I could easily stay here and keep living in Colombo, but I do have a life waiting for me back in Canada and so it’s time to head back.

During our pre-departure training we’re warned about “reverse culture shock” – the experience of returning home after adapting to living in a new country. We’re told when we integrate into a new culture and new ways of doing things, part of that stays with us and those parts can be a challenge to reconcile with what we were used to back home. Certainly I’ve always found when travelling when you visit a place you really love, a part of your heart stays there when you leave. I could easily have stayed in Costa Rica, in Ireland, on Middle Caicos… and I doubt Sri Lanka will be any different.

And so as I say goodbye to Sri Lanka, I’m focused on reflecting…

Highlights of my time here:

• Elephants. I’m sure going on safari in a national park will remain a favourite memory for years to come.
• Seeing and immersing myself in the beautiful county that is Sri Lanka.
• Receiving feedback from my partner organization that the work I completed was exactly what they needed and helping them secure buy-in and resources from senior management to support the plan we developed.

Challenges: (No life-changing experience is without challenges and I’d by lying if I pretended this was any different)

• Getting around is hard here. In a city of 7 million where walking is uncommon and buses run from city to city but not throughout the city, roads are crowded and chaotic. My 12 kilometre commute took an average of 45 minutes. That in itself was fine (it is after all the same amount of time it takes me to commute at home, except here I can do it in a tuk tuk!) But getting a taxi/uber to come out to the suburbs to pick me up during the evening rush-hour was nothing if not an exercise in patience. Generally it took between half hour and one and a half hours just to get a ride Fortunately new friend Nishi, who lives around the corner from me, offered for me to join her in her car service when our schedules aligned, which was most days. On the days I wasn’t able to join her, I made great friends with the office security guards while waiting at the front gate.
• Staying hydrated. It’s humid and hot (averaging about 35 degrees). I drank, on average 3.5 litres of water a day and it was rarely enough.
• Halfway around the world is far. Being able to take time out of your regular life to focus on something new is an absolute gift. But being so far away from family and friends can be hard, especially when someone is having a tough time or becomes ill. There were a few moments when being halfway around the world felt, quite literally, like I was halfway around the world.

What I’ll miss most about Sri Lanka:

• The determination of Sri Lankan’s to always be driving towards a better future and the unwavering belief that they will get there. Sri Lanka has had a rough time with the civil war and the tsunami still in recent memory, not to mention the Easter Sunday terror attacks, but the steady optimism and dedication to moving forward make it impossible to believe a better future isn’t coming.
• Tuk tuks. If I could bring one home, I would.
• The weather. It’s been sunny and hot and humid and I’ve loved it. No part of me is looking forward to going back to cold and snow.

What I’m most looking forward to about going home:

• Obviously husband, pets, horse.
• Readily available, clean, safe drinking water.
• Hot water. No matter where I’ve traveled and how hot it’s been, I’ve never learned to love washing my hair in cold water.

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And so, with that I head back to Canada. Maybe I’ll be back to Sri Lanka one day and I certainly encourage everyone to make the trip! But more than that, the entire Leave for Change journey – living and working overseas – has been an amazing, life-changing experience and one I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience for themselves.

And just like that, we’ve reached the end of my mandate. My final two days at work have had a quieter pace – I’ve submitted my deliverables and am now focused on end of mandate reports, exit interviews, hand-off and final questions and of course a goodbye lunch with my partner organization here. Though my partner organization keeps reminding me I could stay… one of their original Uniterra volunteers (from two years ago!) is still here. They simply keep extending her mandate. I’ve had the same offer and assurance that they can even take care of cancelling my flight and paying any penalties! As well, I do have an open-ended rental agreement with my accommodations… and I’ve already found a favourite grocery store and yoga studio.

About living here – a challenge here for me has been exercise. Always a challenge when travelling for work (personal travel always involves a lot of exploring/walking/hiking and swimming, so less of a challenge) and it’s been no different on work days here. Weekends are easy because I’ve been able to get out of the city to explore (LOTS of walking) and swim, but in the city options are more limited. My usual activities of horseback riding, hiking and dog-walking are not available in downtown Colombo. Even walking itself is a bit of a challenge as their are’t any real sidewalks and tuks tuks and motorcycles use the shoulders as their own express lanes during rush hour (which by the way is 7:00 – 9:00 for morning commute; 12:30 – 14:30 for end of school day commute; and 16:00 – 19:00 for evening commute). Also, it’s HOT – around 35 degrees and humid so walking as a mode of transportation is just not common here. Co-worker/new friend Nishi couldn’t believe that I walked to a cute shop she sent me to (about 5 minutes from home). As she said “but it’s so easy to just take a tuk!”. Aside from that, it gets dark between 18:00 – 18:30 here and though I have felt nothing but safe here, as a woman in Colombo long walks after dark are not encouraged. All that to say getting in my usual level of physical activity during the work week has been hard.

