The Colombo More Than the Sea: A SFP School Journey to Colombo
This is the second school trip we’ve organized through Piku-Pihi. Originally, we planned for the Kaluaabe school, but due to a scheduling issue, we moved the trip to Veruppankulam.
“Can you get it ready in two days?”
“Yes!”
We received the request from Kalana Sir at Veruppankulam a long time ago, but inflation and an accident delayed us. “Let’s do this for Veruppankulam, akka,” Sashini kept pushing. We even talked about it at 1.00 a.m. on some nights, almost giving up at times, but then deciding to go for it again.
Finally, the day before yesterday, we made the decision. And yesterday, on August 20th 2023, they started their trip to Colombo.
Some might think it’s a small thing to show a few kids in Sri Lanka the city of Colombo, like writing a big story about showing a child a moon on Mars. But for me, it’s a big deal. And for them, it’s an even bigger deal.
This is that story.
SLLDS is our association, the Sri Lankan Lady Doctors’ Association. While I don’t usually use the term “lady doctors” when talking about our profession, today I will. Because only “ladies” can pull off a project like this.
Piku-Pihi also provides food for another schools and gives every girl there sanitary pads for a year to support menstrual health. Amidst these efforts, we took on this project for the Veruppankulam students.
I saw the kids, who woke up at 3 a.m. in Veruppankulam to board the bus, for the first time in the pictures sent around 5:30 a.m. They were all wearing beautiful, matching T-shirts.
“Sir, you must have spent a lot. What a waste!”
“Don’t worry, Madam. I arranged the kids so you wouldn’t feel ashamed. I told you not to worry.”
Sashini and I weren’t worried about the cost. They were already beautiful. Our only fear was that the people in Colombo wouldn’t see how beautiful they were.
We couldn’t give a detailed itinerary for the trip. We had to coordinate with the school on one side and the people from Colombo on the other. It was a rhythmic back-and-forth.
They left at 3 a.m. and reached Galle Face at 8 a.m. That’s where they had breakfast. A few of us met them there, and the trip started with a gift parcel. Manik Akka had walked all over Pettah the day before to get these gifts. “We need to give them in a way that truly makes them happy, nangi,” she said.
Then, Manisha Akka took over. We took them to the Lotus Tower. After eating ice cream, they went up to see from the top of tower.
“Do we really need to take them to see that?”
“Probably not, right?”
“The tallest thing they’ve ever seen is the Ruwanweliseya. Isn’t that enough?”
But in the end, we decided to show the kids the tallest tower built with the collective foolishness of our generation. It’s so tall! You could see in children’s body language that they had never seen anything so high before.
They even went on an escalator. The first time I ever rode one, I was about 20. Gayana was at the Colombo campus, and I was a first-year at Peradeniya. Gayana once took me to see Colombo. I had passed through Colombo many times on the way to Balapitiya, but I had never gone there just to see the city. That day was my first time on an escalator. I can still vividly remember the first step I took. Gayana held my hand. I didn’t step on the first stair—I think I jumped!
“We rode those in our twenties.”
“Just because we went then doesn’t mean these kids have to wait until they’re our age.”
“You’re right.”
I heard the same conversation the day before yesterday. That night, we were watching the movie “Ho Gana Pokuna” at home. After two hours of watching this emotional story, there’s a scene where the daughter asks Ama Wijesekara, “Mom, have you ever seen the sea?”
Ama replies, “After I got married, your dad took me to Colombo once and showed me the sea.”
The girl thinks and then says, “I guess I’ll have to wait until I get married to see the sea, too.”
“Madam, our children had never seen the sea.”
Even though the sea surrounds our island, not every foot gets to touch a wave. It’s a simple pleasure that not everyone gets to experience.
With Piku-Pihi, we also provide food for a Tsunami village. The sea brought them sorrow during the tsunami. But for our kids, the sea is a place of love.
“Akka, it was my baby’s birthday yesterday, so I brought cupcakes for these kids, too,” Kasuni said, bringing the cupcakes to the Lotus Tower. They were bright pink. Even now, when I eat a cupcake, I get frosting all over my mouth. These kids don’t know how to eat a cupcake like Thrikala Dharani. Honestly, neither do I. Cupcakes with pink icing! It was amazing.
Next, they went to Water World. Dilani Nangi arranged all the tickets. Naomi Akka sent pizzas there. She asked me to remind her of the time to order, but it was nighttime in her country, so she was asleep. I had to wake her up to place the order. “Madam, some of them have never had pizza!”
After that, they visited the Kelaniya Temple. After cleansing their sins from birth, they had lunch and a bath, and then it was time for dinner.
Rangika has a special bond with this school. She’s rebuilding it with her son’s class at Ananda College. Rangika started the project by selling a book her son wrote, a true story about him saving two parakeet chicks. His name is Kalana. He made sure all our kids had enough DJ music to dance to. The headmaster even danced!
The evening ended with a fantastic dinner for the whole bus, thanks to Hotel Decos.
From the bus fare to dinner and all the other expenses, everyone contributed.
A group of people came together to bring another group to Colombo and show them the city.
For the kids of Veruppankulam, Colombo isn’t just a city.
It’s the sea.
It’s the tall Lotus Tower.
It’s a staircase that goes up and down on its own.
Colombo is a beautiful place.
The most important thing is that they didn’t have to wait until they got married to see Colombo or sea.
Yesterday, while watching “Ho Gana Pokuna,” I laughed at how hard it was for the kids in the movie to see the sea. My dad was from Balapitiya, so the sea was a very close place for us during every school holiday. Dad is not here anymore. We went to the sea because of him. Even today, with every wave that touches my feet and every sound of the ocean, I can see my dad taking Gayana and me by the hand to walk on the Balapitiya shore. In my primary school, nobody had traveled by train or seen the sea. I remember boasting to the boys and girls around the Siyabala tree at Deepani, telling them lies about how a train has a zillion carriages and is super long, and how the waves would wash us away, and how ships would almost hit us.
These children won’t have to make up stories like that. Every one of the 44 students from that school saw Colombo. There are many schools like this in Anuradhapura whose students have never even seen Anuradhapura.
It’s 4 a.m. now, and many people are still awake, making sure they got home safely. They just returned to their village.
“So, what did you show them?”
“We didn’t show them anything. They will see the world slowly on their own. We just gave them a small push.”
One day, some of these kids will pass us by. I’m telling all of you, they will pass us by.
One day, they will look back and say that a group of lady doctors they hadn’t even met took them to see the sea for the first time. Through those waves, they will see your faces. One day, a child who goes to an office on the 30th floor will stop as they pass the 29th floor and remember how a doctor aunty hugged them, thinking they would fall when they first got on the escalator. Many of them will be children who will change their lives there. And even if they don’t, even a child who stays and melts away in Veruppankulam will, in their old age, tell their daughter who asks, “Mom, have you ever seen the sea?,” this:
“When I was in fourth grade, a group of aunties I didn’t even know took us to see the sea. It was an unforgettable trip, my dear.”
I swear, I love you all. ❤️
“Madam, this isn’t something to thank you for; it’s a great deed.”
The headmaster told me to send you the “pin” (merit) too.
Thank you.
* To all the sisters and friends in the SLLDS circle whom I have never met.
* To the Veruppankulam village for sending the children with their teachers and a few mothers on a trip at a time when educational tours were difficult.
By Dr. Kiloshini Hendawitharana – “Pirunu Kusak – Pirunu Hisak”
