Co- MUN

CO-MUN was one of the best expiriences I have had, even though soem parts of it was excrutiatingly boring. This counts as Creativity . Co-MUN is the fourth largest Model United Nation in the world. I was in the 3rd Committee which deals with Humanitarian Issues. I represented India and our main topic was "Natural Disasters".
I had to represent India as a governemtn official, thus, to do this, I had to do a lto fo research on a lot of things. Our first topic was the developments of Epidemics and the second on IDPs.

Increased awarness
adress global issue
initiate activities

Sunflower Village

The current Service i am participating in is called, "Sunflower Village". Thus Service requires me to swim and teach students from a school nearby how to swim. We have to initiate activities so we can be as productive as we can be during the one hour.

Football Updates

Football Updates

OSC vs CIS

6-0

OSC bs BSC

1-0

OSC vs LIS

10 - 0

Finals

OSC vs BSC

1 - 3

Football is back.

ok... so remember the sport that I never intended to be fun but in the end happened to be exteremely interested in... Football? yup. It's back.
In the end the team was actaually more together than I thought we were and our commitment to the sport was more that average. There was another tournament, not SAISA, but an actual Interinternational School Tournament in Sri Lanka. The perserverance and commitment to the sport is evident in each and every soccer player that came back to play another tournament of Football.

However, there were many challenges that we had to face.
First of all, most of our 12th grade players were already too busy with Ib work and decided not to play for this tournament. Others were on SAISA track. And the rest.... they didnt want to come. In the end, we only ended up with 11 players, some of which were not in the SAISA team.
Instead of simply giving up because of our scarsity of players, we undertook the challenge, and persisted throughout the tournament. With our lack of players, we recruited players who were recreational football players, and even though it was difficult since teamwork between them was not so strong, we had to work collaboratively with them to make sure that they feel like they are part of the team so that we could work together. We did not have any official practices, since our coach was more concentrated on the current SAISA tournasment, Track, so we did not have a coach to guide us throughout this tournament, the players, including me, had to initiate our own practices and train on our weaknesses by ourselves. Each player heping the other to push us to be as good as we can be for the tournament.

My goal was to regain the confidence on the feild that I once had while I was playign during SAISA. I had played well during that torunament and my goal is to get back up to that goal . I knew my strengths were reacting to the football and punting, however, I needed to train on speed and endurance.
Thus, during practuce, I ran around the feild so that my endurance could be up for th match, as well as, practicing diving and penalty shots, so my skill level could increase. I had develoed a new skill during these short training sessions. Since I was honestly quite hopeless with my feet, I asked the captain, Saba, to help me out with it. She taught me many new excersises by which I could increase my skill with foot work.

I had used most of these skills that i had learnt in the preliminary matches. What was different with this tournament, compared to SAISA, was that, the team used me more of a defensive player. Whenever the defence had the ball they would pass it back to me and I would change the direction of the ball. I feel that the training on footwork really payed off, I was much more confident with the ball.

Pictures of the Memories of SAISA Basketball

End of Basketball Season

Basketball season was full of ups and downs. Defeinetely with a lot of downs. The air in kathmandu was not very clean and as an Asthmatic patient, breathing was not  very easy. Not forgetting to meantion the inumerable amount of injuries I had attained throughtout the season. In addition, the cold was killing me.

Thruoghout Basketball

This year’s basketball tournament was less of a success according to organization however, according to teamwork and friendship… this season was amazing.
Ofcourse there were certain disputes between players… personal disputes.
Well lets start it off from the beggining shall we.
For the past 6 weeks i have been participating int he training sessions for the SAISA basketball team! I have played basketball for the past 3 years and even come to a point where I played professionally and for my country. So honestly… I can’t say basketball is new to me, because clearly it isn’t. However, I must say, after playing football, I feel more comfortable playing basketball… its MY THING. There are many differences between the two. For example, in a basketball match, every player must be active at all times seeing as there are only 5 players active at one go and the court being much smaller than a football field. The game solely depends on speed and skill… however, football is strategy. Skill is not really a necessity for a team to be successful. The games are much slower and the whole team does not have to be active at once. As i was the goalkeeper, most of the time i was just watching the match, but now tat i am a point guard in the basketball team, I have to take control of everything. I enjoy basketball more because I prefer being the leader on court rather than having to be the last defense as a goalie.
The problem with basketball, is that trust and team work is a must. As soon as you leave your man to defend another the whole defense changes so that the man you leave is taken care of. In addition, all of this must happen in a split second. Or your opponent gets a point. What I realized is that, in basketball all the players must be in sync, its like an intellectual string between each player… if one player moves everyone has to move with them.
W had played many games against Gateway and even one with the national basketball team of Sri Lanka before the actual SAISA tournament. ANd i have learnt that the Gecko team has an extremely good defense, however, our offense is definetely not up to par

Week Without Walls

Day One Reflection

Today we arrived at Hambantota. Another WWW… no wait, its actually my last WWW.

