pakistan! :)

Our first outing together!

First dinner together!

Oh hi! meet this grumpy princess Sarah from Bahrain !

She got some funny bones in her that will always crack us into laughing manias.

And this is my lovely Ahmi from Taiwan!!
A very strong and sweet friend ahmi ahmi ahmi~~~ i miss singing with you just to annoy hira hahahaaha 
a great dancer, singer and friend!  ♥


woots maaaaa sisterrrrrrr!! Meet my crazy bad annoying sister from Pakistan- Hira the lady boss!
aww look at her puppy face *pinch pinch*

 Nah I'm just kidding! A really awesome friends she is! Love picking up fight with me but she made our every trip merrier and noisier hahahahaha i miss you sisterrrrrrr TvT faster come to Malaysia to see me and get yourself a poodle!                                           *hugs*

This is another sister of mine from China- Ceceeee!!

My first friend in Sri Lanka and we clicked like nemo and dory.

I miss our story sessions and all your stupid jokes. ahhhhhhhh

It's my pleasure to meet you ah C, thanks for everything you did for me and for us! loves :')

So these are the people whom had been together with me during my days in Sri Lanka, and i just can't describe how insane we were, all the fun we had, the wacky language jokes we shared and the fighting and arguing moments that will always turn into endless laughters; and i treasure them all!

wheehee random happy moments! :)

                                   Squeezing in our favourite Sri Lanka's roller coaster- the tuktuk!

the more the merrier!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Waiting for bus by the road side, together with Sarah's mum who visited Sri Lanka!

WEEEEEEE LOVEEEE ICE-CREAMMMMM! :D

"to the right to the right~~"

Regardless of nationality :)

young and fabby!

Ahh, so much fun and so many wonderful memories!!!
Once in a life time and I wish our friendship can last! With FB and Skype, no problem la no :))) shake head shake head (the Sri Lankan OK style!)
I love how close we can be with each other, even though we speak with different English accent but
*insert our favourite quote* nobody cares! haha!
I miss you all!!!!!!!! T-T

Thank you my sisters for all the beautiful memories! :')
Till we meet again,

"but when?"

     "Look! There!                              
                .... In the future! :)"

WHAT I DID IN SRI LANKA?

HELLO peopleeeeee!
I prefer to share with you the beautiful morning glory of Sri Lanka to start this post! :D
and yesyesyesyesyesyesyes for you lovely instagrammers and FBers you must have known from my spams that I've been to Sri Lanka recently and im sorry for that :P

For what?
I went to Sri Lanka from the 4th of July 2013 for AIESEC's Global Community Development Program (GCDP) to work on Education and also Cultural Exchange.
I was there for 6 weeks and I worked under the 'Ayanna' Project of University of Kelaniya, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

For those of you whom are curious about what we did there and how was the response and all, here I am to clarify your doubts! Here you go! :)

WHAT I DID IN SRI LANKA?

I should first start with the introduction to the school I've been staying/eating/working/laughing/and now missing. 

Tadaaa! This is
Mowbray College Kandy!Mowbray College is a tamil-based-girl-school and the school provides nursery program all the way to A-levels classes.
Most of the members of the school speak their mother tongue but since English is their second language so the girls can speak really fluent English too.


Mowbray College is located in Kandy, the second largest city of Sri Lanka after Colombo. *my favourite city too! :D*
As the city lies in the midst of hills, the weather there is really pleasant just like Malaysia's Cameron Highland!

wheeee charming perky Mowbray girls!

For our project we have about 12 of us for the July batch. 

Two out of twelve were assigned to Mowbray College and together with me I have Yaya the sleeping beauty from China! hahahahaha

Yaya is currently studying in Macau, one year older than me and she got superrrr good sense of direction! It's because of her that I didnt get lost in Sri Lanka. :P
She's a really lovely girl and also a great listener.
My forever-chillax-roommate and also gate-climbing-partner-in-crime! ngeheheheheheh

                                                      Now take a look at our room! 

