Final Reflection

Over the past two years I feel I have really used the CAS program to my own advantage. Given the strenuous nature of the IB Diploma, it has been really important for me to be involved in activities outside of school. This has helped me retain a certain balance in my life (albeit a little challenged at times!) as well as encouraging me to broaden my interests and develop those I already have. For the section of 'Action', I have been involved in the basketball, football and swimming SAISA (South Asian International Schools Association) competitions. Basketball and football are both sports I have not played before, so being involved in these seasons meant that I learnt a number of new skills. I learned how to position myself on a field and a court, as well as some simple ball skills. My greates acheivement was an increased consciousness of team work - I have previously been involved primarily in individual sports, so it was a great experience to be a part of so many teams. This learning curve culminated in my captaincy of the basketball team, where I tried to focus as much as possible on team cohesiveness and participation. I was also involved in the swimming SAISA, as well as a number of efforts out of season to maintain my fitness including biking and yoga. I have been rewarded for my continued efforts in Action with a more balanced outlook on life and some sanity during times of extreme IB stress. For the section of 'Creativity' I have been involved in both visual and performing arts. Throughout Grade 11 I was involved in the Wednesday activity of Pin hole photography. This was a continuation of photography classes that I took in Australia. I enjoyed exploring this media and furthering my knowledge of photographic development. I really started to understand the 'feel' of working with a pinhole camera, and the relationship between shadows, light, distance and development. There is a very careful balance you have to strike. I was also involved in two theatre productions, one in Grade 11 and one in Grade 12. While I played two very contrasting characters, this continued involvement in performance expanded my understanding of theatre. I enjoyed working with a very large cast in The Crucible, as well as learning to 'inhabit' my character. This year, in the performance of Sorry, Wrong Number, I challenged myself with a relatively major part. We worked in a much smaller group, and I discovered a number of theatre activities and workshops that really improved my presence and emotional expression on stage. My involvement in the Creative section of CAS helped me further my understanding of myself, as well as a continued and expanded knowledge of creative skills. Last, but in no way least, my involvement in Community Service. For the past two years I have been continually involved in RCCI, or the school program with the Rehabilitation Centre for the Communication Impaired. Half way through Grade 11 I became leader of this service activity, and have since then been primarily involved in planning and initiating activities with the kids. This often happened on a more spontaneous basis, and I tried as much as possible to lead by example. I really feel that this CAS activity is as much about teaching children at OSC to understand and forge relationships with children who are differntly abled as anything else. In this way, we can spread tolerance and understanding, as people are seldom afraid or critical of people that they understand. I also believe that by showing these children some compassion and concern, their interractions with the wider world will be more positive. They will have more experiences with people who are prepared to give them a chance, to approach them with the hand of friendship despite the gap that lies between them.

Sorry, Wrong Number: PERFORMANCE

The performance of "Sorry, Wrong Number" was part of the series of perfomances in 'Simply Scenes: Two Nights of Theatre' at OSC on the 24th of February.

Getting on stage always makes me nervous - it's part of the reason that I enjoy theatre because I'm forced to step outside my comfort zone. On the other hand, I find theatre less intimidating than public speaking because I am up there speaking as a character, rather than as myself.

The costuming and set for the play was very simple. I was the only person wearing something other than black, and it was only a red dressing gown. I thought it fit very well with my character - floaty, expensive and exotic. Someone who lives vicariously through a telephone is bound to 'collect' items that prove things - how rich, well educated and knowledgeable about the rest of the world they are.

I had my lines memorised in the last few days before the performance, so it was very nerve-wracking. It was difficult to memorise as I had large blocks to say without many cues from the other characters. On the other hand, Mrs. Stevenson essentially repeats the same thing again and again throughout the play:

"I'm a sick woman, and I'm not supposed to be annoyed, and this murder has upset me dreadfully..." etc. etc.

This play really gave me an opportunity to explore my creative side, as well as a better understanding of character development and emotional recall in theatre.

