It was not a strange feeling to be in Norway last summer as a goCY since I have been to Norway 4 times prior to the goCY exchange programme. But as the time went on I felt it is totally different from previous occasions since I had to adjust my life into the Norwegian way of living since I had to live and work within the Norwegian society for a longer period of nine months.During the exchange I lived with a family in a small town called Brønnøysund in the Northern part of Norway. I had no friends and people who can share life at the beginning at this small place. So I felt home sick and it was challenging. As the time went on I managed to get to know many people specially with in my working groups which were the Church and the Scouts. It is a well-known fact that Norwegians are hard to get to know. It was true. I found that it is important to make Norwegians feel comfortable to be friends with me. To do that sometimes I had to act like a Norwegian and follow the Norwegian codes in the same way as they follow. In each societies there are different codes relate to how they talk, how they dress and how the eat and etc. Once you know those codes it is easier to interact with that particular society. I tried to learn those codes as faster as possible and tried to follow those codes. But I always tried to keep my identity as a Sri Lankan and I tried to explain Norwegians about the codes that we follow in Sri Lanka. Language became crucial fact when it comes to building relationships. So I gave priority to learn Norwegian at the beginning.
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| Hiking with Rover Scouts |
I spent most of my time with scouts who were 11 to 19 years old. Even though I had some experiences of working with children and youth in my YMCA, I had to learn many new things to deal with those children and youth who came from a totally different society.Their needs and issues were totally different from Sri Lankan youth and children. I spent time talking to them and I always contacted experienced adult when I was not sure on how to deal with those kids and youth. I got the opportunity to learn a lot about different social issues which those kids and youth experienced in such so called developed country.
During my stay I had the opportunity of meeting new people and groups who work within the YMCA and YWCA. I used those opportunities to spread the word about the work of the YMCA Sri Lanka and the work of my local YMCA, Pamunugama. I believe that those kinds of first hand information and experience sharing about YMCA activities are crucial to strengthen the relationships within the YMCA network. I spoke with different student groups and YMCA - YWCA scout groups and tried to connect with our YMCA in Pammunugama while tried to be a bridge between the National level movements. It is hard and still little too early to measure the success of those efforts. It is important to follow-up those kinds of relationships and convert into partnerships in the future and I am up to the task.
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| Camp for Confirments |
As an individual I got the opportunity to develop myself and learn a lot which will help me in the future both in personal and career.. This stay made me think more independently and expanded my capacity as a YMCA layman as well as in a professional way by learning new ways of organizing and implementing programmes and projects. Further I got the opportunity to learn a new language to some extend which will help in building relations with the YMCA YWCA groups in Norway and Sri Lanka in the future. Meanwhile I wrote number of articles for different magazines in the Church of Brønnøysund and Y Global which helped me to develop my writing skills. As a sum-up, I would like to tell my fellow YMCA friends that goCY is an excellent exchange programme where we can learn and develop ourselves while contributing a lot to the great movement of YMCA and I encourage you all to be a part of this programme in the future.
Ridma Fonseka 23. 006. 2011
goCY intern 2010-2011
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