Grade 11 - CAS Reflection

My first year in the IB Diploma programme has been a great blend of academics and co-curricular activities. I have taken part in a variety of activities adhering to the CAS programme and have gained experience to further develop in these spheres in my final IB year, i.e. Grade 12. The activities I participated in this year share three common achievements of mine. These are punctuality, commitment and perseverance towards the objective, and becoming aware of my own strengths and areas of growth.

In the Creativity aspect of the programme, I have now spent approximately 8 months learning to play an acoustic guitar. With a few overlaps and blends, my knowledge is divided into two parts. These are: using chords accompanied with different techniques of strumming to play any type of music, and using chord progressions and music tabs to play classical notations. I have excelled to an extent such that I have become an independent player. However, I have yet to become a good classical notation reader and a fluent player of classical notations using plucking techniques. At many instances I have learnt from my younger brother who has a 4-5 year experience in playing guitar. Thus, with the help of collaboration at instances, I have developed many skills in this new hobby (also passion) of mine. The most challenging experience for me was to take part in multiple team performances during a class programme in the Russian Cultural Center. I will practice more during the summer vacation and will aim to take part in more programs to gain both, experience of playing in front of a crowd as well as confidence in my skills.

Action has been the main highlight for me this year. I have attended a one hour session every Saturday morning followed by a two hour session on Sunday mornings. These have not only helped me to become a better player, but also a better sportsman with more understanding of the sport. I, in collaboration with other players, helped in organizing these sessions gaining experience of planning and initiating activities useful for my future. In this time, I have learnt mental strategies as well as useful techniques for offence from other more-experienced players. I wish to be able to exhibit my skills soon by either joining the school SAISA team or by taking part in other competitions. In addition to this, I have been attending swimming sessions (at least 2 per month) as a moderate swimmer at the Thurstan College swimming complex. It has also been an overall success as I have increased my stamina in both stroke swimming and underwater swimming, and achieved my main goal.

The final part of the CAS programme, i.e. Service, went very well too. I took part in the school's Library Service activity for the complete year. I became a co-leader for the activity in Semester 2 and was quite successful in guiding my team of 'Guardians of the library' to success with the ethical implications of our actions in mind.

I feel that all the broad objectives I set in the beginning of the year have been achieved even though a few minor tasks were unsuccessful due to time constraints and other issues (such as taking part in the Badminton after school activity was not possible due to transport problem). It has been a successful year in terms of CAS and I hope to extend my co-curricular base next year by broadening my boundaries, and showcasing my experience in events and competitions.

Action (May - 1st June) - Last, but not the end!

Badminton has become a regular part of my life. It has a reserved period in my weekend mornings and I take it very seriously. I enjoy the sport very much and am prepared mentally and physically to play at any given time :) The month of May has been packed with numerous highs and lows for me in my badminton sessions. Playing against far more experienced players than myself, I have been able to learn through the journey even though the results varied between wins, losses and many down to the wire matches.

This month, I played more doubles matches than usual in comparison to singles. I was puntual and committed in all sessions and collaborated and communicated well with other players, both inside and outside the court. My communication with my partners was key in many doubles matches where the opposition was recovering with surprises. However, minor new challenges were always part of the journey. These included difficulties during the matches such as judging the partners call when it may be wrong and reading each and every player's body language. 

The sports sessions this month especially motivated me this month as at the ends of matches, I was always able to share and celebrate the spirit of sportsmanship with other players. This may not really be considered a new skill, however, sportsmanship is crucial for one's growth, both as a player and a human. Also, it is the best way in which players share each others experience and learn from each other. Hence, the moral of sports will always be preserved within me as considering ethical implications associated with learning from the game and fellow players, primarily summarised by the term sportsmanship.

On the other hand, I was unable to attend swimming sessions this month due to the short preparation time remaining before the examinations in the last week of May.

This month marks the end to all the Action in this school year. However, I will continue to participate regularly in badminton. Also, I will resume my swimming schedule and enjoy the sessions during the summer break.

Creativity (May - 2nd June) - Guitar - No breaks needed when having fun!

