Hope For Kids - Semester Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Hope For Kids CAS group this semester, and it was a pleasure to spend time with the kids! Even though we didn't visit the hospital as often as we wanted to, the time we spent together was a great experience for all of us, including us students, the kids and the teachers. The end of this semester was mainly focused on the upcoming fashion show fundraiser, and we expect next semester to be too. I'll definitely be joining Hope for Kids nex semester, to finish planning for the fashion show, to raise money for a very good cause, and of course to spend more time with the children at the hospital :)



Making paper frames with the kids




Making decorations for the hospital




Playing with the kids! Kashmika and me :)



Hope For Kids - a Chrismas Visit!

On Thursday 8th of December 2011, we visited the Hospital for a Christmas visit. We asked one of our teachers, Mr Dan Snyder, to dress up as Santa Claus and distribute the gifts we have gotten for the kids. We also blew up balloons to give to the children and sang Christmas carols not only to the kids who came to see us but the rest who were in their beds. I think the carol singing really brightened their days, and the smiles on their faces when we gave them the presents and the balloons was adorable! I thoroughly enjoyed this visit.



Giving away some balloons!



Distributing the gifts :)



Blowing balloons!



Singing Christmas carols



Mr Dan Snyder as Santa Claus. Thank you so much!



Bollywood Dancing

My mum started Bollywood Dancing about a year ago and she claimed it was important to be exposed to the culture of South East Asia, since we have the rare opportunity to live here, in a country with such a rich culture. She managed to convince me to take lessons over this winter break, and I'm happy to, since I've never done Bollywood Dancing before and I love dancing. I've practiced other genres of dance but never Bollywood, so it'd be nice to try out something new! My father's company is holding a Volunteers Leaving Ceremony so me and three others are practicing a Bollywood dance routine to perform at this event, three weeks from now. I'm really excited!

In taking Bollywood Dance classes, I am undertaking new challenges and developing new skills since Bollywood Dancing is something I've never done before, so hopefully I'll be able to pick up some new skills that aren't used in other genres. I am also working collaboratively with others in planning and initiating activities as we are working as a group of three, and in dance, teamwork is important because if we aren't all in sync, the whole performance can be ruined. By attending classes and practicing in my own time, I am also showing perseverance and commitment.

Swimming

For the past few months, over this semester, I have been swimming in my own time. I usually go after school on Wednesdays and on Saturday and Sunday. I have been focusing on raising my stamina and improving my strokes. My weakest strokes are backstroke and butterfly so I have been practicing those. And to raise my stamina, I aim to swim at least 1500m of front crawl (as that is the stroke I am most comfortable with).

I feel much more confident with my backstroke but I am still struggling with my butterfly, so I will aim to improve this stroke over next semester. In terms of the distance I can continuously swim, I strongly feel that I've improved because before, I used to grow tired after the first 500m but now I'm finding it easier to complete 1500m, although it's still quite tiring. I will continue to swim this distance, because I don't want to suddenly increase the distance until I become more comfortable with this distance.

By swiming in my own time, I am increasing awareness of my strengths and areas for growth as I am identifying my weaknesses so I can fix them. I am also showing perseverance and commitment by planning and initiating activities because I am setting goals and working my way towards achieving them. Through practice, I am hopefully developing new skills in swimming.

This Chrsitmas break, I plan on going swimming everyday and following the usual routine to improve my swimming!

Art for Fun!

It has been a long time since I had time to paint and raw for fun, but I enjoy it, as I feel like it's a break from the other things at school. Here are two arworks I worked on these past few weeks.



'Ship Sailing'



'Lonely Orbits'

In painting and drawing for fun, I am continuously developing new skills as nobody can ever have mastered all the skills of art. Each piece I create is practice.

'Hope For Kids' - Hospital Visit

On the 3rd of November 2011, we visited the Cancer Hospital. As we discussed the week before, we brought some flour, oil and food colouring to make play dough with the kids, which we then used to make play dough animals, flowes and so on. On this day, there weren't many kids who had come to play with us, so some of us went to sweep and mop the floors of the hospital. We took it in turns so all of us got to spend some time with the kids. Like the visit where we made photo frames, I thoroughly enjoyed this visit as well as, again, I got to see the kids happy because of our visit. The kids were adorable and I was glad that us being there was making them happy!

