Funday Times

Girl Guides visit Jaffna
By Natasha Fernandopulle
On July 28,2004 seven Girl Guides from Ladies College, Colombo along with six guiders and parents, left Colombo on a five day visit to Jaffna. The visit ended on August 2, 2004.

The Guides who ranged from the ages of 13 to 18 were Senuri de Silva (13), Sujatha Karunaratne (14), Onelle Cooray (14), Varuni Senanayake (14), Danushika Jayawardena (15) Ayndri de Soysa (17) and Shehani Peris (18). These young girls had many things to say and many an experience to relate.

While in Jaffna the girls stayed in the hostel of their sister school in Jaffna, the Chundikuli Girls College. The idea of visiting Jaffna came when they met a girl by the name of Abirami, from Jaffna. They met her at a Guide camp last year and formed a strong bond with her.

The journey took them 12 hours. After leaving Colombo by coach at 10pm on July 28, they reached Vavuniya at 5.30am the next day.

The girls had to go through four checkpoints and at one check point three girls and one parent were interviewed by a friendly and courteous member of the LTTE. They were a bit stunned as to why they were interviewed but found out during their conversation that this guard talks to the people who come into the area as he feels responsible for them.

Therefore he prefers to get to know those who enter the area. The guards at the checkpoints guarded by both the Government and the LTTE, the girls said “did their duties well and were very helpful”.

On their way to Jaffna they passed Elephant Pass and also saw the de-mining process taking place. The girls describe the process thus, “They looked like astronauts digging the ground”. It is a slow process and there are miles and miles of mines. The UNICEF has placed signs in the area with warnings.

After being in long queues they reached Chundikuli around 12.30pm. After sorting things out they decided to walk to the Red Cross office, which was on the top of the road.

On the second day the girls took part in school activates and they met their friend Abirami. They visited a school, where the principal was a Guide Commissioner. It was being rebuilt as it was bombed during the war but the school activities continue. They then visited the high security zone of Keerimalai.

This was the point where Sangamitta landed, therefore there is a temple there. The girls then visited a place where there were two bathing pools for women and men, respectively. It is said that the pools have healing properties.

Nilavaray, was their first stop on day three. There is a bottomless well here and it is believed that if something is dropped in the well it will appear in the pond in Keerimalai. The girls then visited the LTTE hero’s memorial, the Nallur Kovil, which is said to be the biggest Hindi Kovil in Sri Lanka and the Tholagati Ashram. The latter is run by monks, and wine and the famous Tholagati Nelli cordial are made there.

Lunch was at Hotel Rolex. It is in the town and “it is not really a hotel but a saivar kade and they are always jam packed”, said Ayndri. The next activity on the list was shopping. The town is quite a lot like Pettah and just like in Colombo they have everything including mobile phone shops, saree shops and a super market. They were very impressed when they spoke to a shop keeper who spoke in Tamil, Sinhala, English and Hindi! A few girls visited an ayurvedic shop. When they visited the shop there was a man making a cure for arthritis.

He was so obliging and even told them the ingredients he was using. He also brought them tea. While they were at the shop they even met a priest who had studied at the University of Jaffna.

In the town they noticed that there were two lanes for traffic and one lane in the middle of the road, for parking. A common mode of transport is bicycles. Everyone has them and there are bicycle sheds with rows of parked bicycles.

Nagadeepa was the next stop. It was a two hour drive and then they had to take the ferry to the island. “The ferry ride was really packed”, they all said. A Buddhist temple and a Hindu Kovil are on the island. The Buddhist temple had statues of Sri Lanka, Burmese and Thai origin.

They also visited the Jaffna library and the Jaffna Fort. “We drove around the fort and all we could see were walls”, they said, adding, that it was in ruins. The Jaffna library was said to have been the best in South Asia. It was destroyed due to the war and it was ruins but is now completely rebuilt and has a relatively good selection of books.

On day four, during their last night in Jaffna, they had a feast for dinner of crabs, prawns, cuttlefish, idly, thosai, vadai and the list was endless. “We were stuffed after dinner!” they said. These young girls had many a memory to take back with them and they said it was sad to leave all their new friends behind but they are hoping to visit them again next year.

Ayndri said, “It is sad that it is a part of our country and no one knows about it”. “We want to expose Jaffna to people and let them know what is happening and that it is safe”, they said. “People there have been through a lot but they manage to go through life with a smile. The girls are quite free and their friends even came to visit them at eight in the night! They seem to be happy and content with their lives. They are typical teenage girls, we are just like them”, and that is the message they want to give all of us.

The main aim of going to Jaffna was to make friends, form bonds and to interact with the people of Jaffna and it seems that these young girls seem to have accomplished what they wanted to do. The girls said “it was an excellent experience” and that they would like to thank Marlene Dissanayake, Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides for organising everything.

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