This month, due to various holidays such as Poya day and Victory day, my weekly Saturday guitar class schedule was altered slightly. I had a single class in the first weekend, a double class in the second weekend, no class in the third weekend, and a single class in the third weekend. I punctually attended all the classes and was able to spend at least 1-2 hours per week for practice even though the dark clouds of exams were shadowing my time schedule. The main reason for this was that I enjoy playing the guitar and thus, spent my breaks practicing. Hence, I am wholeheartedly committed to becoming a nice and independent guitarist with the help of regular practice.

In my classes in May, I mainly learnt two new techniques. These were: using familiar chords while playing classical notation to play fluently, and using bass guitar chords and chord progressions for 'beginners' improvisation. I have been able to keep up with these and am satisfied with my progress.

As this month marks the end of Semester 2, this school year's Creativity programme (a part of CAS) also comes to a close. However, I am not going to miss any of my enjoyable guitar sessions during the two month summer, and am additionally planning to practice more in order to become a confident guitarist, strong enough to take part in school programmes next year. Also, I will be performing in a second programme with my guitar class peers during the summer and will be working towards that as well.

Service (May, 2012) - Library Service - *The End*

Library Service has been a fun and rigorous service activity for me this year. Many feel that stacking books and arranging them properly is an easy task. However, my feeling is that such thoughts cannot be changed unless the people experience the activity themselves, i.e. you don't know until you do it yourself. It should be known to all that correctly organizing and arranging all the books in the Secondary Learning Resource Center (SLRC) is a team task requiring both focus as well as physical stamina.

This service program has been a fun and useful period during which me and my peers have contributed to the school community. This is a matter of global importance with positive ethical implications as a Library plays a key role in providing knowledge from all spheres to students as well as non-students in the community. Thus, the maintainance of a library, i.e. the role of a 'Guardian of the Library', is taken very seriously by me.

I have attended all activity sessions punctually and am very happy with the progress that our group made. As a co-leader this month, I have been able to take responsibility for completing specific tasks planned by me and my partner Humza, and thus, guide the group towards helping each other after completing their individual tasks. I also happily maintained the new school Library Service blog that I had created with the first OSC library gmail account. Thus, by undertaking new challenges and taking responsibility, I have planned and initiated the service sessions and have collaborated with my team. Also, with perseverance and commitment, I have developed new leadership skills such as rewarding hardwork, motivating team-spirit and most importantly, leading by example. I am also happy with the whole team as most students were present in the sessions and prepared to work.

I thank my team, Humza, and Mrs. Lockwood for wonderful service sessions this semester.

I hope to take all these useful skills and nice memories of 'Library Service' as I step into a new service activity next year.

Action continues actively - Badminton (April, 2012)

April has been an action packed month for me. I have been able to continue my swimming practice along with Badminton during weekends.

Badminton continued as usual. However, the speciality was that this month was an even blend of singles competitions and doubles matches. I played in collaboration and with persistence and commitment with the other players. As my brother was the only person of my age group playing, while the remaining were experienced adults, I got many opportunities to implement my playing strategies, while also to learn new techniques by becoming aware of some of my weaknesses. For example, I tend to hit drop shots repeatedly even if the opponent is standing near the net, thus, making it easy for my opponent to 'read my game plan'. Thus, I developed the skill of using this understanding of my opponent to my own use by surprising them with corner to corner overhead shots and occasional body smashes. I would say that this month has motivated me to become more spontaneous and less planned in game play, while also smart and clever by understanding my opponents' mindset. I will continue my badminton sessions next month in the same consistent manner as in the past year while balancing my study time for the approaching exams.

Below are a few photographs and a video taken at a session that was shifted to the Royal College badminton courts.

Me at the end of a sweaty session.

"We will learn of books and men, and learn to play the game" - Outside the Royal College badminton complex.

Me successfully reaching for a backhand shot.

Good communication led to no accidents and a successful game.

Hitting a overhead clear.

Being a part of a long rally.

Hitting a smash against my brother.

Playing a backhand shot in a singles match against my brother.

A video of the instance where I learnt that being predictable can be used to one's advantage with a surprise shot.