The kids making their adorable play dough animals

The criteria I fulfulled in this hospital visit are

• Planning and initiating activities, with the play dough activity and also sweeping and mopping
• Working collaboratively with others; the kids as well as the others in my group
• Showing perseverance and commitment
• Engaging in issues of global importance, by making the time we spend with the kids hopefully very enjoyable for them

'Hope For Kids' - Planning the Fundraiser

The 'Hope For Kids' CAS group met again on the 27th of October 2011 to further plan the fashion show fundraiser. In this session, I worked with two others in the CAS group to desgin our sample poster promoting clothing desgin competitions. We then discussed with the rest of the group about the venue, cost and other formal details of the event. We brainstormed possible venues, and came up with Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Taj Samdura Hotel, Park Street Muse Restaurant etc. Our CAS leader Upandha offered to look up the prices of these venues, which will contribute in the decision making process.

Our design of the poster

We also planned some activities for us to do at the hospital, since we were planning on visiting it the week after. We came up with several ideas, such as making play dough out of flour, oil and food colouring and making play dough animals with them, watching cartoons with them, playing childrens' games such as duck duck goose etc. We decided to do the play dough idea the coming week and think more about what to do the following week.

The criteria I am fulfilling by being a part of this CAS group are mentioned in my previous posts:

• Increasing awareness of my strengths and areas for growth
• Undertaking new challenges
• Planning and initiating activities
• Working collaboratively with others
• Showing perseverance and commitment
• Engaging in issues of global importance
• Developing new skills

'Hope For Kids' - Planning the Fundraiser

On the 6th of October 2011, the 'Hope For Kids' CAS group met to discuss various fundraising events we could hold. Some of these ideas included bake sales, talent shows etc. but the best idea we came up with was a fashion show, where we would promote a competition for clothing designs in various international schools around Colombo, the British School in Colombo, Colombo International School, Elizabeth Moir and so on. We would then pick out some of the best designs, which perhaps fit into some of the themes we will assign (which we have not yet made concrete decisions on). We spent this session planning various things for the event, some of us brainstorming themes and ideas, others of us designing posters and the leaders discussing the details of the event itself. We managed to come up with several suitable themes, that were appealing to young people and discussed the basic information that would be contained in the posters. We plan on making more progress with the planning process the next session we have.

In taking part in the planning of this fundraising event, I am increasing awareness of my strengths and areas for growth, as this is a big event to plan, and could be used to recognize my own strengths and weaknesses. I am also undertaking new challenges and developing new skills as this is the biggest event I have been involved in so far and it is fairly new to me. I am also working collaboratively with others in taking part in planned and initiated activities, as being one of the biggest CAS groups we are working together to ensure the success of this fundraising event. I am also showing perseverance and committment in taking part in an activity dealing with issues of global importance as childrens' cancer is an issue that concerns people globally and it is important that we work hard to make the time we spend with the children at the hospital the best moments of their life.

Sports Day

Celebrating our victory

On Sunday 25th of September the Japanese Community in Sri Lanka held a Sports Day at Havelock Sports Ground in Colombo. Unlike the school Sports Day where the main acitivities were sports like basketball and volleyball, this event had activities like relays, tug-of-wards and so on. I was also in charge of the score keeping of the individual races, where I worked collaboratively with others to make sure the events went according to plan. Overall, this year's Sports Day was very enjoyable and we, the yellow team, came first place!

Starting the races

'Hope For Kids' - First Visit to the Cancer Hospital

On Thursday 8th of September 2011, the 'Hope For Kids' CAS group visited the National Cancer Institue Maharagama. I had never visited the Cancer Hospital yet so this was a very importat trip for me. As a group, what we aimed to do was to make the children at the hospital happy and we thought it would be nice to make photo frames out of paper and beads with the children so that we could take photos of us and them and put them in, for them to keep.

 

I had so much fun playing with the children and making the photo frames with them. Seeing them happy because of us was really touching. I feel priviledged to be a part of this CAS group as it made me realize how much happiness can come out of our visits to the Cancer Hospital. I am really looking forward to our next visit!

 

By taking part in this CAS activity I am undertaking new challenges as this is something I have never done before. I am also working collaboratively with others in planned and initiated activities as we, as a group, plan the things with do with the children and work together to make it a success. I am also engaging in issues of global importance because Cancer is a disease that affects people all over the world and it is our job to make them happier.

Sports Day!

Our school held a Sports Day on the 7th of September 2011. I had a lot of fun playing and watching the games throughout the day.

