Febuary Ctd...
The cricket elective has been progressing well. As elective leaders me and Ruwinda devised drills to develop cricketing skills such as catching, proper bowling technique, and defensive batting. It was a good opportunity to develop my own skills as well. We are hoping to organise a few mathces as well.

Me and and some of my ex class mates from the British School in Colombo have created a rugby club outside school. We have been playing every week at Victoria Park and once in a way have been challenging locals to games. It has been a good experience to interact with local underpriviledged people of my age and I was surprised by how good many of them were. On many occasions we had been soundly defeated by certain groups. It was a good example of how much raw talent is available in Sri Lanka.

Febuary

Febuary was a busy month in terms of Creativity as the annual school drama production auditions began. I being a senior was automatically drafted into the Acting ensemble. I had taken part in many productions in my previous school so it was good to apply some experience and leadership to this play.

WWW Ctd...
Our task was to repain the whole school and its furniture. We split into groups, with assigned to particular parts of the school. I was part of the group with the most tedious job of painting the grills. However with persistance, shifts and help from the locals we managed to finish it with in about three days. It was nice to see children and adults alike enjoying the benefits that were produced by us. It taught us what a difference such a small action could achieve.

For SAISA football we have been enagaged in numourous matches against various schools and clubs. I think I have managed to get over my match nervousness, and was performing with a bit more confidence. As well as that my technical and match skills have improved immensly thanks to the various exercises we have done

WWW
One of the highlights of this month was the Week Without Walls trip to Hambantota on the 19th. It was a great experience, both to acknowledge the desperate situation of the children and the teacher, and in terms of team and skills building. The trip lasted one, we only visited the school on three of those days. The class was split into two groups, both going to different schools. Our group went to a school that had never been visited before, therefore, some of the kids, whose age group was between 4 and 5, weren't particularly welcoming. However, with continueous organised cricket games and a bit of patience we managed to gain some popularity amongst this small community.

January

This month on the 8th me and my friends organised a trip to climb Adam's Peak. We had to do this on our own, organising food, accomodation, transport, and clothing. It was a great opportunity to develop organisation skills, and coordinating efforts with a group of friends who normally didn't cooperate. In the end most things went according to plan apart from our sleeping arrangements, for which we found ourselves sleeping on the floor in the cold. The climb itself was physically challenging, and at one point we had to virtually carry one member of the group as he had collapsed. Again, we had to work as a team to get him up the mountain, although a few encouraging (or threatening) word helped him along the way. It was very satisfying to have breakfast on top.

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.