6 ours in a wan isnt the most productive use of my time, so NO CAS hours just yet… but I am really fulfilling my third Goal: bonding with my friends. 

Tomorrow’s PLAN

1. Play with kids

• duck duck Goose
• Musical Chairs
• Ask teachers what they would like to play

2. Paint

The first day was solely based on getting things organized, thus we have created a plan. Through this i have improved a lot on my organization skills and time management as well as co-operating well with my classmates to plan the following day. 

Day Two Reflection

I have been assigned to the paint group.

Members of Paint group:
Kasturi
Maheshi

Yuko

I was sectioned for the outside paint group. 

Today was somewhat extremely successful. Firstly we had painted all the outer walls. Painting was something I was completely new to, thus, mixing it was quite foreign to me. However with the help of Kasturi we did the job quite perfectly. Thus, it is evident of how we are working well as a team, and of how i was trying something new .

Day ThreeReflection

Today was re last day for referbishing the school. We were still in the same grops however our assignments were replaced.
Goal for today: paint doors with enamel and perform concert.
What i had learned today was… well ENAMEL IS SO MUCH HARDER TO PAINT WITH THAN WATER-BASED PAINT.
We: me, kasturi, maheshi and yuko. What we thought to ourselves, four people… two colors… division of labor. This was an instance where I think is a perfect is a perfect example of working collaboratively . For maheshi and Yuko was going to paint the yellow and Kasturi and I were on white.
For trying something new. I worked with enamel paint on wood. It was extremely challenging.

Improvements for Week Without Walls

Impovements

1. more time

2. appliances

• paint thinner
• more brushes

3. ask them to be more self sufficient

• learnt after cleaning door

Goals for Week Without Walls

1. Work with my group collaboratively

• A. playing with Kids
• B. Painting

2. Try Something new

• A. Painting walls (which paint should i use for each material, how do i mix paint?)

3. Bond with Class mates!

Hliday Jet Skiiing

Hliday Jet Skiiing

Visiting Cancer Hospital

For Christmas, The cancel Hospital had organized present giving to the Cancer patients in the Cancer Hospital. I had already made about 100-150 cards, time management was a key and organization was necessary because we had to make abround 120 cards in about 3 hours with only 3 people... So... this is what i did to organize everything.
1) Labor division
        I would cut the paper as I am very efficient using the paper cutter. Plus, I was the only one with access to the art room facilities
        The primary school girl would draw the patterns on the cards (it was somehting she liked doing)
        Savinda (who was the only Sinhalese literate person, woudl write the greeting)
2) Location
        Art room as it had the most amount of facilities
3) Working collaboratively was very important for this task.

In the end we actually made all of them. Then we had to blow up balloons, and even though it was a really easy task, doing larger amounts of work, no mattter how easy, takes organization.

It all paid off when we gave them out though. The children's faces just lit up, and I really felt that it was all worth it.

Planning for OSCARS

SGA is planning to organize the Oscars, as a member of the Executive council, my job is to note down all the

Planning for OSCARS

SGA is planning to organize the Oscars, as a member of the Executive council, my job is to note down all the

Cards for Chrristmas

ne of my goals was to be more interactivewith societies in Sri Lanka. Community Service helps me accomplish that.
hope for Kids is an organization which helps the children who have cancer. and unfortunately, these kids, each christmas, receive no presents or cards to celebrate what I, being more fotunate, would usually take for granted.
Therefore this Christmas, Hope for Kids are going to buy these kids some gifts so they can celebrate Christmas just like all of us at OSC.

Challenge with a certain player

Challenge with a certain player

New SAISA season... Basketball

Basketball season has just started.
Another SAISA.
Nope… this is not JUST another SAISA.
ITS BASKETBALL!!!
I’ve been waiting for this day since… since… well… a very long time.