'Hope For Kids' Cancer Hospital

I had my first meeting with the 'Hope For Kids' CAS activity at school on Thursday 1st of September 2011. In the meeting, we were basically informed about what the CAS was for and planned some fund raising events to raise money for the Cancer Hospital. We came up with events such as musical concerts, bake sales, fashion shows etc. for the fund raisers and came up with some things we could do to make the children at the hospital happy, like hand making photo frames to put pictures of them and us in. We planned to visit the hospital about every 2 weeks. I have never been to the hospital so I am excited to meet the children and play with them and help out around the hospital. In this CAS activity I am working collaboratively with others, taking part in planned and initiated activities and showing perseverance and commitment. I am also dealing with issues of global importance, since Cancer is a disease that affects people all around the world and considering the ethical implications of my actions.

Painting the Senior Common Room

As Seniors, we have the priviledge of using the Common Room and to brighten it up we decided to paint the walls of the inside. We all worked collaboratively in a planned and initiated activity of painting the room.

Goals for Senior Year

Now that I am at the begininning of my Senior Year at the Overseas School of Colombo, I need to set some goals for my CAS activities for this year.

Creativity:

I want to continue individual piano and guitar practices. I also want to continue painting for fun, separate from my works for art classes.

With this I will fulfill the following criteria:

• Showing perserverance and commitment


• Developing new skills

Action:

This year I feel like there will be a lot of studying to do so I want to manage my time well with sports. Last year I tried out a new sport; Basketball, but I found this very challenging so this year I think I will only do Swimming and Badminton. Although the variety of sports I do will be quite narrow, I will swim on a regular basis (as I have been over the summer on my own) and Badminton practices will start on the 5th of September 2011 and will be on every Monday.

With this I will fulfill the following criteria:

• Increasing awareness of my strengths and areas of growth


• Working collaboratively with others (in Badminton)


• Showing perseverance and committment


• Developing new skills

Service:

Last year I took part in the CAS Activity in school which organized the school library to make it more easily accessible for students. This year I think I will try another CAS activity that benefits those more in need of my help; 'Hope for Kids' which is a CAS activity that raises funds to help cancer patients.

With this I will fufill the following criteria:

• Increasing awareness of my strengths and areas for growth


• Undertaking new challenges


• Planning and initiating activities


• Working collaboratively with others


• Showing perseverance and committment


• Engaging in issues of global importance

These are the main acitivities I plan on taking part in this year. I will also take part in small activities and create posts to show this when they come up.

OSC Class of 2011 Graduation Ceremony help-out

The current Grade 11s were asked to help out in the graduation ceremony for this year's graduating grade. The help out included ushering and serving food.

End of Grade 11

This academic year is now drawing to a close. Overall I feel there was a fairly equal balance between my Creativity, Action and Service activities. I think, by taking part in these activities, I was able to fulfill all 8 criteria:

• Increase awareness of your strengths and areas of growth


• Undertake new challenges


• Plan and initiate activities


• Work collaboratively with others


• Show perseverance and committment


• Engage with issues of global importance


• Consider ethical implications


• Develop new skills.

I tried out things that I had never tried before, and also took part in activities that I had always enjoyed to try to improve my skills in them, or gain new ones. My acitivies this year were:

Creativity

• Colombo Model United Nations - Security Council Representative


• Piano


• Ceramics Workshop


• Painting


• Guitar

MUN, Piano and Painting were activities that I had always enjoyed doing, but Ceramics was something new for me and it was very enjoyable to try out something I had never done before. I hoped that MUN would help in my debating and public speaking skills and I feel it actually did because the Colombo MUN was much more intense than any of the other MUN conferences I had ever attended. As before, I thoroughly enjoyed playing the piano and the guitar and painting, although they were done freely on my own without a teacher since I feel I enjoy that much more.

Action:

• Swimming


• Basketball


• Badminton

I have always enjoyed swimming so I decided to take part in the school swimming practice here as well to improve some of my strokes. Although I thoroughly enjoyed swimming here, the practices were extremely tiring and I felt that I was able to improve a lot, thanks to the coaches here. I started Badminton about a year ago and since then I have found it quite fun. I have little experience so my skills on court are not so great but I still enjoyed playing and competing and I feel I was able to gain some new skills. Basketball was a completely new sport for me and I wanted to try something new. I don't feel that Basketball is something I'm good at but I think I learnt a lot of things from the coach at this school. I found that I enjoyed swimming and Badminton much more than I enjoyed Basketball but nonetheless, it was quite fun.