That being said, part of the Leave for Change experience is to embrace actually living in your new country. So I found The OM Space – a wonderful yoga studio right around the corner! Easily accessible and incredibly welcoming, Leon leads a terrific intermediate level Hatha practice (great if like me you haven’t been keeping up with your yoga on a daily basis), followed, of course, by tea. Tea as an activity, naturally, not just a beverage.

Speaking of which, tea really is an activity here. When I went for my exit interview with WUSC (one of the Uniterra partners and the one who coordinates the programming here in Sri Lanka, I was offered tea. Which of course I accepted. Then when I seemed confused the interview wasn’t starting, I was reminded it wouldn’t start until after we had finished out tea, because drinking tea while completing the interview would ruin the tea experience.

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The level of multi-taking we are accustomed to at home is just not a thing here and it has been so, so refreshing. Not to mention the quality of experiences, relationships and work that is enabled by really, truly being able to focus on the present moment. Something I hope to be able to bring with me when I do get back to Canada.

And so, despite how difficult it will be to leave the country that has been my home for the past few weeks, and as tempting as it is to stay, I will be heading home tomorrow evening. But with a wonderful new perspective.

Week 3 – Time to deliver my training workshop and handover the resources I’ve developed during my time here.

My final week kicked off with my Change Management 101 workshop Monday morning, focused on teaching key principles of change management, while using a “train the trainer” approach. The workshop went very well, with far more attendees than expected (a surprise when I walked into a formal auditorium to present, rather than the small office I was anticipating!), resulting in a fruitful discussion and brainstorming session on applying these newly learned change management principles. A wonderful success!

Following this, we also walked through the Employee Communications and Engagement Plan I had prepared, which includes a Communications Calendar and Engagement Matrix. All of these were developed in partnership with the team here, based on best practices as well as what is possible for them to deliver on with their existing resources.

Hearing about the success of the Change Management 101 Workshop, another team (the strategy team) requested I join them in their planning meeting to help brainstorm ways to make their strategic planning sessions more effective. Their challenge was that the forums were generally being used to identify challenges, but rarely were solutions being proposed and the group overall was very disengaged. During this planning session – which I was thrilled to join – we discussed guiding principles of good facilitation, as well as various techniques for energizing and engaging groups, and best practices for brainstorming focused on finding solutions.

I heard this morning that the team was thrilled at the resulting improvements to this week’s strategic planning session and that they able to achieve much greater engagement which was great news!

As a result of this newly identified need, I was also able to develop a Workshop Facilitation Guide to share with both the culture change and strategy teams, based on our discussions and best practices, and including templates and resources for them to build on in the future.

As a final deliverable, I also developed a Communications Toolkit Framework which the culture change team will be able to leverage while executing on the communications and engagement strategies and tactics we have developed for their culture change initiative.

And now we’re into my final days here – focused on completing handover and final coaching on the deliverables, as well as final reports and exit interviews.

While three weeks has certainly flown by I am pleased at what we’ve been able to accomplish during this short time and look forward to team’s continuing success as they continue on their culture change journey using their newly gained skills and resources.

For my final full weekend in Sri Lanka I focused on two things I really wanted to see while here – elephants and the beaches. Luckily for me the south coast beaches aren’t too far from Colombo, and from there it is easy enough to get to Udawalawe National Park.

In order to see both, I headed down to Mirissa after work on Friday, where I stayed at a local hotel right on the beach. From there it was easy to take a day trip to Udawalawe National Park on Saturday. This trip was a bit of a splurge in terms of my budget for Sri Lanka, but it was worth every penny to see wild elephants in their natural, protected habitat. I had a terrific guide and we were even able to see a seven-day-old baby elephant!

Also special about this trip is that the organization I am working with here in Sri Lanka (MAS Intimates) is working to help rehabilitate and protect this park as part of their environmental sustainability goals – which include replacing habitats in 100 times the space they occupy (largely for garment plants) by 2025. MAS is in many, many ways far ahead of the rest of us in terms of their bold goals and commitments to environmental sustainability. They have visions based on what needs to be done and they don’t accept excuses for why it isn’t possible.

