Ship for World Youth:

After 16 years

Sachitra Mahendra and Masazumi Sato

In a dreamlike moment I look at the ship reaching closer. It is reaching the Colombo Port close enough. Some years back, as an ex participant youth onboard, I never imagined this will happen. Yes, I never thought I would ever get to see this same Fuji Maru in my own home country.

But it happened - after 16 years.

Thoughts came one by one, but pity I cannot remember them all now. I should have written them down. But you cannot afford to do such things. It would only have spoiled the moment.

And at Colombo Port we were all fixing our gaze on the ship, a home to us in different times. Apart from us Sri Lankans, there were Japanese, Oman and Turkish ex participant youths too. Masazumi Sato, who shared the cabin with me on the ship, was on his second visit to Sri Lanka.

“Why don’t you write some notes?”

“On what?” Masa asked me.

“On what you felt being here and seeing the programme...”

“Yes, I will try. But I need time. Perhaps I will message you on Facebook.”

And here is what he has sent:

There were a lot of smiles during the Port of Call in Sri Lanka. When I was in Sri Lanka, I was happy and felt like I was home all the time. The feeling was as same as I was on the ship spending with Sri Lankan delegation in 2010. Then I’d like to tell you what I thought during the Port of Call in Sri Lanka in 2012.

On February 15, we arrived at Colombo. My friend, Ilahi, came to pick us up at the airport. Then we went to stay at the apartment we called SWY house because all of us were ex-PYs. The following day, we got up early and we went to the Port in Colombo. As soon as we arrived there, we met a lot of ex-PYs from SWY 22.

I was really excited to meet them, because this was my first time to meet them after the SWY programme. I was very pleased to welcome the Fuji Maru with them. A few hours later, we saw Fuji Maru coming to the Port. Then we started to call out “S W Y Sri Lanka” over again and again. The moment we saw the ship coming into the port - it was one of the most memorable sights for me.

On February 17, I took part in a visit to the TV station in Colombo with Information and Media course discussion group. On the way to get there, we saw that there were thirteen national flags around the center of the city. I have never seen the flags in the city like that, so I felt very welcomed there.

After that, we got to the TV station. The member of National Youth Services Council gave me an explanation of the facility kindly. I looked around it with my friend who was from Sri Lanka and who was my roommate when I was on the ship. When I was a studio, there was a lot of electronic equipment. Then he said to me happily, “Masa, look, here is a Japanese logo.” Then I had a look and there was a sticker of Japan’s official development assistance. I was happy too.