The pearl of the Indian Ocean or the land of gems are only two of the many names Sri Lanka has be donned for its richness both of culture and land.
Like precious stones, the fortune of my Sri Lankan experience is buried in little moments that require some unearthing in my own thinking to find the value in.
Though I mostly relate this to little moments like sipping out of a freshly cut coconut that cost three cents while dodging tuk-tuks on a winding road shadowed in palm trees and passing through incense clouds haunting the Buddhist chants flowing out of an open door (just a peak into my past two afternoons here), I have already learned to apply this to my internship experience as well.
Today was my first official day of my media internship with Sarvodaya. The timing was on point, because all of the leading media figures of the organization were meeting today to review their new communication strategy and discuss launching a magazine.
It was an exciting meeting to take part in, because I surprised by the extensiveness of their media outlets.
So much so that my first thought was how do they have enough people to sustain these efforts, and do they have a guideline of uniformity so each medium reflects and coincides with the others.
They are on edge with their focus and goals of using social media as well as planning for a social change app once smart phones become the trend here. Another step was to make their website trilingual so it is accessible for more audiences.
The other progressive angle they are striving for, especially in the new magazine, is to revolve content around reconciliation; the focus would be geared toward this movement instead of promoting Sarvodaya as an organization. The potential magazine editor said specifically that they must do this through stories that show instead of tell how reconciliation is a thriving and maturing change.
He also said that these kinds of stories, ones that are full of contradictions melting into a new modern mold, are the ones that attract young readers.
After scribbling notes and diagrams from the meeting, I was motivated and anxious to take part in this vast media effort in anyway I could. I left the room excited to be of some help to this movement that they so desperately want to take off.
I was given an overview of what was expected of me the next few weeks, which is to rewrite stories on the website that need updating due to added information via Facebook. This would also entail interviewing project leaders for their own updates.
I was handed over to the young woman who writes and does most of the editing for their monthly newspaper, which is in Sinhala, to write some of the newsletter stories in English after she translated them for me also.
As I walked to my new desk in the media office with Dilakshana, I was amped and ready to start.
The work adrenaline and pace of the mood slowed to a halt as I realized that she is not as fluent in English as her coworkers, and her translating the short news clips was a challenging exercise of her language skills.
Of course, I completely admire her for what she does know, because we’re all caught up on my lack of language skills and embarrassment of.
However, I was only able to type three or four short bullet points for each headline, since that was all she could translate. Those were all I had to craft a paragraph long news bite per story.
The slow process of her working through the languages and me trying to capture all that she wanted to say in an informative way but only getting a few words out was a buzz kill.
Disappointed in my lack of abilities to contribute quality work due to this dilemma, I went to tea time.
If you don’t know the power of hot black tea with milk and too much sugar, I suggest you treat yourself to some deep reflection and refreshing thoughts over a cup.
I returned to the office thinking, no, I wasn’t out interviewing or reviving old stories or networking on social media, but I was sharing time with another aspiring young female journalist in a way that was improving her language abilities and exercising my ability to bring as much life to the most basic information given.
In so many ways, that is just as valuable to my career building experience as any other task. It really hit me to appreciate the little jobs that may not be what I wanted initially when she began to explain her own career desires.
Dilakshana graduated from university with a mass media degree in February, and she has been working with Sarvodaya’s newspaper and newsletters since.
Though she is happy to work with Sarvodaya and to have a job, print media is actually her least favorite journalistic area.
She studied and researched for radio, because writing scripts and jingles is what she enjoys the most. She also loves photojournalism and thinks the picture with a story can be just as important as the words.
Yet, here she is working every day not doing either of those. And still, she has a beautiful smile on her face as she writes reports and as we attempt to understand each other over simple news leads.
Not only was my patience practiced in that sticky room, but as the fan churned to stir the air, we both expressed our excitement to be working together and share our small steps to achieve our far off dreams.
Like precious stones, the fortune of my Sri Lankan experience is buried in little moments that require some unearthing in my own thinking to find the value in.
Though I mostly relate this to little moments like sipping out of a freshly cut coconut that cost three cents while dodging tuk-tuks on a winding road shadowed in palm trees and passing through incense clouds haunting the Buddhist chants flowing out of an open door (just a peak into my past two afternoons here), I have already learned to apply this to my internship experience as well.
Today was my first official day of my media internship with Sarvodaya. The timing was on point, because all of the leading media figures of the organization were meeting today to review their new communication strategy and discuss launching a magazine.
It was an exciting meeting to take part in, because I surprised by the extensiveness of their media outlets.
So much so that my first thought was how do they have enough people to sustain these efforts, and do they have a guideline of uniformity so each medium reflects and coincides with the others.
They are on edge with their focus and goals of using social media as well as planning for a social change app once smart phones become the trend here. Another step was to make their website trilingual so it is accessible for more audiences.
The other progressive angle they are striving for, especially in the new magazine, is to revolve content around reconciliation; the focus would be geared toward this movement instead of promoting Sarvodaya as an organization. The potential magazine editor said specifically that they must do this through stories that show instead of tell how reconciliation is a thriving and maturing change.
He also said that these kinds of stories, ones that are full of contradictions melting into a new modern mold, are the ones that attract young readers.
After scribbling notes and diagrams from the meeting, I was motivated and anxious to take part in this vast media effort in anyway I could. I left the room excited to be of some help to this movement that they so desperately want to take off.
I was given an overview of what was expected of me the next few weeks, which is to rewrite stories on the website that need updating due to added information via Facebook. This would also entail interviewing project leaders for their own updates.
I was handed over to the young woman who writes and does most of the editing for their monthly newspaper, which is in Sinhala, to write some of the newsletter stories in English after she translated them for me also.
As I walked to my new desk in the media office with Dilakshana, I was amped and ready to start.
The work adrenaline and pace of the mood slowed to a halt as I realized that she is not as fluent in English as her coworkers, and her translating the short news clips was a challenging exercise of her language skills.
Of course, I completely admire her for what she does know, because we’re all caught up on my lack of language skills and embarrassment of.
However, I was only able to type three or four short bullet points for each headline, since that was all she could translate. Those were all I had to craft a paragraph long news bite per story.
The slow process of her working through the languages and me trying to capture all that she wanted to say in an informative way but only getting a few words out was a buzz kill.
Disappointed in my lack of abilities to contribute quality work due to this dilemma, I went to tea time.
If you don’t know the power of hot black tea with milk and too much sugar, I suggest you treat yourself to some deep reflection and refreshing thoughts over a cup.
I returned to the office thinking, no, I wasn’t out interviewing or reviving old stories or networking on social media, but I was sharing time with another aspiring young female journalist in a way that was improving her language abilities and exercising my ability to bring as much life to the most basic information given.
In so many ways, that is just as valuable to my career building experience as any other task. It really hit me to appreciate the little jobs that may not be what I wanted initially when she began to explain her own career desires.
Dilakshana graduated from university with a mass media degree in February, and she has been working with Sarvodaya’s newspaper and newsletters since.
Though she is happy to work with Sarvodaya and to have a job, print media is actually her least favorite journalistic area.
She studied and researched for radio, because writing scripts and jingles is what she enjoys the most. She also loves photojournalism and thinks the picture with a story can be just as important as the words.
Yet, here she is working every day not doing either of those. And still, she has a beautiful smile on her face as she writes reports and as we attempt to understand each other over simple news leads.
Not only was my patience practiced in that sticky room, but as the fan churned to stir the air, we both expressed our excitement to be working together and share our small steps to achieve our far off dreams.
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