Going on safari to see the wild elephants was definitely a highlight of my time here and a very special experience that will stay with me. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I am grateful to have experienced.

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Also terrific was Mirissa Beach! The south coast beaches are in a bit more of a touristy area, and Mirissa Beach is one of the more popular destinations (some beaches are better for surfing and not all are safe for swimming due to the waves and undertow), and so the beach was lively, but not crowded. Really perfect for me to swim alone, but still close to others. I had a wonderful, relaxing beach day (think soft, golden sand, swaying palms, and crashing waves), then headed back to Colombo that evening. Really a wonderful way to end my second week here.

And now it’s week 3 – my final week! They say time is elastic in Sri Lanka and it really feels that way. It somehow feels like I’ve just arrived, and yet also like I’ve been here forever – it’s amazing how quickly you settle into a new routine and get used to living in a new place.

In an earlier post I covered what exactly it is I’m doing here – focusing on knowledge-sharing and capacity building around change management and employee engagement. But I realized I didn’t really mention what it is MAS Intimates is trying to change, beyond “culture”.

A quick overview… MAS Intimates is a leading garment manufacturer (for brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein, Gap, etc.) who employs approximately 41,000 people. They have recently developed both a 2021 and 2025 strategic plan focused on evolving the company to be future-oriented and sustainable.

MAS is a major company in South Asia and in the manufacturing industry they are often looked to as leaders to imitate. An industry which has not always historically been known for the best human resources (or in some cases, human rights) or environmental practices. Because of this, and because of their position as a sector leader, MAS feels a responsibility to lead bold changes across the industry.

Following a fairly recent leadership change MAS Intimates is undertaking major business changes across the organization in order to achieve bold new strategic goals, also in-line with some of the bold, innovative work Sri Lanka is doing as a whole (around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals).

The new MAS is focused on sustainability: for the environment (no small feat in a sector with a massive environmental footprint); for its employees (and particularly women – helping them build and diversify their skill sets to ensure they continue to have employment options in a rapidly changing sector); and for the business (one that is rapidly changing as global demand for “fast-fashion” and “mass produced” products is diminishing. Obviously changing demand for consumer fashion will impact MAS, but it will also Sri Lanka as a whole as textile manufacturing is the primary industry here, followed by tea production.

And yet, MAS themselves will be the first to tell you their industry need to change. The environmental footprint of producing and consuming mass-produced fast-fashion needs to be greatly reduced; their employees need to be provided opportunities to expand their skill-sets in a world moving more and more towards automation and better their circumstances so they they work these jobs out of choice, not out of lack of alternate options; and their business model needs to change to one that re-thinks how garments are made.

Here’s a link to an article that shows how MAS is doing just that – From Waste to Wearable: The Journey of the New Sri Lanka Cricket Jersey.

All these things sound great – so why is change management needed? Isn’t everyone on board? The initiatives sound great – and are great – but they don’t fit with the “old” MAS or the “old” culture and change is hard. For anyone. But especially a company of this size, spread out among so many office and plant locations, and with employees from all different backgrounds – generations, religions, and classes (which is very much a real factor in Sri Lanka).

Change gets even harder when focusing on environmental sustainability means changing the ways fabrics are sourced, dyed, treated, and shipped. All of which impacts jobs and prices, which in turn hits the bottom-line.

Also hard is sustainability for employees. Offering new skills-training is an amazing benefit, but offering this outside of work hours means many women (in Sri Lanka it is primarily still women who are responsible for all house, child and ill/elderly family member related work) can’t attend. This is further exaggerated by the class system here, as lower class women won’t have maids at home to help. But offering training during work hours means women need to feel their job is safe if they take time out of their days to attend, which in turn impacts their output productivity. Measures are put in place to ensure they will not be penalized, but convincing people of this takes time. And in a business historically focused on output – a huge culture change.

Affecting change of this kind is a little bit like trying to turn the Titanic. And with an industry so rapidly changing, there may well be an iceberg up ahead. For this reason, change management training and capacity-building will (hopefully!) help the team leading this initiative to make in-roads towards realizing their new strategic goals.

It’s a huge mandate, but I am extremely grateful to be able to contribute in some small way.