It was a storeroom before we came but the maidens of the school modified it into a guesthouse for us! :*)
It is basically empty with just two wooden beds. We had so many funny yet lovely daily jokes in this room!

I can still remember how Yaya broke the two pieces of woods under her bed at our very first night in Mowbray, how we wrapped ourselves in jackets and blanket as it was so so cold at night, how we shouted surprisingly when we first saw fireflies in the room in the middle of the night, how we got frustrated by the whining mosquitoes, how freaking icy it was every morning we woke up and also how we chit-chatted everynight before we slept.

          A sneak peek of us in our second home in Sri Lanka! *v*

And this is our little modified kitchen.
Yaya used to cook her own meal as the spicy food made her cry too much. hahaha

See! This is where the girls will have their bath every morning at 5am. Trust me it was so super freaking cold but the girls were so used to it already.

Okay back to work! :)

Greetings from the SriLanka's little angels! :)))

Okay now I am really going into the topic HAHAHAHHA!

WHAT I DID IN SRI LANKA?

WE HAD:
1. Interaction with the Kindergarten sweetie pies!

Here, most of the kindergarten girls stay in the school. YES at such young age!! and i think that's what made them so disciplined and well-behaved! (Y) (Y) (Y)

These young and jolly girls love singing alottttttt! plus they are amazing fast-learners! So besides origami and basic English classes, we had alot of foreign-language singing and dancing sessions with them too! :D

This is in Hillwood College, a twin branch of Mowbray College. We visited the girls at night and they were all still soooooo energeticccccc and superrrrr cuteeeeeee!

                                        They were learning how to sing 'Rasa Sayang'! :D

Cece and Sarah (another two interns from China and Bahrain who were working in Hillwood College) taught them some rhymes in their languages too!

                                  *meltsssss* mama oyate aradei! (means I love you in Sinhala!)
You can see the blings in their eyes when they storied about their dreams, with their hands gesturing and waving in the air. And it just made me feel so touched seeing these girls practicing good attitudes from such young ages (they are all four to six year old), knowing that to learn is their essential diary and they complain nothing!! they already are dream-makers themselves, and hopefully dream-catcher when they grow up!


2. WE HAD WORKSHOPS!!this is like a dream-come-true for me! :D
Yaya & I actually had quite some discussions with the Madam Principal of the school, some expectation-settings, some studies on the girls' behaviors and all; then we proposed our ideas to the principal and she was so supportive that she agreed with our plans and even came out with a team to assist our schedules!

And this is she! :) A true leader not just of the school!! If it's not because of her, we wouldn't get the chance to create our own workshops and have such fruitful exchange in Mowbray College!
Thank you so much Madam Principal! :))

oh wait, what kind of workshops?

**HISTORY WORKSHOPS with the exam classes!

Yaya carried out History workshops with exam classes in which History is one of the examing subjects.

And she focuses more on China's history and societal changes. And she was so impressed by how detailed was the China's stories in the girls' History textbook! The girls get to see some pictures of China via Yaya's presentation slides and they were like 'Ohhh so what we studied in the textbook is realllllll!' :D

we also had..
**Personality Development Workshop!!

In this workshop we focused more on positive-thinking, self-confidence and correct mindsets that teen girls should carry! :D we had this workshop with most of the classes from the age of 13 to 18.

Some girls were really shy and they spoke so soft that you can only hear them when you stick your ear almost to their mouths. :P But you can see the girls trying to push themselves to stand and to speak throughout the session and that was pretty inspiring.
One best feeling include seeing this particular girl building her self-confidence day-by-day from one whom never look into your eyes when she speaks to one whom will throw you a smile when she was emceeing on the stage. :*)

And also, we had..