Swimming was a special delight in the hot weather of this month. I visited the Thurstan College swimming pool for two single-hour sessions. I noted that my breath holding duration had decreased since I had not visited the pool for a few months. Thus, I started by doing some breath holding practice and underwater swimming. Later, I followed this with continuous swimming laps. I alternately did freestyle and breaststroke while also adding the backstroke at intervals. My speed was not that impressive as I lacked consistency, however, I was happy to be able to do 10 continuous laps without any breaks in the first go. These swimming sessions were really useful as they taught me about the importance of consistency and the consequences of a 'long gap' in practice. 

Below are a few photographs of mine from these sessions.

Me (in the center), doing freestyle swimming.

Underwater swimming practice.

Me (at the back in the picture), starting a new lap.

Completing lap with breastroke.

Now, my aim is to be more consistent with swimming. However, due to the exams coming up next week, I feel that missing it can be excused. Thus, my sports practice will increase over the summer break. I also intend to start regular jogging and exercises in the morning at the beautiful independence square avenue park during the summer.

I am looking forward to the next few highly 'Action' packed months.

Library Service - April, 2012

Library Service at OSC now has two new leaders, i.e. me and Humza. We have begun leading the group and will be in this position till the summer break (and hopefully next year). In the first session, we had a small introduction session which was followed by implementation of a new plan. It was decided that from now onwards, the newly returned books will be shelved by all collectively, and later, everyone will return to work on and maintain their assigned shelves (including us leaders). Thus, by leading by example, me and Humza explained this to everyone and started work.

Till now, the group has been working diligently, sometimes taking long breaks in between though, and has been maintaining the book shelves properly. We all have worked as a team and collaborated well. However, both me and Humza, were at times challenged to keep the group at work, and therefore we developed new skills of diplomatically handling such situations by planning the activities in a creative manner in order to keep everyone at task and hence managing to get the work done with a few breaks.

I have also created a new blog for the service with its own g-mail id, as the previous blog was controlled by the previous leaders' personal mail. Thus, http://libraryserviceatosc.blogspot.com/, i.e. the new blog, will be updated at regular intervals to keep the world updated about our accomplishments as guardians of the library.

Hope everything continues fine next month, i.e. the final month for this school year, as well. :)

Creativity - Guitar (April, 2012)

Guitar was quite special this month. The classes this month were both 2 hour sessions in the first two weekends due to the important Vesak break in the country. I have been consistent in practicing my guitar skills and also punctual at attending all classes. In the recent classes, I have been learning and practicing a new blues tune. Its notation is given below.

I have succeeded in being able to read, understand and play the music fluently now. However, after listening to the original song, and as advised by my teacher, I need to improve in learning the various unique aspects of playing blues using classical notation. These include stretching notes at the end, improvising, and the use of tremolo. I have yet to learn all three of these and thus, I will be starting these next month. However, I have started to practice and learn these on my own using online tutorials, and have succeeded to an extent. I have to still gain speed in it though. Hence, I have been able to challenge myself by identifying areas of growth and working on them.

I am looking forward to continuing guitar practice in a similar fashion with new things to learn next month.

Action - Badminton (March, 2012)

March has been action packed for me. I played lots of Badminton matches, both singles and doubles, out of which most were against experienced players and some against players at the same level as me. The matches were all of a wide variety as I won some comfortably and also lost some with a tough fight till the end. I enjoyed all these matches as they helped me to challenge myself both physically as well as mentally. It has been an overall successful month for me in terms of action. Most of my badminton skills have improved in this month, however, as there are two sides of a coin, I have been facing a difficulty of calming myself after consecutive losses. After observing my weaknesses and analyzing them, I have realised that after loosing more than 5 points consecutively in both formats of the sport, I tend to hit shots much harder. This results in less accuracy, less variation and less focus from me. Thus, the opponents are able to overpower my team later. Now, my aim is to be more calm, cool and composed while playing as it is the best way to learn from mistakes and proceed without distraction or frustration.

Other than that, I attended all my sessions punctually and consistently and played all matches with complete dedication and active participation till the end.

Below are photographs that were taken on 25th March (I am on the near side of the court - wearing a black t-shirt). The session was moved to the Royal College Badminton Court on that day as D.S. Senanayake College was closed for public.
 

