RCCI fundraiser

On the 4th of November, the Primary School put on a production of "Seussical". As the leader of RCCI, I was given the opportunity to organise to sell food in order to raise money for the CAS project. Kuval, Gurleen, Josh, Aparna and I made or bought snacks, and I went to the production and sold what we had made as parents were arriving. I made brownies! I sold most things for about 50 ruppees - I didn't like to charge much because we were in competition with several other CAS projects. What was not sold on the night I took home and my family ate it, and then donated 1,000 ruppees.

In total we raised 3,000 ruppees. I hope to use this to either give the kids gifts for Christmas or Sinhalese New Year. While it isn't a lot, and there isn't much that we can do for the kids with it, I think that sometimes the simple act of giving, and lighting up someones day is more important than grand gestures.

On the note of grand gestures, the school actually raised a significant amount of money in previous years to help the RCCI build a new centre for the kids. This project is currently in the proccess of finding land for building, but this is not something that students can really be involved in.

YOGA!

I have always thought that my flexibility was a little pathetic, and this year I have decided to do something about it. My mum takes yoga classes twice a week at her work, which is just down the road from school, so for the past 2 months I have been joining her. I would never have thought it would be such hard work! It is relaxing, but only in the sense that by the end of the 1 1/2 hour session I am so exhausted that my brain is completely empty. Because of SAISA football I have only been going once a week, but I would like to try and increase that to twice a week. I have been hurting in muscles that I didn't even know I had - particularly my hamstrings, which are also working from football, and all the muscles in my back.

There are a lot of poses that I have difficulty with because the strength and balance required are a little beyond me. I often end up shaking in the pose! The one pose that I want to work on particularly is the "downward dog pose" pictured below. This is used as a base for many of the other stretches. I really want to be able to get my feet flat on the floor and my spine fully relaxed like the woman in the picture. I figure that knowing what I have to work on is the first step.

I can feel the difference in my flexibility and balance already, but mostly the joy of yoga is that it does leave you feeling very healthy. Your muscles feel that they have been working, but in the right way. So even if I can only continue with one class a week, this is something that I WILL do, and hope to carry on with even next year in university.

SAISA Football

For the past 5 weeks I have been participating in the training sessions for the SAISA football team! I have never really played soccer since Grade 7, and even then it was not very seriously, so this is an entirely new experience for me. I've been surprised how different football is from basketball - it's alot slower and less close knit, but I think players have the opportunity to contribute more to the team without necessarily having an incredible skill level. However there are som similarities. Once again, being tall, my job is to stand at the back on defense and intimidate/run over people who are trying to score. I actually really enjoy this as it is more about body co-ordination and dealing with another person rather than dealing with the ball. I am not very good at dribbling.




The problem with playing defense is that many of the games we have played against other schools in Colombo have been very offense oriented for our team. That is, we have annihilated most other teams, and on defense this means I don't get much of a work out! However, I think that come SAISA this will change. We have also played a couple of boys teams who definitely gave the defense a lot to do (they beat us most of the time).



I have also discovered other ways that, as central defender or sweeper, I can contribute to the team. I tend to be able to see a lot more of what is going on than the other players, so I can yell out instructions. Apparently this is helpful - although it is a fine line to draw between helpful and bossy, so I will have to be careful. However, it is nice to feel useful, particularly in games where I'm not doing much.


I really enjoy the team atmosphere in football, and I'm having lots of fun getting to know some of the girls in younger grades that I would not otherwise have talked to. I think we have a really strong team.





My aims for the season are:

1. To make it onto the final team by showing consistent commitment and putting in 100% effort at trainings.
2. To work on my ball co-ordination so that I do not panic under pressure.
3. To learn how to position myself effectively on the field so that, with the other defenders, we create an effective wall against the attack.
4. To have the best team spirit ever!!

Swimming, Latin Dancing

Unfortunately, I was unable to go on the SAISA Swimming Sports Exchange. I made the team, but my extended essay draft was due immediately after the trip and so I decided, with my parents, that I would be unable to manage both of those commitments. However, I persevered with the trainings, because I actually enjoy them. I find swimming training more rewarding than competition, and MUCH less stressful. My goal for the year now that the season is finished is to continue to try and swim at least once a week. This may not be possible at all times due to other SAISA's and academic commitments, so I will have to be flexible about this goal. However, whenver possible, I will stick to it.

An unexpected development!
My friends Anishka and Priyanka are participating in the after school activity Latin Dancing, and they asked me to come along. Dancing is not really something I have much experience, so this was really stepping outside of my comfort zone, but I decided to give it a try. I was not very good at it, but it was surprisingly good excercise and quite good fun. It's on Friday afternoons, so this may end up clashing with SAISA football (I'm planning to try out for the team), but I will keep going as long as there are no other clashes. My only goal is to reduce my self-consciousness about dancing, and try to improve my co-ordination!