Service

• Library Service


• Japanese Fair at Galle, Sri Lanka


• Book Drive continuation from last year


• Week Without Walls


• Donations for the Japan Earthquake


• OSC Class of 2011 Graduation Ceremony help-out

Overall, I am pleased with the CAS activities I took part in this year. I feel I fulfilled all 8 criteria by taking part in these activities and my goal next year is to keep it up. I want to develop my skills, gain new ones and increase awareness of what's around me. I look forward to CAS next year.

Donations for Japan Earthquake

On Friday 8th of April, we closed the account in the school business office. We decided, rather than giving the money to the Red Cross via the Japanese Embassy, we should directly wire the money to the Red Cross. We typed an official letter informing the Japanese Embassy of how much we raised and gave them the letter on Friday. The amount in the business office totalled approximately Rs. 199,000, far more than we expected, so we were extremely happy about that. We really hope that the money can be put to good use and help all of the victims suffering from this massive earthquake.

Donations for Japan Earthquake

On the 11th of March 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 hit Sendai, in Japan. The earthquake caused a massive tsunami that destroyed costal areas in the North Eastern part of Japan. Thousands of people were killed in the earthquake and the tsunami, and out of those who survived, many have died because of the cold. On top of this unfortunate natural disaster, there have been nuclear reactor leaks in Fukushima, exposing radiation. These two crises are currently affecting Japan extremely badly and so the Japanese community in Sri Lanka decided to collect donations to give to the Japanese Red Cross in order to help the situation. Me and another Japanese student decided to open an account in the school business office for donations in the school to help the Japanese community. The money collected is being given to the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka. Although many people believe that, because Japan is one of the most economically strong nations, they are not that in need for donations, the two disasters happening simultaneously is devastating. We hope our school can contribute by donating some money to the account in the school business office.

Badminton

On Friday 25th of March, we had another Badminton match against Colombo International School. The players is CIS were incredibly strong so we ended losing a lot of matches, but nonetheless, we enjoyed the matches and they helped us work more on our skills. In doing Badminton, I am working collaboratively with others and developing new skills.

Badminton

On Friday 18th of March, we had a match against Alethea International School. Considering they were a very strong team, our results were good. We won 6 matches and lost 8. I enjoyed this match a lot and I thought it was very good practice for us.

The criteria that I am fulfilling in taking part in the badminton matches are:
Working collaboratively with others in playing doubles matches with my doubles partner,
Developing new skills.

Colombo Model United Nations - The Real Conference

The real Colombo MUN conferences took place over the course of three days; Friday the 4th of March to Sunday the 6th of March. I was the delegate of Austria and my committee was Security Council. The real conferences were just like the practice ones but I felt a lot more nervous and intimidated by the other delegates in my committee.

The topic of the first conference was 'The Situation in the Korean Peninsula' and we discussed the tension that existed between North and South Korea, including recent acts of aggression by North Korea such as the sinking of the South Korean warship 'Cheonan' and an artillery attack in Novemeber 2010. We started by giving opening speeches, briefly explaining our country's stance on the topic and then went on to what was called 'unmoderated caucus' in which the delegates of countries with similar interests got together to construct a resolution to resolve the conflict between the two Koreas and avoid the break out of a war. The delegates of other countries were incredibly knowledgeable, suggesting the involvement of various UN bodies such as the Inter Governmental Panel (IGP) and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in resolving the conflict. It made me realize how much more research I needed to do so that I would be more prepared for the following conferences. The rest of the conference was mostly debating over the resolutions.

The topic of the second conference was 'The question of Security Council Reform' where we discussed the need to make changes the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in order to make it more efficient. The suggestions on reform included the distribution of permanent seats, regional representation, Africa for example, dilution of the veto power which was held by the P5 members, China, USA, UK, Russia and France and so on.