I love the chance that drama gives me to become someone else - at the end of the day, despite the stress, it is always worth it. I think that entertainment is part of what makes us human - the ability to empathise, to give in to the 'willing suspension of disbelief', to create a world in our heads and then try to share it with others.

Basketball Tournament in Nepal

SAISA Basketball tournament in NEPAL! First of all, travelling to Nepal was enormously exciting. I had never been there before, and so it was a fantastic new experience. I hadn't travelled for SAISA since the beginning of Grade 11, because both the other SAISA's had been hosted by OSC. I am really glad that my involvement in the team gave me the chance to explore the region, as well as get to know other international schools in the area. I was hosted with the other senior on the team, Ayla, at her cousin's house (by complete chance he and his wife live in Nepal and have kids at Lincoln School). They were extraordinarily generous and made my whole stay just wonderful.


Nepal is a lot colder than Sri Lanka, so playing conditions were very different. You don't sweat half as much, but I tended to run out of breath more quickly. I think this might have something to do with the poor air quality in Kathmandu. In the end, only 7 schools came, because Karachi International School was unable to make it at the last minute due to strikes at the airport. This changed the whole timetable, and meant that instead of two pools, each team had to play all the other teams. This meant that we ended up playing 2 more games than we would have otherwise.

However, to make up for it, they shortened the game time. I actually found this a relief! I was on the starting 5 for the team , and we didn't have much substitution in the games. So I ended up playing a large majority of all of our games - I was exhausted. However, this gave me a chance to push myself to my limits and show what I was capable of. I don't think, overall, that I played as hard as I did last year (I used to go a little feral on court), but I improved in other areas. As team captain, I played an important role in keeping the team together, both on and off court. We were all extremely tired by the end of the tournament, and so I made it my job to smooth over arguments, listen to people's problems and keep everyone happy. I also tried to keep an eye on our teamwork and spirit on the court - things like sharing the ball, working plays and maintaining good sportsmanship.


Our games were against:

• Bombay: 2 games. We won the first one which was really great because we lost to them last year. However, they came back to beat us in the semi-finals by 1 POINT!
  
• Chennai: 1 game. We won!
• Lincoln: 1 game. We won!
• Lahore: 1 game. We lost. We didn't play well as a team in this game, but we also didn't really have the support of our coach during this match. On the other hand, the loss meant that Lahore won their first game in 4 years.
  
• AES: 1 game. We lost. However, I think we gave the AES team the biggest challenge they had in the tournament. They were the champions of the tournament.
  
• Dhaka: 2 games. We won the first game and came back from our defeat by Bombay to beat Dhaka again in the consolation finals.
  

We ended up coming 3rd in the whole tournament. This was the same place that we acheived last year. I was a little disappointed that we were unable to beat Bombay in the semi-finals - it was so frustrating to lose by one point! I twisted my ankle half-way through that match and so didn't play the rest of it, or in the consolation finals. Fortunately, Stephanie took over my position and played like a trojan. Overall, I really enjoyed the chance to play and travel for basketball, and hope that I fulfilled my role as captain to my best ability.

RCCI - Awareness and Handing Over

We organised a booth at the CAS Awareness Evening. I have been in the proccess of handing over the leadership role to Aparna in Grade 11. I was unable to organise the booth myself for the most part due to commitments with basketball, and Aparna did a WONDERFUL job. We printed off photos during the CAS session on Thursday afternoon and then Aparna and Kuval came in on a Poya day to put everything up. They really made our area look professional so I feel that I am leaving RCCI in extremely capable hands. I am now staging out my participation in this CAS as I have to start studying, as well as organising my art exhibition so I am very busy. I have really enjoyed being involved so directly in the kids lives, if not making a hugely appreciable practical difference, at least demonstrating a caring face from the outside world. I think that forming relationships with these kids has been one of the most challenging and rewarding things I have done in the IB.