Hope for Kids. Nothing Going on.

Hope for Kids so far had been inactive even though we are trying to plan the fashion show for next semester.

"Jockey Jockey GIRLS!" - MARK SHIPLEY

End of SAISA football... KICK IT LADY GECKOS!

Another glorious ending to a SAISA season.
Football was something I had never thought i would play in a million years. I absolutely disgusted the sport. Its not fast, not interesting. When, again… i stand corrected.  Undertaking a new challenge had taught me that my opininos chan change about anything if I just try it. IT WAS AMAZING.
I was the goalie for the SAISA girls football team and it was one of the most memorable moments of my life. The time I saved a goal and the time i let one in; oh the pressure, the exhilaration, the adrenaline.
We had played many local matches before the SAISA tournament, and this had enabled me to get closer to my team. One of the guiding questions the IB had set for CAS was “is it a real task that i am going to undertake?”
Honestly, my answer used to be: NO! I was doing it because no one else would do it. But then, I grew with my team. We shared experienced and struggles, we bore each others burdens and set them out on the field and one thing you had to bear while you are goalie… is that you are the last and final support of the team. This was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. Sure i can catch a football kicked so hard that my hand would probably get sprained, sure i can dive at people’s feet when they come charging at me with the ball and risk being kicked… I can deal with the pain… i really can. It just the excruciating pressure than one is put on when you just wait there on the other side of the field watching everything that is going on… not knowing when the ball is going to come at you, not forgetting to mention, your team depending on the last person to stop the ball. Yep. That was me. That was the job i had signed up for.Trying to develop a new skill so that I could work collaboratively with others. 

Oh… and we got the SILVER medal. But that not that important anyways… by trying out something new… I have learned so much more. Now… THATS what’s important.

Football Goalie (ACTION)

I had been practicing for the past few weeks on becoming a goalie. Yes, it was almost excruciating. Learninghow to jump and fall flat on the floor was the most painless thing I could have leanred how to do, but I must admit it is one of the most exciting things… I know, exciting? Falling on the hard muddy ground? Exciting?
It was almost as bad and excruciating as purgatory, however, perserverance is a virtue, from what I have heard at least.
A couple of days ago, i had learnt how to dive… without completely killing or injuring myself.
The girls SAISA soccer team of OSC has been working hard on practises since we ahve to attend  4 practises per week. 
So far I had attended ALL the practices.
Now that I have increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas of growth, My new-found goal is to become a true athlete, it was something that was non-existant while i was participating in the SAISA swimming season. I hope to be able to attend all of my practices and bond with the team as well as be able to be proud of myself and say, “I have done my best in trying something new, and it had helped my team win the SAISA Girls Football tournament.”

• Tuesday 2:50- 5:00 pm
• Wednesday 6:00- 7:00 am
• Friday 2:50-  5:00 pm
• Saturday 10:00-12:00 am

Football Match against CIS... 5-0

On the 30th October, the morning before the Halloween Dance, there was a football match.
Well lets just say according to the title, the match went extremely well… winning by 5v goals in a football match is extremely good for our side obviously, maybe except for the fact that the ball didnt even come 10… or even 20 ft to my goal side so for the whole 1h30 minutes i didnt even get to lay a finger on the ball…

halloween Dance

The SGA was planning to have a Halloween Dance this year and since Thaim and David (the president and the vice president) were not able to help us plan it, Damien and I had to plan it all out.
It ended up being a success.
We earned 24,000rs for our SGA funds without including the money earned from the Prom commitee with the food sales.
It was very challenging though. Teamwork and co-operation was the hardest part of the organization. Since the president and the Vice president was not there… Planning and putting up the decorations as the American Embassy didn’t have much decorations to offer us, which was a huge problem because we were only able to obtain the decorations on the actual day of the Halloween Dance when suddenly we realized it was not enough. Never the less, it was a success and the SGA’s goal for increase school spirit is coming into play as there are more people dressing up and becoming involved with the socials.
So we spent the whole of Saturday trying to fix up the decor for the dance which was strait after my football match… which i will further describe in my next post.

Mental Hospital

I wouldn’t say that I know this would come under the idea of CAS, as there is no authorisation for this service that I am engaged in. but, I feel that it is worth mentioning in this blog.

