December Cancer Hospital

After raising money to distribute the oxypura masks to amongst the children our next project at the cancer hospital was to raise more money by creating a calendar for next year and selling them. These calendars would include pictures drawn by the children themselves. Thus on our next visit to the hospital we had to help the children draw the pictures and then select twelve of them for each month in the calendar. I normally am not very comfortable with small children and so I learnt a lot interacting with them in my rusty Singhala. I amazed by some of the artisitic talents present amongst the unfortunate children.

December

SAISA football practices started on the 1st and I, from the beginning, had intended to try out for the team as a defender. My aims for the football season were to rid myself match tension and, of coarse, make it to the team. There were not too many practices this month and the practices themselves were relatively relaxed as the try outs were to officially start next month in January. However it was good to be playing football again after a long time. Again I felt a bit nervous playing with one of the best school teams in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile I was still persisting with my tennis. My coach tells me that my technique is fine but it is only my fitness that is letting me down. Thus, this holiday I intend to conduct my own exercise routine evryday, or at least every week, to improve my stamina and agility. I also have to find some more time to get some more match experience to prepare for a few tournaments I intend to enter next year but right now my work and social life seem to be the problem.

Recently I had enrolled myself into the organising committee for the annual talent show due to take part on the 18th of December. On the 4th of December we held an audition after distributing messages in the bulletin and using sign up forms to attract volunteers. The audition turned out to be of a rehearsal after everyone was accepted to take part. We used this opportunity coordinate the different groups handling different aspects of the performance such as decorations, lighting and sound. I learnt a lot of things myself in coordinating, planning and working with a team in order to get this show running on the 18th.

Talent show ran, as planned, on the 18th and we were in a frantic rush to get everything ready. Things were made more complicated when we realised that we didn't have a Master of Ceremonies and so Umeshan, Seong and I were told that we were to be MCs around 20 minutes before the show started. Now we were really nervous as we had to try and live up to the tremendously funny and popular MCs at last year's show and they had been planning there performance a week in advance. None of us had never done this before At the beginning of the show we were really tense, at a lost, and practically had to improvise and create jokes on the spot. However, as the show progressed we became more confident and began to take more risks and in the end we came out in flying colours, and even started dancing on stage when the school band was playing. This was, at first way out of my comfort zone, but the compliments from the crowd, and the knowledge that I am capable of doing such things was a huge confidence booster and greatly increased my self esteem.

During the holidays I have, relatively successfully, implemented my exercise routine with the inclusion of 20-30 push ups a day when I could, and jogs or cycles around the neighborhood. I guess I am faintly starting to feel fitter.

November Ctd...

TAPS: On the 22nd of November I ventured out of the country, and out of my comfort zone, to Bangkok to attend the ISTA TAPS Theatre arts workshop at the Rumrudee International School. I was initially a bit nervous as I was certain that, being a drama workshop, they would make us do things that would be embarassing o0r out of the ordinary. My objectives were to improve certain theatrical skills such as improvisation, movement and to increase my knowledge of theatre practitioners. We were not the only schools to participate, so when we arrived there evryone was split into groups containing a mixture of students from different schools. This was initially frightening for me I am generally shy. The activities conducted in each group included games, physical activities, master classes, visits to productions and analysis, and producing plays ourselves. In the end, it was a lot of fun, and was very useful for me personally as I learnt a lot:
1. I developed the ability to encorporate different theatre and practitioner styles into performance.
2. I took more risks
3. Learnt how to improvise without thinking
4. Learnt how to analyse productions
5. Developed coordination and trust with the ensemble
6. Learnt how to think out of the box
7. Improved my socialising skills after interacting with the other students.

November Ctd...

In tennis I have been able to get in more friendly matches on weekends in order to stack up my match experience, on coach's orders. I've found that tennis provides a refreshing and energising break from academics. Again I'm inproving in fitness and developing some advanced skills in the sport. Coach is pushing me pretty hard.

For the Cancer Hospital, in order to raise money to by 'oxypura masks' we organised a movie night for the primary school on the 28th. The amount we had to raise was Rs. 18,000. These masks would allow the children to venture outside without the risk of infection from any impure air they would breath. I learnt a lot in the organisation of the event in terms of coordinating and distributing tasks with and to different members of the group, and planning in advance. In the end we managed to pull it off and earn around Rs. 25,000. The day before we had actually distributed the masks amongst the children. It was intersting to see how much they appreciated the small gesture.

On Wednesday the 13th I decided to attend a workshop, organised by school, on the works of Shakespeare. This workshop was conducted by a specialist by the name of Don Foley. As I was studying Shakespeare for theatre arts at the time I found this workshop very useful. We learnt how to properly interpret and act out Shakespeare's plays including aspects such as rythm and movement. Foley himself was quite a dramatic character.