Arriving at Midnight

At Colombo airport the Melbourne passengers were early through customs and we waited as the trickle of challenge participants gather together. One minute there's just a few of you, three or four names to memorise. Then another silently emerges from the flow of disembarking passengers, and even at this stage the task of introductions and identification is getting cumbersome. Two more slide in and only half the group notice. I turn around and see several more people nearby - I had seen them earlier but only now do I realise they are with us. A few names are announced and the words bounce off my brain without registering. I am now surrounded by people who's names I do not know and faces I can barely glimpse; I can't see the trees for the forest!

As we drive away from the airport and head for Negombo the lack of familiarity suddenly strikes me. Even those few I have chatted with I know nothing about really. Where you live and what you do for a living says so little about a person I wonder why I would even ask sometimes. I am far more curious to learn how they got here, what kind of experiences led them to sign up for this charity challenge, what visions of Sri Lanka have they carried with them and how they will cope with what lays ahead. I know so little about my companions, but I do know one thing; they have each given up time and money to make a difference here in Sri Lanka. That does say a lot about a person, and the brief interactions from this evening has confirmed for me these people are a little bit unique & a little bit special.