As I wrapped-up week 2 and prepared to lead a change management workshop at the start of week 3, I was thrilled to received this message from the team I am working with. Definitely a highlight of my very-special time here in Sri Lanka.

Day 11 – the halfway point of my Sri Lanka experience! Since Wednesday was a holiday, Nina and I took a day-trip (via train!) to Galle, and specifically Galle Fort – a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the South-West Coast of Sri Lanka.

One of the things you are supposed to “do” in Sri Lanka is take a train trip. It is meant to be an experience in itself – with stunning coastal, hill and village views. It did not disappoint. The thing about the Colombo Fort to Galle route (the one we needed to take) is that you can’t actually reserve tickets in advance. You have to just show up at the station and hope for the best! You also can’t book a seat – seats can only be reserved/assigned on first-class train cars and those don’t go to Galle.

So Nina and I headed to the station first thing in the morning and hoped for the best! While we didn’t manage to snag a seat for the majority of the journey there (it was a mad dash for seats as soon as the train pulled up – before it even stopped moving – and we were’t ready for that) – we were fortunate to find standing space right beside the “doors” (or lack of) which provided us with amazing views of the coast and coastal villages. As a side, the journey back home as much less hectic and we did get great seats for that!

Galle itself is a beautiful, complex, layered town with a rich Portuguese, then Dutch, then British, and now independent history. The result gives the feeling of being in a different part of the world at every turn. The train station and “new town” is thoroughly Sri Lankan, but the fort and “old town” (inside the walls) are at times reminiscent of the Portuguese Coast, a small Dutch village or a shopping alley in small town England and of course a typical Sri Lankan city. The effect is memorizing.

We had a terrific day walking along the Fort walls (first built by the Portuguese, then reinforced by the Dutch and later utilized by the British), taking in spectacular views of the Indian Ocean, followed by lunch on the patio of a cobblestone street and some shopping at quintessential stores offering goods handmade in Sri Lankan villages.

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It’s difficult to choose highlights of my time here, but this was definitely a wonderful experience and lovely way to mark the halfway point of my time here.

Week 2 – where the bulk of my “real” work will happen before we move into week 3 and the transition/handover phase. Halfway through the (short again) work week and I am knee-deep in executing on my mandate of Culture Change Agent for MAS Intimates.

But what does this actually mean? And how do you change culture in 11 days? Short answer – you don’t. However the primary objective of Uniterra volunteers is to focus on knowledge transfer and capacity building. So in my case, how can I prepare the team here to lead culture change in their organization and ensure their employees – and senior leaders – are not only aware of the change, but onboard and invested in making change happen!

Given my short time here, I am working on two key deliverables:

1. Delivering a “Change Management 101” workshop to the culture change project leads, using a “train the trainer” methodology which will equip them to then train their respective teams and colleagues. This includes designing activities and resources for them to experience during our workshop, use in their own workshops moving forward and also leverage as they continue on their change journey.
2. Developing an employee communications and engagement plan to guide the project leads through introducing, implementing and achieving adoption of the desired culture change across the organization. This includes outing strategies and tactics for engaging and motivating employees, involving employees in the change process, and learning to be agile and pivot as needed. This also includes introducing and teaching templates and tools they can utilize as they execute this plan over the next two years, as part of their 2021 strategic plan.

That pretty much sums it up. I’m currently at the stage where the communications and engagement plan is drafted and ready for input from the project team later this week. After Tamil Thai Pongal Day tomorrow I’ll be shifting gears to focus on preparing for the change management workshop which I’ll be holding on Monday.

In the meantime, enjoy this sunny view of the office parking lot, and specifically the number of trees and plants they have incorporated into this space!

My first week of work in Sri Lanka was a short one as Friday was Duruthu Ful Moon Poya, and as such a national holiday. This meant I had a 3-day weekend – a pleasant surprise!

One of the challenges of Leave for Change is that it is really such a short time. You want to see as much and do as much as possible to fully experience your host country and culture, and also be mindful that you don’t compromise your energy levels for the huge amount of work you are trying to accomplish in a few short weeks!

That being said, a long weekend seemed the perfect opportunity for a bit of travel as I would have enough time not to be rushed and to still rest and recharge for week 2. And so, I headed in-land to hill country, specifically to Kandy – widely considered the culture capital of Sri Lanka and home of the most spectacular views.