The third topic was an emergency topic. This meant that we were not informed of what the topic was until the day of. So to prepare myself I researched on some of the recent conflicts that had been going on around the globe, such as the situation in Libya, the Iranian conflict, the Pakistani conflict &c. Fortunately the emergency topic was 'The Deteriorating Situation in Libya' for which I actually prepared for. The main problem in Libya is the aggressive acts of the Gaddhafi regime and because every single nation in the UNSC condemned his actions, all 15 members got together to contruct one resolution to solve the problem. I thought out of all of the resolutions we wrote and discussed, this was by far the best. Here it is:

Topic: The deteriorating situation in Libya

Submitted by: The UNSC

Pre-Ambulatory Clauses:

Condemns the human rights violations accuring in Libya such as the recent carpet bombings in an attempt to crush opposition to Gaddhafi

Recognizes the need for immediate and effective action on the crisis as well as the establishment of a pathway towards long term stability

Operative Clauses:

1) Demands that Gaddhafi and his inner circle complies with the sanctions placed upon them by the UNSC and further urges all member nations to support the aforementioned sanctions and prevent their breaching or circumvention

2) Decideds that the UNSC set up the Libyan peace initiative in order to provide a platform for all relevant parties within Libya to meet and negotiate:

a) Terms for a ceasefire

b) A common consensus regarding the political and governing structures in Libya

c) Demilitarized zones within Libya to aid in the humanitarian efforts

3) Designates the United Nations Peace Keeping Force (UNPKF) to mobilize within Libya and its borders in order to:

a)Ensure that no further clashes between the various factions occur and authorizes the right to fire when fired upon

b) Help aid in evacuation and protection of civilians and migrant/guest workers from Libya

4) Requests the military staff committee to immediately implement a no fly zone over Libya as the first steps to prevent further air raids by pro Gaddhafi factions

5) Recommends that with reference to the ICC investigation on the Libyan crisis:

a) The report is drafted and submitted within the next week

b) No military action will be taken by the UNSC until the findings of the rpeort provides the UNSC with a legitimate reason to do so

6) Encourages nations to refrain from unilateral military action and show maximum restraint when considering the Libyan crisis

7) Calls upon the relevant bodies and nations to co-ordinate with the UNHCR to tackle issues pertaining to the IDP and refugee management

8) Decides to establish a specialized committee to examine and analyze the political structures within Libya to

a) Propose suggestions to solve the underlying issues that resulted in the Libyan crisis

b) Assist in post conflict reconstruction of Libya's political and administrative structures

to ensure the longterm stability of Libya

Overall these three days were an amazing experience for me as I learnt so much more in Colombo MUN than the other MUN conferences that I took part in, mainly because it was much more professional and I would think that it was much closer to what UN conferences are really like. I was extremely intimidated by the other delegates so I actually did not talk as much as I hoped to and mainly focused on Points of Information (PoIs), which refers to questioning others' speeches and resolutions. But I learned so much from actually being a part of the conference, especially how to listen to the points of others while formulating something to say in return which was a skill that I did not have before and a skill that I feel can be best developed in MUN. In taking part in MUN, I increased the awareness of my strengths and areas of growth, coming up with resolution clauses was a strength I developed and public speaking is still my area of growth, undertook new challenges, as this conference was at a very different level to the other conferences I partook in, worked collaboratively with others, mainly in resolution writing, showed perseverance and committment, committing myself to MUN these past 7 months, engaged with issues of global importance, like the situation in Libya and on the Korean Peninsula and developed new skills. I feel that the things I learnt by being a part of Colombo MUN will be useful in my future and I am glad I decided to take part in it as I got to know what it is like in a real UN conference and because I got to make friends with the other delegates. Overall I enjoyed these three days a lot.

Badminton

The school Badminton practice started on Tuesday 15th of February 2011. We have practices on Tuesday and Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. I was on the Badminton team in my old school but that was the first time I ever did Badminton, so I am still fairly new to the sport. What we do in our practices is do some fitness training, running back and forth and side to side, stroke practice, eg. lobbing, drop, smash &c. and do practice matches.

I find the practices quite tiring but I enjoy them very much. In doing this sport, I am undertaking new challenges because this sport is still fairly new to me, working collaboratively with others because in doubles, I have to co-operate with my partner to perform efficiently, showing perseverance and committment by going to every single practice and developing new skills.

Colombo Model United Nations Practice Debate 3

On the 12th of February 2011, the Overseas School of Colombo hosted the third MUN Practice Debate. Again, what we did was the same as last time, which included giving opening speeches, discussing moderated caucus topics, writing up resolutions and debating over them. This time we were discussing the situation in Myanmar and the problems the country was having due to the refusal of the military government to accept democracy.

I felt that I was getting more involved in the debating process this time because I had had the experience from the past two practice debates.

the criteria that I am fulfilling in this activity are:

• Undertaking new challenges
• Working collaboratively with others
• showing perseverance and committment
• Engaging with issues of global importance
• Developing new skills

Colombo Model United Nations Practice Debate 2

On the 5th of February 2011, the COMUN held another practice debate at the Overseas School of Colombo. This time I found it a little easier to follow, given the practice I had last time.