SAISA Basketball

Basketball Season has started!

I have decided to continue with basketball so that I can develop on the skills I learned from last year. I really enjoyed the season in Grade 11, and this year I will have the opportunity to travel to Nepal, which will be fun! We have 5 players from the team last year, and another 5 players who are either new to OSC, new to basketball, or didn't make the team last year. So we have a big mix of abilities.

We have a coach from outside the school who has come to coach us - Mr. Tharindu Fernando. We do a lot of movement work, which I hope will teach us how to position ourselves well on court as that is something that is quite difficult to learn. I am working on improving my shooting, as this was a problem area for me last year. It is nice to be doing a sport where I have a basic skills base - it means that I feel less lost on the court! We have been training very intensively - for two hours each practice, four times a week! I hope that this is helping me keep my fitness levels up.

Because I am one of the oldest players on the team (in fact, the oldest, I think), Mr. Fernando has designated me as captain. Quite a few of the girls obviously have a greater skill level in basketball than I do, so I am making my role as a leader more concerned with how we work together as a team. This team is not as cohesive as the football one, and keeping everyone happy is presenting some challenges! However, it is doing wonders for my diplomacy skills. Ayla, the other senior on the team, and I are working together a lot to make sure everyone participates and feels like part of the team. I am learning how to keep my temper when I want to lose it, and how to negotiate and compromise in a group situation. I think these are important life skills that can be reapplied anywhere, not just in sport.

We have been learning a few new plays. In defense, we have learnt a trap defense, which type of press defense. This means that we defend the other team while they are bringing the ball down the court. It is quite difficult to remember what you are supposed to be doing, but when everyone does their job it is a very effective defense.




Green circles are DEFENSE (our team). Blue triangles are offense (the opposition.


I am mostly player 5 or player 3.












If they make a break for the middle, 1 and 2 trap (move together and block the player). This is pretty good for stopping up the centre court.

On the left side,the 2 and 3 trap,while the 1 looks for a short center court pass.The 4 guards the middle and watches the short pass. The 5 looks for any long pass,but defends the goal first.

This looks the same on the other side. Basically it means that it makes it hard for the players to dribble down the court, forcing them to pass, and then allowing for us to intercept those passes. We also learned a Press Break, or offensive set up to beat this defense, but we're not very good at it yet!!






On OFFENSE we learned three plays - one to break and 2-3 zone defense and allow a three point shot, and the other two to break a man-to-man defense and allow the post players to shoot under the basket. We are still learning our positioning in all of these plays as they are quite complex and it can get VERY confusing if you have to switch positions.

We have played a couple of practice matches against the Gateway International School and the Women's National Team of Sri Lanka. We lost all three matches by quite a lot, but I think the experience taught us a lot, including just a general feel for the game. The level at SAISA will hopefully be a little lower and we will have a good shot at the finals!!!

Sorry, Wrong Number

A friend of mine, Tara Nelson, is in IB Theatre Arts and has to put on her Individual Theatre Project in February 2011. She has decided to direct a play, "Sorry, Wrong Number" and she has asked me to be in it. I am going to play Mrs. Stevenson, the main character. The piece was originally written as a radio play, so there is very little movement.

The plot centres around Mrs. Stevenson, an rich, neurotic and bed-ridden invalidat home alone for the evening, and her sole connection with the outside world is her telephone. She overhears plans for a murder of an unknown woman on the telephone over a wrong number. Through her various attempts to retrace the call and catch the men she eventually realises that she is the intended victim, but the realisation comes too late.

Barbara Stanwyck in the 1948 film version of "Sorry, Wrong Number"

I really like the play - I'm a big fan of the noir tradition in theatre and I find it interesting how cleverly tension is developed solely through dialogue. However, this means that a lot of responsibility falls on my shoulders, as my dialogue is about 80% of the play. Basically this means that it is my job to build tension, and almost entirely through voice and facial expression. Scary thought. However, despite the fact that I have a lot of responsibility, the preparation has been a lot about group work. Tara has been using various theatre excercises to help us understand and develop our characters. The cast is quite small so the excercises really force us to develop trust and work together. This has helped me build on the skills I developed in "The Crucible" last year.

