This was my first trainee job... as a young fledgling out in the open world  I went in as a very young and innocent girl to be trained as a typist clerk.  I was sent there by my Polytechnic Principal Ms. S N Vedanayagam, and my immediate boss was to be Ms. Suramya Waniganayake, while the Director was an Australian by the name of Mr.Anthony William English.

I remember being very scared on my first day... as I felt the Director's keen and sharp eyes miss nothing, I stuttered and stammered in front of him... not sure how to answer him...  my immediate boss who was a local was kind and tried to put me at  ease.  Later on. she as well as all the other social workers got very friendly with me and treated me as the baby of the Plan family.  PLAN INTERNATIONAL is  an International organization based in the UK it is  a foster parent care organization where local children are looked after by various foregin people from all over the world, and has been helping out now for about 70 years, PLAN INTERNATIONAL came to Sri Lanka in 1980 and I joined in for a short stint in 1986 - now what I had to do was fill all those forms for foster parents and children and  translate the English letters into Sinhala and type them out.  It was really fun and I enjoyed myself looking at the lovely things people used to send from different parts of the country and even more interesting was  to read the foster parents letter to their foster children in Sri Lanka.

During my short training period at PLAN International in Kandy and Gampola, I was the youngest of the social workers and was treated like a baby, and I was given my own office room when I went to wrok briefly at PLAN INTERNATIONAL IN GAMPOLA  in Kandy it was a different story altogether,  there  I was among the other typing pool. during my brief training period there I really came to love all those in the staff, and they made it really pleasant for me to be with them.  It was one big happy family and I will always cherish those great moments with my respective Bosses and the rest of the PLAN staff .

I also remember the Seminars  we had out side of  our office and we had to go to the cooler climes of Nuwara Eliya, and then there was a mock wedding where all of us had to dress to look like the opposite sex and I dressed as the page boy wearing my brothers black trouser and white shirt with bow tie, while our Director who was at that time  Mr.Alexander who was an African/American was dressed in his wife's  strap dress he looked  so  hilarious, to see him like that while our Accountant and Coordinator were dressed like bridesmaids all decked in pink sarees with a red rose on their hair,  then there was the time when we had to go out into the field and visit the foster childrens' homes, this was done by the social workers, but they allowed me also to tag along with them, and more than work I enjoyed myself immensely playing about half the time, and going on rides in the jeep or van,  No one said anything to me... I even had doggy pictures in my work room and everyone was very amused but loved it all the same.  I was taught how to manage a petty cash register, maintain the petty cash, type and fill forms, take an inventory, and buy stationary for the office, and help prepare the Tea for the staff, everyone had a go at this, all these things were taught to me by my two respective bosses mainly Ms.Suramya Wanigaratne and Ms. Pamela Pieris, they were directly responsible to the Directors Mr.English and Mr.Alexander.  While us smaller fry came under the Admin.Assistant and Coordinator.

TO ME PLAN INTERNATIONAL WAS ONE BIG FRIENDLY HAPPY FAMILY FOR ME...  I will always cherish my first day at work and my Bosses who trained and steered me for my future ahead.