The winter season has begun!

On the 14th of September eve, 2016 the AIESEC CS local committee has gathered for to announce a new chapter of  excitement and joy for a whole new season. The meeting commenced with the appreciations of summer season team leaders as they had shown a promising performance to collect maximum number of satisfaction in participation.  

While you conclude the end of previous chapter, the next chapter dawned with the announcement of new team leaders for this coming season. It was indeed an act of bravery shown as they step out from the audience in the midst of applauding and cheers. They were given a brief  introduction about themselves and the representing projects.

Next segment was the introduction of the iflyers who had taken the challenge to come out of their comfort zones and volunteered to make  a difference in another community. As the 30+ iflyers stood up, Druvinka and kasun came forward to share their experiences since there were limited time for the meeting to wind up. Druvinka who has gone to Malaysia and Kasun who has gone to Thailand to experience a life changing opportunity in exchange participating. By listening to their sharings it left a sense of curiosity in the air for the potential iflyers who might apply to reveal themselves in a position that they would never tought that had existed in them.

iGT Corp Hunt results took into a  new level of surprise. Best performing members were recognized and rewarded for high capabilities that they had out shine. Results of the next Corp Hunt will for surely be in a greater shape as expecters will wish for more challenging results next time.

“Innovators” another sublime confidence champagne where you can share your innovative ideas which can turn into a promising project for the next season. Those who think that they have a great idea, where you think it will be productive or it might give a smashing out run, then here is the best opportunity to try. We appreciate and value your views, that we are ready to lend an ear. Share your ideas and as a team we will discuss whether we can take the initiative to proceed forward.

The announcement of the lead cs including the induction day organizing committees and the marketing team were up in next. The introductions were being followed with positive wishes as all want to give 110% out from them.

Special announcement is made regarding the I respect you day which will fall on 1st of October and more information will be updated soon in our facebook page.

Last but not least, after the thank you speech from Kaushalya, embracing the new talents and bravery the meeting came to a halt. Members happily gathered for the selfie rewriting the history with further plans and yet another excited day with CS family.

Merel Jansen shares her experience in FEEL LANKA 9.0

For the summer of 2016 I decided that I wanted to do something meaningful with my 2 months off. AIESEC provided the perfect opportunity of getting to know different cultures, exploring a foreign country and making yourself useful in a volunteering project with their Global Citizen projects. After some browsing I found a project that immediately got me excited: Feel Lanka 9.0. On the 12th of July I arrived in Colombo for a summer full of travelling, photographing and reviewing. The goal of Feel Lanka 9.0 was to promote Sri Lanka's tourism sector to get people excited to visit this beautiful country. During the project I made several 3-day-trips with 14 other interns through Sri Lanka where we got to know more about the islands' surroundings, culture and food. A few of the trips were sponsored, such as a rafting trip with the company Borderlands. In exchange for Instagram shoutouts, personal blogs and TripAdvisor reviews from all the interns we received a 2-day rafting and bonding experience with Borderlands, which was an amazing deal.

 Whenever we were not travelling, we stayed at our EP-house in Moratuwa where we could edit our videos, write our reviews for the hotels we stayed at and of course, chill. By living together with all 15 interns for 6 weeks in one house we really bonded as a group! Everything we needed was located near the EP-house, which was very convenient. E.g. K-zone, a hotel with a swimming pool we could access for 8 dollars, etc. Due to the last sponsored trip being cancelled, we had a lot of free time to organize our own backpacking trip to the parts of Sri Lanka we hadn't been yet. This was a great and challenging travelling-experience. By always taking public transport and eating at local food stands we could really engage with Sri Lanka's local life!

It has been a great summer with making friends all over the world (our project had the biggest diversity in cultures compared to other projects in Colombo!), learning about other cultures (as well as at the Global Village as in daily life) and developing myself. It was not always easy being in such a different culture for 6 weeks straight in weather conditions I was not used to, but I would do it all over again. I can really recommend the project Feel Lanka to whoever wants to improve Sri Lanka's tourism sector in a very fun way.

Watch the video of the Down South trip of Feel Lanka 9.0 -https://www.facebook.com/FeelLanka/videos/985960041513243/

Knock ! Knock! Kites are ready to soar!

Kite is a toy which will brightens the evening with colours of joy. The serene blue sky, the humming music of the blowing wind and the beautiful sunset was captured, as the kite festival pinned to one of those happy days in August which ring the bell of festivities are in the air!

To mark the successful completion of summer peak the kite festival of AIESEC Colombo South took place on 18th of august at the Mount beach, Mount Lavinia. The fellow AIESECers and exchange participants from summer projects have joined to enjoy the good times on their stay in this beautiful island.  

The evening was organized with fun filled games and jives. It’s always the enthusiasm of the gathering enhances the magic of the event. The agenda kicked off with the sand castle competition which was a difficulty even for the judges in selecting the winners in categories of most creative sand castle and the best creative explanation.

It started as a group activity. The teams were formed with minimum of four members to maximum no limit and four teams were ready to accept the challenge. According to the rules and regulations the sand castle would be area of 4² feet to 2 feet in height, and the given time will be 30 minutes to finish the task.

Next was the “Pani Bambare”. How you play pani bambare was one member from a particular team goes running towards a stick which is placed steadily upright some distance away from the starting point. After you reach the stick he/she has to run around the stick, bend and slightly touching his/her temple on the top edge of the stick. As soon as you finish ten rounds he/she has to run back again to the starting line so that the next member will follow the same.

The gathering were engaged in an event of frenzy that It took the attention of everyone in to cheers because after running ten times in circular motion no one was in ability to run in straight line for at least 3 minutes.

Last but not least, after the prizes were given for the winning teams the Kite flying took place, where the sun was setting down leaving a rich golden colour gracefully embracing the horizon . In midst of all the excitement, the kites appeared as color dots blanketing the evening sky. Unlike other festivals AIESECers have their own way with jives that marked the yet another day to cherish in this windy August, at Mount beach.

By Devindi Abeydeera Gunaratne