My 'rotating' shot!

An overhead clear.

Reaching for a overhead clear.

Me hitting a diagonal drop shot. I have almost perfected this shot.

Covering for my partner while playing in a rotational formation.

Reaching for a dropshot.

Smash!

Service position.

Playing a short shot by reaching for it is a nice variation.

A successfully saved drop shot in a corner by the net.

 I will continue my practice of badminton in a similar fashion next month as well. I hope to improve in all aspects, especially reducing my anxiety by being more calm and composed. :)

Service - Library Service: Leadership time - coming soon!!! (March, 2012)

Its been another busy month in Library Service. However, it has been very useful and as well as interesting. By attending the service punctually and working commitedly, me and my "non-fiction" team partner Humza have been chosen to be the next leaders of the service group. I am really happy as leading a community service group is a great privilege and also a big responsibility. 

I had earlier blogged that:

"Library Service is an activity that enables us students to recognize the role of the Library in every student’s life. We, the Library Service members, act as the "Guardians of the Library" by keeping it organized for the convenience of all the Library users, including students, parents, teachers, as well as visitors (Ethical implications of my actions). I believe that this Service program is very crucial as it not only allows us to be a part of the group in charge of maintaining the library, but it also enables us to respect the purpose of the Library." 

  
(Thursday, September 15, 2011)

I feel that while planning activities and tasks for the team, and also when implementing them, this should be kept in mind as a memo. I am also excited as my partner Humza is a hard-worker who adds a motivating fun touch to the service environment.

Other than that, this months service continued as usual. All of us placed the returned books in their designated shelves and spent remaining time tidying and stacking unorganized books in the correct order (i.e. both numerical and alphabetical).

Me and Humza will be starting our leadership from next month. We will be supervised by Ms. Lockwood, and will be in charge of all tasks carried out by the students enrolling in this service. Initially we both will work on creating a detailed plans of tasks for each student. We will also keep the library service blog up to date about activities carried out in the service. Later, programmes such as awareness campaigns and fundraisers will also be planned.

I am looking forward to this new challenge next month!

Creativity - Guitar: Stage performance - preparations start! (March, 2012)

March was a rigorous month for me as it was full of school assignment deadlines, test dates, and major project due dates. Amidst this pressure, I saved time to practice guitar at least two times a week for half an hour. With my commitment and dedication towards learning this instrument and fulfilling my passion, I improved in most of the guitar techniques and strengthened my playing skills. I attended all Saturday hourly sessions punctually and showed my improvement to my teacher as well. He was able to help me in analyzing my new strengths and recognizing areas of improvement. 

Other than that, another class stage performance will be coming in a few months time. Hence, I, with my classmates, practiced 8 new songs that will be performed with chord progressions and the strumming technique. They are:

• Unchained melody
• Always on my mind
• Nobody knows you when you're down and out
• It keeps rainin'
• Night shift
• Hotel California
• New Kid in Town
• Knocking on Heaven's Door

Other than these, I have been memorizing chord scales such as C Major, G Major and D Major.

I will also be performing 3 classical notations. These are:

• Purple Blues
• Boogie Blues
• A moderate shuffle blues tune (No name)

I have also been practicing classical notations such as Apache, Rasputin and Scarborough Fair.

Overall, I feel that I have practiced and done well this month. I hope to continue this next month as well and improve further by increasing practice during the April break! :)

Action - Badminton (January - February, 2012)

January and February have been successful months for me in terms of action. My badminton skills are improving as I attend all my sessions punctually and consistently. I start all my sessions with short warm up periods. This warm up period is crucial in order to avoid muscle strains and injuries, and also key to starting a proper badminton match. I play all matches with complete dedication and active participation till the end.

I focused majorly on doubles matches, while only playing rare In these months, I have improved on most of the aspects in badminton. All my experiences have helped me to analyze my strengths and weaknesses in the sport. These include services (serving), smashing, hitting drop shots, smashes, overhead clear shots, placement, my unorthodox dive and 'rotating' shots, as well as tactics involving analyzing the opponents' strenghts and weaknesses. However, I still have a marginal scope to cover in a few aspects. These are variations in my shots, i.e. a kind of tactic that helps in building pressure on the opponent's by tiring them, communication with my partner, and lack of consistency in achieving my desired shot, i.e. being able to hit one shot perfectly after a few (around 5-6) shots.

