From the 8th to the 12th of February, Grade 11 went on a field trip to Hambantota, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The trip was part of the Overseas School of Colombo's "Week without Walls" programm, where each grade devotes itself to a certain CAS activity for one week in February. Our objective was to repaint two pre-schools in the Hambantota area. As mentioned in a previous post, we were split into two groups, one for each pre-school. The week was mainly focused towards Community Service, but there were also aspects of Creativity and Action.
COMMUNITY SERVICE:
For 3 days from 9 am until 4 pm, we were the painting crew! It was actually quite physical work, and by the end of each day I was exhausted. We painted the inside and out of the two, very tall, exterior wall using rollers stuck on the end of a broom so it could reach the higher places. We painted the floor, the doors, the windows and ledges, and the playground equipment.
For the outside equipment, floors and windows, we used Enamel Paint (1 litre of paint to less than 1/4 litres of turpentine).
For the walls and most of the mural we used Emulsion Paint (1 litre of paint to 1/4 litres of water).
I was mostly involved in painting the inside walls on the first day; the mural on the second day (we started and finished it pretty much on the second day); and the doors and windows on the third day.
I found painting really satisfying because you could see what you had acheived. I liked the fact that we were doing something concrete for the school, however small. Often
what we do at school -whether it be in classes, in CAS or just in our daily lives - is very conceptual, very removed from reality. In CAS we donate money to organisations, but we don't really see what becomes of it; or in RCCI we play with the kids, but we don't really know what becomes of them after they go home. OSC in itself is quite disconnected - there are very few places in the real world where you find such a mix and hybrid of cultures and nationalities. So taking that into account, it was nice to see that what we were doing was real, affected real people and possibly, just possibly, made a real (small!) difference.
We also spent 1/3 hour of each day playing with the kids, and at the end of the three days we put on a joint concert. It was really incredible to see how much support and interest we generated amongst the community - the concert had a fairly large turnout for what appeared to be a relatively small village. Christina and Raj became an invaluable members of our team at this point because they were able and willing to communicate with everyone, understanding not only the language but also picking up on the cultural cues and context.
I tried to make up for my lack of language skill by being as enthusiastic as possible. I played games, painted pictures, tried to learn some basic
singhala vocab (so that people could laugh at my dreadful pronunciation), smiled as much as possible and clapped enthusiastically. During the concert, we put on a puppet show, which I had written from memory from a kid's book I had loved, and Christina had translated and then narrated. Tara, Grace and Ayla were the puppeteers, making wonderful sound affects for the animal puppets which caused a great deal of amusement. Young-Jun and Raj created the puppets (which were little works of art, incidentally). Saba, Ashish, Kashish, Filippo and Young-Jun put on two dance perform
ances, which also went well. However, we paled in comparison to the awesome performances that the school put on. There is nothing quite so cute as a five year old on stage - it's universal!
ACTION
There wasn't an awful lot of action involved, unless you count the painting (which I do!). I was exhausted after every day - I had never realised what physical wor
k painting is. But on the first day we also went on a Safari in Udawalawe National Park. Although this mostly involved sitting in the back of a jeep, it did get us out into 'the wild' - which I think is also a part of Action. Alot of the sports I most enjoy are outdoors type sports, and I enjoy them because they give me a chance to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings. SO we saw alot of elephants, which was truly an incredible experience. The sad part was that it wasn't as impressive as it should have been, which is the down side of spectacular wild-life documentaries - seen it all before! But to actually see an elephant in real life, (and we saw baby ones too) was nevertheless pretty magical.
CREATIVITY
As mentioned in the 'Planning for Week Without Walls' post, I was in charge of the mural. I came up with a design, and on the second day, Raj, Young-Jun and I painted it. We chose a smaller wall next to the entrance to the school, because the larger wall already had a mural on it. I think this ended up being a blessing in disguise, as it meant that the mural wasn't as
monumental a task as it could have been. We finished earlier than expected, so Raj and Young-Jun painted a second mural on one of the other walls, which was a bonus. I enjoyed being able to put a little bit of thought into the painting I was doing - just painting a wall a single colour can get a bit mindless after a while!! The research and planning I had done made things a bit easier, because I had a clear mental picture of what I wanted the mural to look like, so it meant we didn't waste too much time. The best part of the mural was working together as a team with Raj and Young-Jun: they both worked really hard, and had some great creative input. It was very satisfying to be able
to work so cohesively, and the final product showed this!
All in all, I really enjoyed Week Without Walls. I think this is something I would enjoy doing again, or at least something in a similar vein. While it is important, in humanitarian aid, to change policies and deal with the big picture, I think it is important to start with the smaller picture to get some perspective. Playing with the kids really gave me that perspective - it really showed me how just turning up and showing that you care can make a small amount of difference, that making a connection with the people you are trying to help is vital.
I have continued this elective in the second semester as leader of this elective. I contributed by suggesting that we try making Photograms during the first lesson, when most people did not have containers ready for their pin-hole cameras. A photogram is made by placing objects on top of a piece of photographic paper and then exposing this under an enlarger. An example is shown to the left, using a necklace, plastic beads, film strip, tissue paper and a glue stick. 
