Nanda in Miami, USA – Goodbye Miami

Most difficult part is departing. The two weeks had made us so friendly that I feel it difficult to say good bye to Ms. Margaret and Ms. Yvonne, and of course, the sweet MCDS kids. This cartoon was done by young Santiago a student of MCDS. This is the warmest felicitation one could have. (Hope Santiago must have become a renowned cartoonist by now.)

However, here I’m heading for the airport with Margaret after an affectionate hug from Yvonne. At the airport Margaret gives me a warm hug and with tearful eyes I say goodbye to both Margaret and the USA.

From Miami to Zurich. Experiencing a terrible air pocket over the Atlantic. I made use of the free Internet access at the Zurich airport to send an e-mail to Yvonne and Margaret.

Here I meet good old friend, Bernard again. He is coming from Seattle after finishing I*EARN tour. We are once again on board a Sri Lankan Aircraft heading for Colombo with full of exciting experiences. I am most anxious to give the maximum benefits of my tours to the Horizon kids once I get back to the village. I hope we can contribute something for the second or third generation kids to have a better place than we have in Sri Lanka.

My message to the teachers and parents of Sri Lanka is,

“Give your kids a chance to express their feelings, treat them like equals, listen to them, respect them and be honest and genuine to them in a manner that they have trust and confidence to talk to you about anything and everything. Never demand respect, and punish them for the slightest mistake. Do not treat them as ‘Little Idiots.’ They have the potential than we really imagine.”

Nanda in Cairo, Egypt

 

In front of a pyramid in Gizza, Egypt

I had the blessings (and of course, the financial support) of Mr. Donald and Mrs. Bhadra Gaminitillake, and an invitation from I*EARN to attend a workshop at Cairo. LAcNet also assisted me a lot. This meant an opportunity to see the second of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Difference between this tour with the previous one was having a good companion who had a lot of humour to share. That was Mr. Bernard Jesuthasan, an English teacher from St. Peter’s College, Colombo, and travelling with him was high fun.

Nanda in Beijing, China – In the Land of the Square Faces

 

In Beijing, China

Sunday, July 09, 2000

At the airport, I met another Sri Lankan delegation, which was heading for Beijing to attend the same conference. Two lady teachers and one of the parents were accompanying some young boys from the Royal College, Colombo to take part in the I*EARN Youth Summit.

When I was on board the plane I was so thrilled like a child who was given a ride in a merry-go round. I was impatient till the take off. I thought a little before departure about how my life had changed during a short period of time. After an exciting few minutes, the Singapore Airlines flight took me to Singapore over the Strait of Malacca, where Sri Lankan business magnate Upali Wijewardene‘s aircraft disappeared while flying over the Straits of Malacca.

I saw the sunrise from the Window – must thank Ms. Chulie de Silva for booking me a seat by a window – it was such a beautiful scenery. Singapore was my transit airport so I got on board another flight to reach China.

When I was flying over the sea, I spotted the islands, countries which I had only seen in maps. Wow! What a joy to see those maps in real? As a keen student of geography, I could mark more than 150 countries if I were given an empty world map in my school days.

At the Beijing Capital Airport I had some trouble since my name was bit complicated to the officials due to its unusual length. My full name is Tikiri Bandage Nandasiri Wanninayaka. It takes 33 letters to write my name. And 13 letters of the English alphabet are used in it. I had to answer endless questions at the airport and then I was released. A nice looking square-faced Chinese girl was waving an I*EARN sign near the exit gate of the airport and few Americans were also there. An unusually shy American guy, Michael Chertock and Miss Zoya were my first friends. Then we came to the Hotel we stayed by a taxi. I was amazed to see the square faces everywhere……….. In Sri Lanka we see round faces. But in China every face is square. Chinese letters, which I saw along the roads also, looked square. Oh! even in our alphabet we have round letters and our people have round faces.

To see ever laughing and ever teasing Ms. Celia Einhorn (an American professor whom I had met in Sri Lanka) was a great pleasure to me. She was with her husband, a man with a huge beard all over the face. Another interesting person I saw was Mr. Jose Avila from the USA. An extremely tall easygoing guy. I was invited to have dinner with Celia and the other American friends at a restaurant outside the hotel. As I was very hungry, had a heavy Chinese meal. Oh, what a taste! You can eat anything the Chinese cooks cook. The food was so good-smelling, delicious and cheap. I remembered the saying “Heaven is to have an American salary, British house, a Chinese cook and a Sri Lankan wife.”

Walked a little with Avila and Paul Lucero in Beijing after dinner. People were cooking and eating outside the houses in small streets. They said it was due to the extreme heat prevailed. But I didn’t find the heat that uncomfortable since I also am from the dry zone of my country.

My roommate was a Nepali guy called Bishnu Bhatta. Slept well after watching television for a while. Gosh!!! All the programs were in Chinese. Watched Hercules dubbed in Chinese.

Nanda in Beijing, China

With two Chinese twin sisters inside the Forbidden City, Beijing. Only twins can understand the word “sister” or “brother” in China with its ‘one child policy.’

Thanks to LAcNet, I*EARN (International Education and Resource Network), and Mr. Donald Gaminitillake and Mrs. Bhadra Gaminitillake, I had a rare opportunity to visit China. I was so excited since I had not seen even an airport when I heard that I had been selected to represent Sri Lanka at the 7th I*EARN international conference in Beijing in July 2000. I thought a little before departure about how my life had changed during a short period of time.

Tour to Beijing was an exciting experience for me. Ever since I came to the Katunaike International Airport in Sri Lanka I was so excited and inquisitive about flying by air. Since I’m from a very rural area in Sri Lanka it took me around 12 years to see the nearest town, Anuradhapura and almost 18 years to see Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. So flying high was a dream, which I never thought would come true.

I will add my experiences in China here one by one.