1983 School Magazine

T'E{E T}NNNGS THAT DREAR,{S ARE &T,{DE OF . . . Having been asked to write a page on my year spent in Sri n-anka on AIFS n have struck a seemingly insurmountaLrle problern: how do { fit a whole year into one page? There really is only one answer to that question, and that is to try. So here goes... Elephants: in the zoo, in peraheras (processions), on the roads in the south, in wildlife parks and once in Colombo itself . . . deadly.snakes by our fishtanks, jackals, mongeese, buffalo, thousands upon thousands of monkeys and water monitors in the waste land near rny house . . . thecows that frequently passed, who terrified my "sister" but didn't seem to affect the postman or baker who came everyday on their bikes to deliver their wares. My wanderings to temples, religious festivals and monkeys of the south . . . to the sun-drenched, idyllic days of the east coast where deserted beaches, sun and man seem untouched by all that is western and ruinous . . . to the dry, host, famine- touched north where the Sri tr-ankan civilisation began and construction ofthe fifth century E.C. still stand (and can be seen on Duran Duran's video clip of'Save a Frayer') . . . to the incredibly beautiful green tea country where tr spent days at an estate eating my fill of glorious food, splashing in clear streams, breathing the fresh mountain air and touring the tr-ipton's tea factory . . . and of my daily tours from Battaramulla and Nugegoda through the poorest areas of Colombo, where huts and rubbish dumps border on the elite three storey rnansions, to school. tsattarumulla and Nupepoda, the two suburbs tr spent my year in: impossible names to pronounce unless carefuliy instructed, but fascinating places anyway . . . the rural character of both places due to being situated outside the city limits . . . the open air meat and fish (and fly) markets of Nugegoda . . . Battaramulla's main street which consisted ol about forty wooden sheds measuring about five feet by ten feet and stocked everything from vegemite, through fanta and coke, to rice, green chillies, curry powder and coconut oil. And if this all sound to much like a holiday brochure or a fantasy perhaps you should apply for a scholarship throught AFS of Rotary, and see the world for yourself! To quote Human Leage: "Take a trip to China, or a train to Spain. Go round the world again and again . . . these are the things that dreams are made of . . ." Jan Murphy