During the mid-term break, I, along with four otherstudents from OSC, visited Mama and Papa’s Centre for Mentally disabled Children. I must say, it was one of the most inspirational and touching moments of my life. It took and an hour’s drive to finally arrive at the place when we finally entered a completely different atmosphere. Well, it was a mental hospital, I really woulnt be used to it. 

The kids there were disillusioned, some of them would bite themselves until they would cry, others would stare into space, others wouldn’t even talk. But they would express themselves in different ways, drawing, painting, coloring, building blocks. This was what we were there for. We played with them and colored with them and taught them where to color and what the coloring lines were for, we took them on walks and pushed them on swings… and they smiled and laughed and it was utterly inspirational.

However, the conditions tey live in are horrific. Sleeping in metal cots without matresses or cushioning because they cannot control urinating on the place they bed. Their faeces dropped all over the floor where the cleaners have to clean without any proper cleaning equiptment. Old worn out clothes. No coloring book, pens pencils or even paper. Do they deserve more? Of course they do.

I had made a video that is being sent out on facebook and youtube, for whomever who is in Sri Lanka to know that this place… is in need of help. This coming Wednesday, the other students and I are going to show it to the whole school so that we could raise funds to buy the things listed above and to support them…

SAISA football

I had started SAISA football strait after the swimming tournament, and I must admit it is a bit of a pain. Footwork isnt really the “best” attribute I have. Basketball rely mostly on handwork…

Trying something new was one of my goals this year and I was determined to get it right; I also want to get into another team sport other than basketball.

“Goalie.” I thought…

(benevolent trumpets)

Allelujah!

The footwork is still a huge problem for it but after a few practices it is getting better.

First day as a member for Hope for Kids

Hope for kids is a community service program that services children with cancer. The most recent project, and the most successful, was the Cancer hospital Charity Concert, which (even though i was not in the club) was one of the events I had participated in. After the concert i thought to myself: “this service project is successful.” 

I loved fundraising because i love to organize and lead projects. It had only been my first day, and i had come up with a plan for the next fundraiser which would hopefully be next year. 

I thought of a Fashion show. In my old school, we used to have annual fashion shows and i had always wanted to know what it would be like to organize soemthing like that. This was my chance. 

Community Service Basketball
I am used to playing basketball with one team as in my past school i have been practicing for 10 years with the same team. Community service basketbal allows me to analyze different people’s strengths and weaknesses and for me to play accordingly. It also allows me to socialize with Sri lankans as OSC is considered a very “foreign” school in sri lanka, who doesn’t really interact with people from the host country. This is an outlet, and is a stepping stone for further connections between Osc and the host country.

The PE co-ordinator had requested me to look for sri lankan teams to help train the SAISA boys basketball as well, and hopefully get a Sri lankan coach. My opinion is that Sri Lankan coaches are more pushy, strict and fearful. I feel that this will give the kids in OSC the , “must win” attitude. I am sure that thinking that dong your best is important… but if one want to reach higher goals, one must have competition.

SGA - the issue with the WATER filtration systems

we had a meeting yesterday. Our planned agenda was initially about the Halloween dance, however, it moved onto more serious topics such as the water filtration system in school. Yes. There is a major issue with the water in the filters, and we had addressed this last week to the principle however, they just brushed it aside. The SGA is organise the grade 12 class to test the water for a biology assessment, and hopefully the results would change the principles mind and make him awre of the situation.

Photography

Every saturday I have a schedule that i follow… however, I had found some time where i can explore my creative side other than singing.

Photography

Usually, i draw at home a lot. Just for the fun of it. I keep a collection of my work that one day I can combine to make something really big. Maybe sell it, and donate the money to a charity if i make enough money. However, every saturday, i keep specific time so i can take photographs of everything around me. Last saturday, there was a swim meet, volleyball match and community basketball on the same day. I thuoght i should bring my camera out. Thouht it would be fun. However… turns out… THE PICTURES TURNED OUT GREAT! 

Even though I was playing basketball during the community basketball session, when i was resting or on the roster, I grabbed my camera out and took some pictures. 

Change of Community Service

I intend on changing my community Service aspects from habitat for humanity to Hope for kids.

This is because there is a complete clash in my schedule that i will not be able to make it every saturday to go to work in the sites.

Thursdays for CAS work so much better for me.

 Schedule

Monday - MUN

Tuesday - SAISA Training (if off season - SAT study)

Wednesday - Study/Homework

Thursday - FREE!!!

