The world is a vast place, abundant with many versatile subjects. For example language, culture, food, clothes, even history and literature, each country or area is diverse and vivid. Ofcourse travel is a passion of many. To explore each aspect of the world in its most raw form and beauty. Watching sunsets light the horizons of great landscapes and old cities, to smell the strong richness of spices as sweetmeats sizzle in the frying pan on busy streets, we all love the idea of exploring the magnificent diversity of this world. But travelling had become an inaccessible luxury due to the spread of the global pandemic. As amazing as it is to experience these different aspects of the world, it’s still enthralling to see them through someone else’s eyes.
In 1930 a program that focused on student letter exchange between students of different countries allowed them to learn and expand their knowledge on different cultures of the world. In a world conquered by social media and everything and everyone is within the reach of your fingers, there is something quite refreshing about sitting down to write a letter to a friend. And to hear about the cultures you’ve seen on social media through people who’ve lived them is a far more exciting experience.
Coast to coast was an initiative taken by the rotaract club of the faculty of science university of colombo to connect with foreign rotaract clubs and form new bonds of friendship through the process of pen paling. Upon the confirmation of the foreign clubs, rotaractors of racfosuoc were paired with foreign participants and the letter exchange process began.
The objective of this project was to connect with individuals and share experiences during the global pandemic through each other’s eyes. Penpals exchanged letters discussing school, jobs, culture and personal interests. And this made a great opportunity to understand the far corners of the world better through storytelling.
Each month’s letter exchange had a special theme designated to an event or holiday happening in that month. For example, in April local participants wrote about how they spent their new years. About visiting families, special sweet meats tasted, and all the fun and excitement of the festivities. On christmas week, special riddles were made and shared among the writers to have fun riddling their friends and to share the spirit of christmas cheer. Apart from these special occasions, each week the pen pals had amazing stories to tell, whether it be about an exciting holiday, a special event, new hobbies they had picked up or even vent about the distress that came along with the pandemic and school exams. The writers were able to come together to share each other’s experiences, interests and frustrations while also learning about each other’s cultures and its prospects.Pen paling gave a good opportunity to also share their dreams and things they aspire to do in the future. And they would often share photos of their travels and holidays to share the joy with their pen pals. The magic of letter writing combined with storytelling were able to reach past the efforts of distance and form strong and meaningful friendships.
Apart from the letter exchange a special series of games were conducted on the social pages of the club to share knowledge about each city from which the pen pals were joining. These were simple and fun games that anyone could participate in. And these games referenced culture and the city authentic to the foreign club. This was another step taken to share the joy and experience of forming new friendships and learning about different styles of life in other cities.
Overall the pen paling experience allowed participants to see and live through their pen pals eyes and to learn much about the different cultures and ways of life the world has to offer. Most importantly it gave a chance to make new long lasting friendships. With the new shared experiences and knowledge it was an enticing expedition to travel through the eyes of another narrator, and to learn, especially during this pandemic times, that we are not alone.
By Rtr. Dinili Gunasena
Really love this Dinili ❤️
Awesome article! 🤓❤