I am quite nervous about learning all the lines - there are A LOT of them - but I am also really excited to be involved in theatre again. I am basing my character a little around Mrs. Bennet from the BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" as both characters have problems (real or imaginary) with 'nerves'. Mrs. Stevenson is also imperious, self-centered and impatient, which are all traits I find quite easy to sympathise with. She is a much easier character to "get to know" than Elizabeth Proctor, as she is less reserved and her flaws are much more obvious.

SAISA football

The SAISA football tournament finally arrived, and I have to say our team COMPLETELY exceeded my expectations. We had won every one practice game against other schools in Sri Lana easily, and so we hadn't come up against much competition. This made me pretty nervous because I knew that the games at SAISA would be much tougher, but I didn't know how prepared we were.

The teams that came to the tournament were:
American Embassy School (AES) - New Delhi, India
American School of Bombay (ASB) - Mumbai, India
American International School of Dhaka (AISD) - Dhaka, Bangladesh
American International School of Chennai (AISC) - Chennai, India

Lahore American School (LAS) - Lahore, Pakistan
Lincoln School (LS) - Kathmandu, Nepal
International School of Islamabad (ISOI) and Murree Christian School (MCS) - Pakistan
Overseas School of Colombo (OSC) - Colombo, Sri Lanka!!

The weather for the tournament was terrible. It had rained for weeks beforehand so both of the fields were more like wetland marshes than football pitches. We played most of the matches on our field at school, as by the end of the three days the other field we had hired for the tournament was unplayable. As well as that, some of the matches on the third day had to be cancelled because it started pouring again. However, everyone persevered despite the difficult conditions to make the tournament a success!

Most people played the same positions that they had all training season, but we mixed things up a little in defense. Kavindra and I had mostly been centre defense and sweeper for the trainings, but for the SAISA games we put Saba as sweeper and Kavi and I shared the position of central defender. This actually worked really well, and both Kavi and I adjusted to the change and continued to give our all. Saba was far and away the best player on our team, so it felt very safe to have her on defense, and meant that I could play more adventurously than I normally would.

I think that this team was probably the most cohesive team I have ever played with. Over the tournament we really learned to read each other almost telepathically, we kept each other's spirits up and we worked together at every step of the way. I don't think anyone thought that they were being left out or were unimportant, because everyone was an integral part of the team.

Our games were:

1. AISC (Chennai) - won 5:0
2. ISOI and MCS (Pakistan) - won 3:1
3. AISD (Dhaka) - won 2:1
4. SEMI-FINALS: ASB (Mumbai) - won 2:1
5. FINALS: AES (New Delhi) - lost 0:3

So we ended up coming second - which is the best OSC has done in Girls' Football for a long time. It was disappointing not to win the final on our home ground, but AES outclassed us - they won the tournament without conceding a single goal. In the end, I was still very proud to come second.

As with basketball last year, I wrote quotes on my arm for each match, except I now can't remember what they were! However, my tournament quotes were:

"You said we're a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph"

I think our team really lived up to this as a whole. We had the least amount of infighting I've known on a girls' sports team, and we played our hearts out, together, every single match.

"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."

As an individual I followed this idea to the best of my ability. I gave 100% to every match. I may not have had a very complex role (defense is more straightforward than offense - just STOP THAT BALL!) but within that role, and within my team, I set myself on fire.

I also improved a lot over the season - I learned new skills such as positioning, jockeying (defensive move), how to pass directly and effectively and the beginnings of how to dribble. Having never really played football meant that everything I learned was new, but this gave me more opportunity for growth. I also learned that I really love playing football, and I hope to continue to play in the future.