We were discussing the 'Threat imposed on international security by the Wikileaks website'. What we did was the same as last time; giving opening speeches, discussing moderative caucus topics, writing up resolutions and debating over them.

The criteria that I am fulfulling in this activity are:

• Undertaking new challenges
• Working collaboratively with others
• Showing perseverance and committment
• Engaging with issues of global importance
• Developing new skills

Colombo Model United Nations Practice Debate 1

On the 29th of January 2011, the Colombo Model United Nations (COMUN) held a practice debate at the Overseas School of Colombo. The structure of MUN here is totally different to the other MUN conferences that I have attended so I actually found this extremely difficult to follow.

There were five conferences; General Assembly (GA) 01, GA02, GA03, ECOSOC and Security Council (SC). I was placed in Security Council as the delegation of Austria. The SC that day was discussing the situation in Pakistan, which involved the Islamic Extremist uprising and the conflict between the Taliban and the Al Qaeda. We all have to give an opening speech which is a brief 3 minute speech outlining the country's stance on the topic.

The other delegates issued several moderative caucus topics in which time, usually of about 10 to 15 minutes, was given to discuss a specific topic.

We spent the second half of the day writing up resolutions, which basically stated the methods in which our delegations were prepared to handle the problems. We then debated these resolutions, giving speeches for and against it, making amendments to clauses that needed fixing and finally voted for them.

During this debate I felt I was increasing my awareness and areas for growth, undertaking new challenges, working collaboratively with others, showing perseverance and committment, engaging in issues of global importance and developing new skills. Although I have done MUN before, the conference here was extremely intense and it made me realize the areas in which I need to grow in while helping me build my public speaking skills. I worked collaboratively with others when the delegates of certain nations got together to construct a resolution together.

Week Without Walls

At the Overseas School of Colombo, every year we have an opportunity to do some extra-curricular activities outside of school. This year we went to the south of Sri Lanka, to a place called Hambantota, where we did some service work for two Sri Lankan pre schools that were built after the tsunami a couple years ago. On the 24th of January 2011, we made our way to Hambantota. My plan was to undertake new challenges, take part in planned and initiated activities, work collaboratively with others, show perseverance and committment and consider the ethical implications of my actions during this trip.

What we did over the course of two days was visit a couple post-Tsunami pre-schools in the Hambantota area. When we visited, we were able to meet about 15 young children and we played some games with them for about half an hour. We played musical chairs and drew pictures using the pastels that we brought for them. I really enjoyed playing with the children, they were so adorable and although at first some of them were very shy, after a while they became used to us and started enjoying themselves.

After that, we spent about six hours painting different areas of the school. Some of us painted the outside walls, some the inside walls, some the play ground equipment outside and the rest of us worked on a mural on the wall. I was working on the mural along with three others. Our mural theme was 'outerspace'. I had in fact never done such a large scale painting before so in doing this I was undertaking new challenges and developing new skills. The four of us planned and initiated this, as well as worked collaboratively with each other as we got together as a group and decided on what to draw and who was in charge of painting which part.

On the second day at the school, we played miniature bowling with the children, which was also really fun. We then spent another six hours continuing our murals. We actually finished quite early so I helped out by painting the doors and window sills of the classroom. Because we were using gloss enamel paint, we job was a lot harder than I expected, but I felt that I had developed a new skill by doing it. Over these two days, we as a group showed perseverance and committment as we worked for two days to complete this mural. Our whole group as a whole definitely worked collaboratively with each other to get the different parts of the school painted.

At the end of the two days we did a small play and sang a Sinhala song for the children. We also gave each of them a small gift pack which included school bags, pencil cases, pencils, erasers, colouring pencils, lunch boxes &c. I was really touched by their reaction to these gifts and it made me realize how fortunate I was. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to help a school that needed it.

On the last day of our trip we visited Yala National Park, which was famous for its leopards. We got up at 4:30 to go there and we split up into small groups and went around the park in a Jeep.

These are some of the animals I saw:

• Elephants
• Crocodiles
• Jackels
• Deer
• Mongoose
• Peacocks
• Other birds

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the leopard although many of the others did. But overall the safari was very enjoyable and I would very much like to visit Yala again!