Ep 12. Young Tigers in Sri Lanka

Breaking Borders is an adventurous and informative travel series that primarily focuses on bridging the gaps between people from different ethnic backgrounds, countries, and cultures. Each episode features a team of professionals that sets out on a journey to explore and experience the life, aspirations, challenges, and achievements of people from different parts of the world. In Breaking Borders season 1 episode 12, named Young Tigers in Sri Lanka, the team takes a trip to Sri Lanka, an island country in South Asia.

The episode opens with the Breaking Borders team meeting with Sri Lanka's young Tigers, an amateur rugby team from Northern Sri Lanka made up of Tamil youths, who were directly affected by a bloody 26-year civil war. The civil war which erupted from 1983 was between the minority Tamil separatists who sought equality from the majority Sinhalese community. The Tigers formed as a means to unify the youth and to challenge the challenges the community faces. Their coach, Yogi, who has served in the Sri Lankan military, introduces the team and explains the motivation behind the team's creation.

The Breaking Borders team takes the viewers through a journey of the players' stories, describing how each of them lost relatives and friends in the conflict, with some of them ending up being kidnapped, forced to join the rebel army, or becoming refugees in India. However, sports, especially rugby, has played a significant role in unifying the youth in the region.

The team learns how rugby has become a passion and changed the lives of the players. The players share their experiences of being a team from a war-torn area and challenge their opponents, mostly from areas that did not go through the same struggles. We see how they learn and train while at the same time be role models for other young people in their community.

Breaking Borders team travels to the town of Kilinochchi, where they witness the aftermath of the war continues to linger. They meet with a young man named Lahiru Ratnayake, a war veteran who runs the Kili Foundation, an organization aimed at rehabilitating troubled youth. Lahiru explains how seeing his General get blown up by a suicide bomber had a profound impact on him, and he realized he had to do something for his community.

The episode takes a more jovial tone when the team heads to Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, to experience Sri Lankan cuisine. They visit a street-side café grilling shrimp and seekh kebabs and other local delicacies. The show takes a fun turn when the Breaking Borders team tries the spicy local foods for the first time, with some members choking on the heat and others enjoying the flavors.

The team also visits a tea plantation in the hills of Nuwara Eliya to learn about Sri Lanka's tea industry, which produces one of the world's finest teas. They get to meet a tea-picker, Gnanawasy, who recounts her life as a tea picker - one of the hardest and lowest-paid jobs in the industry. The tea plantation is alive with the sights and sounds of Tamil life, and it presents an opportunity for the team to learn more about cultural and economic roles of the Tamil community.

As with other Breaking Borders episodes, this episode shows how shared experiences and exchanges can benefits fostering understanding and empathy. It presents viewers with unique lessons of the power of sports and the resilience of communities that leave enduring impacts. The Breaking Borders team leaves Sri Lanka with a better understanding of the country, its people, and its culture. Through their interactions with those they met during their journey, they arrive at a cultural consensus that all readers can relate to despite the language scarcity.