Because I was travelling alone, I skipped Airbnb and I stayed at Mintaas Hotel which provided stunning views from the second floor common area and balcony, as well as from several of the rooms (mine included) and the main dining area on the first level. Rooms and food were basic, affordable and the staff were lovely. From there I was able to see many of the main attractions and cultural sites in Kandy, including:

• Bahirawakanda Vihara Buddha Statue
• Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
• Rajah Tusker Hall
• Kandy Lake
• Royal Botanical Gardens
• Kandy Garrison Cemetery (which includes graves of Canadian WWII soldiers)
• Ceylon Tea Museum
• A local tea plantation
• A local spice garden
• The 19th century Audience Hall
• The Kandy Cultural Centre
• And countless stunning hillside views

This trip was perhaps a little “touristy” in some of the activities, but it certainly provided me with a better understanding and perspective of Sri Lanka’s history and Sinhalese culture. As well, it was wonderful to get out of the city and experience a different side of Sri Lanka.

For me, one of the highlights of my weekend in Kandy (besides the truly spectacular Royal Botanical Gardens) was the Ceylon Tea Museum and local tea plantation. For someone who loves tea, it was a great learning experience to discover the precise processes for making so many types of tea all from the same teas leaves, as well to learn that each Ceylon tea leaf is still hand-picked! This is a conscious choice as it seems automation is yet to be as efficient and provide the same quality as humans in this regard. Indeed one of my realizations during my time here in Sri Lanka is that many processes which I had assumed had been automated (if I’d thought of them at all) remain still very much manual. It’s an interesting contrast to the drive to automate that we often experience back at home.

Tea has a complicated history in Sri Lanka, having been brought by the British (though technically a Scotsman) around the time of the coffee blight and providing an alternate economy at a crucial time. However, with it brought a new culture, as well as a new casts system, through workers brought in from India to work in the plantations when the British where unable to attract locals to the positions. Despite it’s coloured history, since its inception here tea has been an important part of the Sri Lankan economy and remains so today. Sri Lanka tea is called Ceylon Tea (a throwback to Sri Lanka’s name while under British rule), and can be found around the world.

After a refreshing weekend away in Kandy (the climate is cooler there – I was even a bit cold in the evenings!) – it was encouragingly nice to feel like I was coming “home” to Colombo. The act of returning “home”, getting groceries and tending to my laundry left me feeling very much settled in and ready to get going with week 2 – perhaps the most crucial for my mandate, as this is when the bulk of the deliverable work happens.

Of course there is another holiday on Wednesday this week, so this will be another short week. And to think I’m already one-third through my time here – it’s just flying by!

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In our pre-departure training we are told that culture shock is a funny thing – it can hit you the moment you get off the plane (which it did for me in Dubai), or, more likely, it will hit you a few days in, when you least expect it, once the initial excitement has worn off. But it will hit you. And so I’ve been biding my time, waiting, and sure enough, it showed up mid-way through week one.

One of the challenges with Leave for Change is that 3 weeks is a very short time. As a result, you need to get off the plane, recover from jetlag, learn a new neighborhood (where is the closest grocery store, how do I get to and from work), learn how to communicate in a different language, learn what foods to eat, and most importantly, learn about your partner organization and the gaps they are hoping you will fill. All in the first few days. After that, the rest of the week is spent on further discovery and planning what exactly you can do to make a difference in such a short time.

And so I found myself suffering from motion sickness (from riding in cars here – the traffic is next level; also thankfully now resolved after a quick trip to the pharmacy), facing a panel of senior leaders telling me excited they are for me to teach them all about change management (great! I can do this!) and help them develop an HR employee engagement plan (ok… not quite what I was expecting, but I can still do this). Again, pre-departue Leave for Change volunteers are told their mandate may change before they arrive and not to be surprised if it’s totally different than expected. So I was expecting this. But also, not quite this.

One of the invaluable parts of my onboarding at MAS was the opportunity to visit one of their garment plants, which focuses primarily on undergarments for brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein and the Gap, amoung others.

I had a bit of trepidation – we’ve all heard horror stories of textile factories – but I was pleasantly… shocked.

MAS is a leading, international garment company , and one that maybe would not usually qualify for Leave for Change support, except, they are an industry leader. Changes made, and standards held, by them trickle down through the sector. Which is exactly why change at this level is so important. And they have made giant strides in changing.