The photographs below show how I have gathered experience with practice, and am improving in a variety of fields associated with match play.

Me (on the right hand side in image - wearing black shorts), applying the 'scorpion' pose for recieving a serve.

Communication with my partner played a major role in our win!

Me hitting my unorthodox 'rotatiting' shot in which I turn a complete 360 degrees to be able to hit a backhand shot while turning towards the opponents.

The scorpion pose being applied to hit a high serve.

I am now able to serve efficiently not only to safely start a rally, however, to also earn easy points by using placement and power variation.

A STRAIGHT "DOWN THE LINE" SMASH!

Me hitting a overhead clear.

Smash!

 In the photographs below, I am on the other side of the court. Hence, I am not visible clearly. However, my shots can be analyzed by viewing them through the perspective of my opponents.

Me serving from the other side of the court.

Me playing an overhead clear and placing it in between the two opponents. I was able to identify communication as their weakness, and use it to my team's benifit!

Me placing a shot perfectly and winning a point ending a long rally.

Me playing a diagonal drop shot! It is my one of my favourite shots!

Me tactically placing my service and using it to challenge the opponent.

My badminton skills are improving and I am very happy with this improvement. I will continue to play and practice badminton in order to improve myself further in the future as well.

Creativity - Guitar (January - February, 2012)

Guitar has become a new passion and hobby for me. I have practiced all the techniques that I have learnt, and can play all classical notations in one flow. I believe that this is a large accomplishment as I will now implement my playing techniques to strengthen my notation reading efficiency. 

During the vacation, I spent most of my time on classical tunes as it is a very complex method of playing the guitar, and this style is the one I will need to become very fluent and comfortable with. On the other hand, playing songs with chord progressions has become very simple for me as I have memorized all the chords and have also practiced quick transitions between them.

The classes in both the months were full of new and very interesting knowledge. I have practiced more than 10 chord songs in the class, and by commiting and dedicating myself to this activity, I have learnt to play many tunes and songs independently that I am passionate about. I have been punctual in attending all the classes and I am moving smoothly through this moderate phase of learning to play complex techniques on the guitar. It has been an exciting semester for me and I really enjoyed improving my previously gained knowledge with practice, and developing new guitar skills after accomplishing my goal of perfecting all the basics required.

I am now looking forward to continuing guitar classes in March!

Service - Library Service (January - February, 2012)

Library Service continued after the winter vacation with the same amount of thrill and enthusiasm about tidying the library and helping the community! The participants in the third quarter of the year supervised by the OSC Head Librarian Ms. Raina Lockwood are:

• Skylor Knoll (12.A) - CAS leader
• Charity Dowers (12.1M) - CAS leader
• Philipp Hofbauer (12.1A) - CAS Blog Manager
• Onkar Ashish (11.2LE)
• Satyanshu Sapra (11.2L)
• Humza Usmani (11.2L)
• Constantine Hempel (10.1R)
• Greta Rocchi (9.2S)
• Christiane Amare (8.2H)
• Tulika Khosla (8.1G)
• Alo Lenk-Walker (8.1G)
• Beda Bellugue O’Leary (7.2R)
• Sejuti Sarkar (8.1G) 

The hourly after school service session took place as usual on every Thursday. I attended all the sessions punctually and worked till the end with complete dedication. Lots of returned books had to be placed in the designated spots on the correct shelves. I worked with my "non-fiction" team members to complete this task. Later, we worked on properly arranging the books in disorganized and distorted stacks. 

I felt that the leaders had not allotted the number of workers for the respective fiction and non-fiction sections properly. As majority of the students in the service were MYP students, the small fiction area was much well organized and maintained. However, as only 4 people (including me) worked in the large non-fiction area, only a small share of the books were maintained regularly and stacked correctly.

Thus, I have suggested to the leaders that more children be moved to the "non-fiction" team in order to properly maintain the books by next month. I hope to see some new peers as a part of our team in March. 