**Prefect Workshops- The Leader in Me!

Specially designed workshop for the emerging leaders of the school, the prefects!!

nonono they were not sleeping! it was self-reflection session :D

One thing I really like about the teachers are, they never try to make themselves superior or unapproachable, and they are so big-hearted that the girls are always their priorities in whatever they do!
To make sure that the girls will learn and benefit through this workshop, the teachers never mind staying back after class to have discussions with us! #respect!

The girls were so lively and they were brave enough to stand forward and share their points. We had crazy laughing moments and also tear-jerking session and we knew that our initial motive for having this workshop was achieved after listening to their sharing session at the end of the workshop. 

and i'm so proud of all of you girls!!! :"D

                           The beloved teachers whom had been assisting us, a lot!! :)

                                                                      The prefect teacher

                                                                    this is Miss Subashini! :) 
Look out people!

                                  BAAAAAAH ! WE CAN BE VERY CRAYYZEEEHHHH

Next!
3. WE HAD CULTURAL PRESENTATION!

We had this one and a half hour of cultural presentation, where Yaya & I presented about our countries, we wore our traditional costumes and Yaya even prepared a traditional Chinese dish!

This is Yaya talking about the beauty of China! Also we talked about fun facts of our countries, and also some culture-shocks we encountered in Sri Lanka. We sang our songs and we had a simple funny talk show!
Some teachers were so tempted to visit Malaysia that they even asked me about the cost of travelling and airlines and visa after the presentation! bwahahahaha i'm potential Malaysia ambassador whey :P

***************
Besides all these classes, workshops and presentations, we had quite many Sharing sessions chit-chatting sessions singing sessions dancing sessions and joking sessions which are obviously what I love doing too! hahahaha

                                                             bahoooooo! Fun times we had! :)

Sharing session is always the best. Learning their practices and beliefs from their stories, knowing how special these people are, and also how lucky I am.

AND THEN...... 6 WEEKS PASSED.
Mowbray College will be having their sem break and Yaya & I had to say goodbyes. :(

First of all, say byebye to our room sweet room! Though you've made us shiver alot but we will still love you. :3


Then, byebye to my favourite place in Mowbray.
The little space right infront of our room where I will spend my every evening having a cup of tea there with some nice music and my books.

And then goodbye to this familiar lane where Yaya & I can even walk with our eyes closed. HAHAHA!
this is the lane to Kandy town, where we used to train our muscles climbing up and down, laughing at stupid jokes, avoiding tuktuk and singing our old songs.


And then goodbyes to my lovely friends.
They are the ones who've made our days in Mowbray even more splendid!

who cares about colour when we are this comfortable with each other and are this close enough :))

                                   Linda, Praveena, Shika, Babey, Pumba, Shiva. I miss them!!
                                                  and i really hope that I can see them again!

                                            this is sad.  BYE-BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~~~~~

I bet this is not the end of our story as I will definitely visit Mowbray College once again if I get to be back to Sri Lanka!
*************************

And these are what I've been doing in Sri Lanka for the past 6 weeks! 
it was a really really wonderful experience as I get to experience and enjoy being half a Sri Lankan :P,
being showered by the hospitality of the lovely people,
create positive impacts to the girls (from culture understanding to self-development),
and also to be inspired and empower myself throughout my 6 weeks of Global Community Development Program :)))

oh waitttt! I have this little sweet story to share with all of you before I end this post! :)
There was this girl, she came to me after the personality development workshop with one of the classes ended, softly she said :"Aki Yuin, thank you for showing the world to us." And then she hugged me and then she went. and bingo i cried. hahahahaha 
it's like, you know you are really doing something good that will help these girls in becoming better leaders of their own lives!! it's your existence there with them that will further motivate them to work towards what they want, despite all the cruel realities that they might need to face!

So..
If you are interested in joining GCDP, do not hesitate to talk to me to know more about it! Everyone can go for an exchange! As long as you're passionate enough, you'll get the chance to fly and to contribute too! :)

That's NOT all about my Sri Lanka's journey!

I'm gonna introduce you my Sri Lankan family and also my sisters from all over the world!
So Stay tuned for my next post! :D