Friday - SAISA (if off season - SAT Math

Saturday - SAISA and Community Basketball (band practice)

Sunday - Church 

I am pretty surprised that I actually made a time table. this is something I never had last year. 

SGA - Halloween Dance

The SGA is organizing a Halloween Dance, which was something that the SGA did not do last time. We have to find decorations to decorate the WHOLE auditorium which, luckily, can be organized by the American Embassy. 

We are planning to make it cliche on the outside, yet extremely scary on the inside, which I think it’s a splendid idea. We need to find some heavy death metal music to play in the inside though. However, we still got to think about the younger grades though. They might be “intimidated” by the loud screaming. 

SAISA Swimming

The SASIA swimming season is coming to the close and tomorrow on the 6th of October, the team will celebrate and commemorate this memorable experience.

In the beginning of the swimming season, I told myself, “Great. I got to swim now. Well, anything for the betterment of my basketball.” I was pretty close-minded. I deffenitly didn’t like swimming, and was not planning to enjoy the “torture in water” sessions thrice a week. I’m not going to lie, it was torture… for the first two weeks. I was literally, dying. 

I changed my mind. 

I was deffinetely not a water person, turns out, I really do like the water. It was a place i could clear my mind and think about things and relax. unlike team sports, you are not pressurized by your team to do better, if I fail, I fail my team mates as well. Disappointing, just myself, was somehow refreshing. 

And, no, I didn’t disappoint myself, because I felt proud that i had undertaken a new obstacle. It was something that brought me closer to people in my school, and I had gotten to know them so well through the course of the season. 

Even though swimming is not a team sport, you still have team mates that support you and cheer you on. Through this, we had built bonds with each other. Getting to know everyone personally as well as them competitively. Not forgetting, I got to travel by myself for the first time; I had to be responsible of my groups passports too, and responsible for where they are and what time they should be in places. I felt my leadership skills had grown tremendously, and I am more responsible than what I used to be. 

Studying. This was a challenge I had when i came back. SAISA swimming was too hard to deal with along with the subjects I had to recap on while I was away for two days of school. When i came back, I realized i had to study for a Physics test in two days relating on all what we had done this quarter, an english oral presentation, and a history essay re-write due. I had no time to do this during SAISA as there was absolutely no free time available. Next time, I have got to be more organized, and do all of the work before hand. 

SAISA football is next.

I start practice on friday. 

• 18th of September - The Cancer Hospital Concert
  
  I know this is very late that i am entering this event onto the blog, but i think that this is one of those events that were extremely important for changing my character.

  The Cancer Hospital Concert that I was planning to sing for was held on the 18th of September 2010. I had auditioned for this two months ago at the end of July, and was very excited that I had got in. This was because this would be the first time that i would be performing in from of the OSC crowd. I wanted to get this right. i wanted to do it well. It was something i wanted to perfect, as first opinions were important. I was planning to sing “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, as i had never explored hip hop music before. I was used to singing slow heavy rock music such as “Over You” by Daughtry and other Lifehouse pieces. I wanted to change and add a little more variety to the way i sing. I had gotten a guitarist and we had been practicing for the past month to perfect this song. Not forgetting to mention I had been interacting with another guitarist about 3 months ago however, that seemed to fall apart because of song choice and personal taste. It was a week before the musical… and my second guitarist told me he was not able to make it. he had another “gig” on the same day. You could say I was clueless and infuriated, and on the verge of giving up. No. I didnt. I found another guitarist. We had two sessions to practice another song. Two days till the concert. He said he wouldnt show up. 

  “Great.” i thought to myself, along with a couple of inappropriate swear words here and there. 

  On the actual day, i had no guitarist and all THREE of them did not come. I went up on stage alone. 

  All I could see was the light that was on me and the mike in front of me, and I began to sing with no one backing me up. I stared infront of me. Closed my eyes and sang. 

  It was faster than i had expected it to be, I could hear the crowd clapping and cherring me on while i sang completely and utterly helpless on stage. AFter my item, i was congratulated for my courage and persistence. This event was one of those moments when you realize some truth that you had never realized before, you may even call it a sudden epiphany. I know this seems quite cliche, but I had never known that I could have done it. And no matter what obstacles are in my way, one will succeed, if you put your mind to it.

  Thus, the moral of this event is, (this is a pretty awesome quote… IT SHOULD BE FAMOUS!)

  “Persistance is dependent on one’s own determination, and determination is what will carry you to success.”