“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it”

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Wednesday, November 2, 2011 | 5 photos

Always through my life I have been appreciative of what I have and feel lucky to live in a country as well off as Australia. However, never in my life have I truly understood how lucky. Until my first trip out of the country when I went to the amazing country, Sri Lanka. On my time going around the less advantaged areas in Colombo. It was a shock to the system to see a place like this. So different from home, so less fortunate and strangely still so filled with happiness. For people that had so little they gave so much. The purpose of being there wasnt for a holiday. I had travelled there with a group of others to work with a preschool. We did get to spend a bit of time with the children there but the main reason for us being there was to repaint the school and build a beginning foundation for a kitchen. I had a huge amount of fun doing all of this and it seemed to be over all too quickly. We got to know a few people in the community and they got to know us. As time went on I started to realise something about the place I was in and the people that were in it. Before going I had a lot of preconceptions and thought that with all the poverty and because they had come out of a civil war only 2 years ago it would be a very sad place. How wrong I was. As a Chinese philosopher once said; “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it”. I couldn’t find a better example than Sri Lanka. In the photos that I have taken I have shown the what a lot of people would think of when they think of Sri Lanka. The sadness and poverty found in an area like this and the unfortunate reality of a shanty town housing up to 6000 families! Then the hidden beauty of a country as special as this that has completely changed how I see Sri Lanka and even my outlook on life. I hope to share that.