I am also looking forward to more such busy library service sessions in March which are useful for the OSC community directly as well as indirectly!

Week Without Walls (23 January - 27 January) : A complete reflection

This Week Without Walls (WWW) was my grade's final school trip. Hence, it included a variety of activities which helped us to develop and grow in various aspects such as personality development, community service, collaboration and communication, creativity and ingenuity, tackling physical and mental challenges, planning activities, and leadership. The WWW program also included a variety of leisure trips such as trekking on the Situlpahuwa rock and visiting the Yala National Park.

Every day in the WWW was unique, and on each day, I was able to grow by developing and enhancing my personality by engaging in activities involving Creativity, Action and Service.

DAY 1 - MONDAY

The programme for the first day was to visit the schools and conduct a recce in order to create plans for the major tasks that needed to be accomplished in order to renovate the school. The day began with a 5 hour bus journey via the new Southern Expressway. However, the work for the day began in the afternoon after arrival when both the sections of Grade 11 visited both the schools that we were going to attempt to help by providing different kinds of physical labour. The schools were vacant today and hence, both the grades were able to plan properly.

My class was able to plan efficiently as we had already used information from the teachers' recce trip and divided ourselves into working groups such as the mural group, the construction group, the painting group and others. Me and my peers Humza and Uvin were responsible for landscaping work. All the groups were responsible for completing their individual tasks firstly, however, were free to join other groups after completing the specified tasks.

During the recce trip, I was responsible for talking to the construction group leader Sonny and arranging the different tools that me and my landscaping team would require to work. This enabled me to collaborate with my peers in order to plan and initiate an activity.

After arriving back at the hotel, all of us reflected on the recce. We set specific goals for our tasks in order to be able to accomplish our goals. My goals briefly were to:

• Work with full commitment. Complete all tasks that have been initiated. (Show commitment and perseverance.)
• Learn new landscaping skills and use them to make the pre-school playground area a more child friendly zone. (Develop new skills.)
• Consult my landscaping team and collaborate with them to complete the tasks. Also, I will help my class peers and always boost their morale. (Collaborate with peers.)
• Be respectful to pre-school community and to the purpose of the task. Always work whole-heartedly, responsibly and with complete focus as the tasks that we will be carrying out will directly impact the lives of the pre-school community as well as the students' futures. (Engaging in issues of global importance and understanding the ethical implications of my tasks.)
• Be a risk taker and open-minded learner. (Undertake new challenges and increase my awareness of my strengths and areas of growth.)

After dinner, both the sections of the grade separately planned the performances that we would carry out in the afternoon on Wednesday after completing our work in the pre-schools. This performance would take place in front of the whole pre-school community, including the students, teachers and parents. My class finalized that we would perform one English song as a whole group, while two Sinhala songs would be sung by the Sri Lankan students. The English song we will all song in chorus is 'Stand By Me' by Ben. E King.

It was a fun and exciting day for me.

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

Me (inside the van) helping to load the baggage. Photograph by: Dharshana.

Mr. Lockwood addressing our class. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The condition of the merry-go-round and the pyramid before our work as seen on Day 1. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

DAY 2 - TUESDAY

Tuesday was a very successful day. All of us were initially welcomed by the children with flowers. It was a very nice moment. In the beginning, everyone interacted and played with the children. The playing session included games such as "duck-duck-goose" and treasure hunt. These games were not a 100% successful as the language barrier, lack of planning on the part of the games team, and poor organization led to poor understanding of the games and hence a poor success in introduction and communication. However, the improvised idea of having a drawing session solved this problem and enabled all of us to make new friends. I made many new friends such as Janith, Shashun and Udina. I played with the children on the see-saw and also helped them to swing on a tyre swing that had been placed by the construction team in the playing time. While interacting with the children, I found it difficult to communicate with them. Hence, I developed a new skill of speaking some key Sinhala terms to appreciate, to say thank you and even to maintain an order by saying words and phrases meaning 'next' and 'his turn'. I enjoyed playing with the children.

After playing with the children, I began work with my landscaping team. We decided to use the rake to clear all the small rocks in the playground and later to use the hoe to take out the obtruding sharp rocks from the ground. I used a rake and hoe for the first time in my life. Hence, I was able to develop a new labour skill that will be useful to me in my future too. In the process, I also helped my peer Uvinconsidered its ethical implications on the pre-school community.