Goals

GOALS

1. Service: I'm going to keep leading the RCCI Service Group. I would like to organise a fund-raising event maybe at the end of this year to give the kids presents for either Christmas or Sinhalese New Year.


2. Action: I hope to continue with my swimming and basketball through SAISA competitions and/or training. I really enjoy both of these sports, and may even try going to Football trainings, just to see whether I like it. I am also planning on taking up Yoga, as there are classes held at IWMI, where my mum works, which is just down the road from school. My goal is to maintain and improve my fitness, as well as, through Yoga, to develop my strength and flexibility.


3. Creativity: For Christmas, I am going to try and create all of the presents I will give to people. I am going to spend Christmas with my parents, grand-parents and brother, so I am aiming for 6 presents. These may be consumables like a meal, or clothes that I will sew, etc. I want to do this because I think that Christmas gets really out of hand in terms of giving people hundreds of meaningless presents that they don't need. So instead I want to make a few presents, but put effort in to them.

This year I hope to try a couple of activities that force me to step outside of my comfort zone, as well as a few self-directed activities that will help me to self-motivate (such as the Christmas presents or self-directed excercise). It is also important to me to maintain a basic fitness level, and continue to participate in the RCCI program.

Year's Reflection

I think that I really embraced the principles of CAS this year. I worked hard to involve myself in a broad range of activities, and I really enjoyed it! My work with RCCI was really challenging, forcing me to go outside of my comfort zone and really be a risk-taker. The important thing when interracting with the RCCI kids is that you lose all of your embarassment and just go as silly and fun as possible - they love it! Sometimes it can be hard to stay so enthusiastic, but I think learning to do that is an important life skill. I had never done anything like this before, so it was a completely new experience for me, although one I plan to continue next year.

Through Pinhole photography, I found an entirely new way of looking at the world. Taking a photo where you have to sit and wait for 40 seconds teaches you about the way time influences your perceptions of things. Pinhole photos also have to be more considered - given the effort, you can't just point and snap! This is the type of creative process that yields the best results for me - the more I think and prepare a peice, the better the end result. Unfortunately, the Electives program is not running next year at our school, and so I will be unable to continue this activity. However, I am hoping to use some of the techniques I learned here for some of my Diploma Art work.

Participating in the production of the crucible was as much team work as it was creativity. I felt that here was probably one of the areas in which I took an 'unofficial' leadership role. We were part of a group of both Grade 11 and Grade 12s, and I made sure that I was always as enthusiastic and commited as possible, to set a good example. I really value the friendships I made during this production, as well as the opportunity to 'get into someone else's skin' and the thrill of performance!

Finally, I have made a fairly big effort in terms of Action this year. I participated in swimming and basketball SAISAs, as well as the Habitat for Humanity fund-raiser run (not documented, but i did it! I was the 1st high school girl!!). I am most proud of the fact that when I was not involved in SAISA, I made an effort to keep active - I rode my bike, I swam, I went on various active holidays with my family. I know that this is a really important area for me, both in terms of physical and emotional well-being. I am much happier, and more able to deal with stress, when I am doing regular excercise.

At the beginning of the year I set some aims I did not complete. These were taking Sinhala and piano lessons, and continuing rowing. Unfortunately, I was unable to take up rowing here as the Colombo Rowing Club was rather unhelpful, and transport would have prevented me in any case. I was also unable to take Sinhala lessons. I did try to organise this, but it kept clashing with my basketball trainings so in the end I decided that I didn't really have the time (I was also involved in the Crucible at that point). Finally, for piano, I have not had the time to organise lessons. However, in this case, the cloud has a silver lining! I have actually started playing quite a lot on my own, and taking real enjoyment from this. Given that this is an unstructured activity that I do not want to set goals for, I will not be including this in my CAS blog.

My main and most important goal was to get as much out of the CAS program as possible. I think that I have definitely acheived this goal. I have kept up active, creative and service activities throughout the year. I have attended reuglarly everything that I commited myself to. I set goals within the individual activities and I tried my best to acheive them, and I tried new things. The only thing I have not really succeeded in to an enormous degree is leadership. I hope to take a more active leadership role next year in RCCI. In conclusion, in terms of CAS, my Grade 11 year was very satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable!

RCCI concluding thoughts

We had our last RCCI meeting for the year, but unfortunately only 3 kids were able to make it due to the rain. So we had alot of food and very little to do with it, so the party wasn't a great success. Sadly this was Ms. McKeon's last RCCI session, as she is leaving us next year. I have really enjoyed working with the RCCI kids this year - it's been a real challenge, but a rewarding one. I think it's an important life skill to learn to communicate with different people, and differently abled people are generally overlooked by most societies, so this project has taught me to appreciate their perspective.