When I walked onto the plant floor, I saw 4,000 individuals (primarily women) working meticulously to hand-sew every part of a bra. But I also saw them smiling, chatting, standing (on ergonomic pads) and moving. I saw employee recognition boards showcasing the numerous skills each had mastered (at the on-site training school), a cafeteria where breakfast is free and scheduled tea and lunch breaks provide affordable food for purchase, lines of shuttle buses which provide employees free transport to and from work, a courtyard marketplace where employees are encouraged to sell their handiwork , a “local” (to the plant) radio station to provide music to work to and other entertainment, as well as regular “movement minute” exercise breaks to encourage stretching.

I’ve learned in Sri Lanka, a garment plant is often a women’s last chance at employment before looking for work as a house maid in the middle east, and risking exposure to human trafficking through the “agencies” who claim to broker these jobs. MAS knows these jobs are none of their employees first choices, but they strive to make them jobs to be proud of nonetheless. In addition, upward mobility is important at MAS and something they are working to make more accessible as part of their employee engagement plan (the one they’ve asked me to prepare).

What really struck me about this visit was the amount of effort and resources that go into making a single piece of clothing. Clothing that, too often, is considered “disposable”.

(Perhaps surprisingly for a garment manufacturer) MAS has a guideline that no one should own more than 10 pieces of clothing. Though they tell me (some, but not many) allowances can be made for us in Canada, since we have to contend with winter. 10 pieces. Total. I think I have more than that in my suitcase for this trip.

Their belief is that if we are more mindful of the resources that go into our clothing, we will take better care, there will be less waste, and the environmental toll of garment manufacturing can be greatly reduced. From a business perspective of course, garments which are considered “investment pieces” rather than “disposable” command a greater price.

Sri Lankans live with less – less space, less options, less public services, and less “things” – than we do at home and my first week has certainly given me a fresh perspective on just how much we tend to consume. And I’ll certainly look at my bras much differently from now on.

I had intended to write this post yesterday, but the jetlag which had so far only been moderate hit me. Hard. And despite drinking gallons and gallons of water, I still found myself challenged to stay hydrated. The heat and humidity in Colombo is intense – a bit like being smothered with a drenched weighted blanket every time you go outside. Once I’ve been outside for a bit, I’m quite fine, but when first going from (also intense) AC to outside it can be quite the shock. Needless to say when I got back “home” I was exhausted. However, in the hopes of overcoming my jetlag I resisted going to bed too early and instead relaxed and did some reading. Thankfully it seemed to pay off and I slept a solid 8 hours and woke at 6:30, rather than 3:30, like the night before. Success! It seemed to work and I feel much better today.

Now to the point of this post… I spent Monday and Tuesday at in-country orientation, hosted by WUSC. Monday was a very full day in the WUSC office (schedule below) and Tuesday included a half day back in the WUSC office, followed by a traditional Sri Lankan lunch where Nina and I were taught to eat with our hands (as is the custom here), and finally an introduction to the partner organization I will be working with!

In-country orientation was invaluable, but also a LOT to take in and process. My favourite part was the discussion led by Prema on the history of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan culture, including the evolving status of women in this country, as well as general norms and challenges (e.g. how to cut-down on single-use plastic when clean drinking water is not otherwise available). Prema provided excellent context and really painted a detailed, complex picture of Sri Lanka – a country that spent time under Portuguese, Dutch and British rule before becoming independent; and has strong – and varied – religious and traditional beliefs.

After much anticipation, meeting with my partner organization – MAS Intimates – was lovely. However, also a lot to take in and try to get up to speed on as quickly as possible. It seems there are two national holidays while I am here (fun fact: Because of the diversity of cultures here, Sri Lanka has the most holidays of any country!) As a result, I only have 11 full working days with my partner organization while I am here. My initial meeting covered the current and upcoming strategic plan (focused on future-proofing the organization) and a review of my general mandate:

Because this mandate is huge, as I continue through “onboarding” I will be working to identify key concepts/tools I can provide to MAS to help them up for success after I leave. The goal of the Uniterra program, for which I am a volunteer, is all about knowledge-transfer and capacity building, rather than us as volunteers trying to do all of the work ourselves, in a very short time, and then leaving with no long-term capacity for the work to continue. The rest of this week (except Friday which is a holiday) will be focused on getting me up to speed on the current and desired corporate culture and the work that has already been completed, is currently underway, and is planned, so I can help build out where to go from here!

Due to highly proprietary information photos are not permitted at MAS, however on Instagram @amyl4c you can find photos of the Buddhist temples Nina and I explored around Colombo after work on Monday!

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Stay tuned for my next post about my garment plant tour!