It was a lovely and glamorous Saturday morning on 13th of February 2021. All the 19 participants of “Deja Vu”, an outbound training program organized by the Rotaract Club of Achievers Lanka Business School at Che Adventure park-Hanwella were super excited to get the day started.
Around 12.00noon Rtr. Theekshana picked me and Rtr. Sandithi, who was the chair of the project to pick up necessities for the games that were organized and also some snacks and drinks for the participants. We then picked up Rtr. Akila and Rtr. Lakshan on the way and finally headed to Che Adventure Park. We were the first to reach there so that Rtr. Sandithi could sort out some last-minute accommodation concerns that had risen. The rest of the club members, Rtr. Hasitha, Rtr. Mark, Rtr. Niflaz, Rtr. Rishad, Rtr. Kalani, Rtr. Ruwin, Rtr, Zara and Rtr, Raeesa were picked up by Rtr. Nadun and Rtr. Daksith and they reached Che adventure park around 3.30pm. After being greeted by a very refreshing welcome drink, we were settled in our tents by the officials at Che. We received two tents, each having 8 rather comfortable double beds, two washrooms and two shower cubicles.
After Rtr. Thisura, Rtr. Suwithi, Rtr. Hiru and Rtr. Asel arrived at around 4.30pm, the project officially kicked off. We divided ourselves into two teams and played cricket on the playground at Che until dusk came and we couldn’t even see the ball anymore. We decided to return to our tents to freshen up before dinner. But when we arrived at our tents, we were disappointed to find out that the electricity was cut off. Until that was restored, we played some songs in a JBL and all of us had a dance off.
When the electricity finally got restored everyone freshened up and gathered in front of our tents for the bonfire. After around half an hour of struggle to set it up, we had a gorgeous blazing fire, and everyone was mingling around it. Until the dinner was ready, we sang songs while sitting around the fire.
We then had a delicious dinner of egg fried rice, BBQ chicken, BBQ sausage, garlic bread, fried fish and a dessert of fresh fruits. We spent some more time talking and singing songs around the bonfire and then while some of the team went to bed early the rest of us stayed up playing Uno up until around 12am. I wish I could be all like “what happens in Hanwella, stays in Hanwella”, but I guess everyone has to know about how Hiru broke a bed at Che after coming and flopping onto it, sitting around and listening to Zara’s horror encounter and how Hasitha slept with a night mask of toothpaste. We then spent hours sharing stories with each other. We all know that 2am talks are what hits the deepest, so it was certainly a wonderful opportunity to get to know everyone better. Some of us who had severe insomnia and had nothing much to do then went for a drive at around 4.30 in the morning while the rest who were drowsy and tired went to sleep.
Everybody was up and about by 7 am, freshening up and having their morning tea that the Che team brought up to our tent. We then sat in front of the tent and spent some time talking to each other while the organizing committee sorted out the day’s activities. We went to breakfast at around 8 am. After heartily devouring the delicious spread of local breakfast varieties that the team at Che served us, we spent some time taking pictures while the organizers set everything up for the day’s activities.
The first was archery. A team member from Che instructed the participants on how to take an aim and also how to position the bow and arrow. Once everyone got the chance to shoot three arrows each the instructor moved onto speak about the riffle and how to maneuver it. Everyone got the chance of loading the gun thrice and shooting. After that everyone proceeded onto some games that the organizing committee had arranged.
The first was Hospital tag which focused on getting everyone to move. The second was human tangle where everybody had someone’s handheld and everyone had to untangle themselves without releasing their hand. The last game was one where 50 balls were collected in a pile in the middle of the ground and everyone was divided into two teams and they could only take one ball at a time and the team with the most number of balls won. Then a massive water balloon fight took place which was actually very refreshing since it was quite a hot day. All the games were very entertaining and made everybody bond better.
Since the checkout time was fast approaching, we didn’t get a chance to dip into the beautiful river. Therefore, all of us made plans to check out from Che Adventure park and head over to Rtr. Akila’s place. After a little airborne stunt that Theekshana pulled off which Sandithi claims to be a NDE, we arrived at Akila’s around 1pm.
All of us spent about an hour tucking into the mouth-watering takeout from a Chinese restaurant we grabbed on the way. Then we went and dove into the pool and spent about three hours of quality time there, playing games like piggy in the middle and just simply relaxing in the pool. The most exciting project yet in my Rotaract life thus ended with us heading home at around 6pm.
Written by: Rtr. Anjula Perera
Edited by: Rtr. Lakshan Banneheke
RACALBS