By the end of the work session, me and my team had been able to clean and clear more than half of the playground and also remove a majority of the obtruding rocks.

Later, after dinner at the hotel, me and my peers collaborated together and rehearsed for the performance that would take place on the next day. It was a fun time as everyone sang and practiced happily.

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

Receiving 'the flower' - A mesmerising welcome. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Children playing "Duck-duck-goose". Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Me working at the playground and clearing the small rocks. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY

It was the final day for the pre-school work today. In the beginning, we were welcomed by the school children with flowers. We began the day by directly starting the interaction time. I was able to familiarize myself with my new friends Janith and Shashun. Both of them enjoyed my company a lot and also liked to get launched on the see-saw and the tyre swing while I made rocket-like sound effects to entertain them. I played with them and many other excited children for a long time. I enjoyed this a lot and had fun communicating with them using my little Sinhala knowledge and many sign language gestures.

Afterwards, I worked towards completing the landscaping with my team. We were able to accomplish our goal in approximately one hour. I was very satisfied and the children were happy too. After completing my work, I collaborated with my peers and helped in digging a 2 feet deep and 2 feet wide hole, painting the fence, sandpapering the swing and the see-saw, painting the hollow cylinder, and completely painting two tyres in a four-tyre obstacle course.

At the end of the work, all the groups had successfully completed their works. The pre-school teachers were all happy with the work, and the children were very excited to see their renovated playground and painted classroom.

The day at the school concluded with dance performances by the children and then the song performance by our class. I felt that I had been able to engage in an issue of global importance by serving and working at the school, and contributing as much as possible on a personal level (even though it was small on a global scale).

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

The hollow cylinder painted by me and Uvin. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The two background tyres were painted by me. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Me helping Janik to paint the fence. The fence will play an important role in keeping the children safe from the exterior barbed wire fence! Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

Me and Humza levering an obtruding large rock from underneath the swings. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Our class after completing the work. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

The completed mural at the school wall. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

DAY 4 - THURSDAY

The 4th day of the trip was full of fun and experiential learning. First, the whole grade 11 visited the Tissa Dagoba. Then, we trekked at the Situlpahuwa rock, the place where 3000 monks meditated to attain enlightenment. Finally, we enjoyed the flora and fauna at the Yala National Park during a 4 hour safari.

A few photographs from the trips:

The beach meets the forest at Yala. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Peacock dance. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

A langer sits and enjoys the cool breeze. Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

Friends Forever. Photograph by: Mr. Ian Lockwood.

Enjoying trekking at Situlpahuwa. Photograph by: Mr. Ian Lockwood.

The Tissa Dagoba. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Leopards playing. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The mouth of this river meets the sea. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

A large water body in Yala. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Alerted leopard. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

The leopard departs. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

Spotting the leopard :) Photograph by: Humza Usmani.

The ocean borders the Yala National Park. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

An elephant. Photograph by: Mr. Ian Lockwood.

It was an extraordinary day for me today as the programme was a complete fun-package.

DAY 5 - FRIDAY

It was a very joyous as well as sad day today. I felt very happy because the purpose of the trip had been accomplished and I was going to be returning home. However, on the other hand, I did not want to leave as the company of my friends had been very special for me and the whole trip was a memorable experience. Our collaboration had resulted in an excellent improvement at the pre-school and I felt that this would bring a positive change to the school's educational and playing environment.

Other than the work, I felt that I was able to learn more about Sri Lanka. Meeting a Sri Lankan community, exploring the Yala National Park and trekking at Situlpahuwa were all great experiences which enabled me to share happy times with the country's jolly and friendly people, see the richness and diversity of its flora and fauna, become a part of mother nature, and also be amazed by the country's carefully preserved antique and unique cultures and traditions.

While departing, I reflected about this trip and with complete contentment decided to happily cherish these days forever.

Below are a few photographs taken during the day:

The natural paradise - Hambantota. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.

It was a memorable and amazing experience. Photograph by: Uvin Ranaweera.