SAISA - 2011 - Dhaka

The tournament finally came and went. Saisa was the culmination of the action aspect of my CAS programme.  I have been part of the OSC Saisa programme ever since i joined OSC. On the weekend of the 30th november - 3rd December, Saisa boys football took place in Dhaka. It was my last Saisa football and i was hoping for a good tournament. Throghout the season we had been practicing hard and trying to establish the style of play that suited us best. I attended every training session as i am strongly commited to football and made sure I led by example in every training session to maintain the level of intensity as i am also the captain of the football team.

Training

Before the tournament we had played a total of 8 training matches, out of which we had won 5, lost 1 and drawn 2. The matches were very important as they helped us develop a sense of team spirit and helped us figure out each others style of play. For me it was important as captain to help develop a sense of team spirit and make sure that everyone respects the contribution of each other on the pitch and remains calm and optimistic even when we are losing.

As i mentioned earlier, i was now playing in a new position, that of goalkeeper. This was totally new territory for me and i was going to Saisa with only 3 weeks of training under my belt. In my aims for Saisa i had also mentioned that i would like to really concentrate on my leadership role and also help my team in winning matches. As Goalkeeper is an extremely important job, a good performance from me would be very important in determining the outcome of our matches.

We left the school on the morning of the 30th. We had to wake up at 4:00 am to go to the airport. We were in the flight the whole day basically and arrived in Dhaka really tired. 31st was our first match of the tournament. Our first opponents were to be LAS, the team from the American International school of Lahore. This was going to be the most difficult match of the group for us as LAS were even then, considered the strongest team of the tournament, as they were a daunting outfit with almost the whole team in the 12th grade. As soon as we started playing, it became pretty clear that LAS was an overwhelming opponent. Despite that, the scoreline remained 0:0 at the end of the first half, an achievement i can be proud of as i had many shots on my goal and managed to keep them all out.

The second half however quickly turned into a rout for them as they scored 3 fantastic goals, which apart from the 3rd I could do little about. Still, we managed to not let in more goals. The first match in a way was an abrupt wake up call for us as it showed us the quality of teams we would have to beat in order to achieve a good position. Also the team was still very unsynchronised in the way we played when going forward. One of the things we really suffered due to was the fact that one of our main defenders had not been able to travel to Saisa due to personal issues with the school.

On the second day we had two matches. One against the American School of Bombay (ASB) and against the Karachi American School (KAS). The match did not start well for us at all as ASB went ahead due to a deflected strike. They then scored another from a speculative strike from the edge of the box that curled into the top corner leaving me helpless. The whole team was already fearing the worst as we were already picturing a scenario in which we would finish 4th in the group and be knocked out. The second half of the that game however was monumental in changing our tournament. Firstly during the half time team talk we motivated ourselves to go and play with our full potentail. Secondly we changed our team strategy from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2. The result was immediate. Although we lost the game 2:1, we absolutely dominated the second half and were close to drawing level. The next game was a must win game for us and we came out roaring. I made a couple of good saves but it was mainly our collective spirit while attacking that resulted in a 3:1 victory for us and a place in the quarter final.

The Quarter final was a match against the International school of Chennai. Last year Chennai had knocked us out of contention for 5/6th place, and this year we had an oppurtunity for payback. The Chennai game i can proudly say was "my game". I managed to save a whole multitude of shots that kept the scoreline to 1:0 to us and later at 1:1. In the end it was our efforts upfront and the team spirit that helped us through and we won the quarter final 2:1. It was a great moment for us as we had managed to reach the top 4 from a position where we were almost knocked out.

 Unfortunately our Semi-final was against LAS, the eventual champions, again. However we vowed to give our 100% for the game. This match was my best match in Saisa. Due to LAS's amazing strikeforce, i had a whole barrage of shots directed at my goal, only 2 of those that i could do nothing about. Due to the performance, even the LAS coach came up to me to congratulate me on my performance. We lost 2:0 and went out, but we played like a true team. We were the only team in Saisa who managed to concede only 2 goals in 1 match against LAS, an achievement i am proud of!

LAS players in blue, bemoaning another save :)

Our final game of the tournament was the game for the 3/4th place. Unfortunately we could not keep our winning streak going and lost on penalties, after a scintillating comeback led by Bharat had leveled the score at 3:3. Despite saving one penalty and being the only one out of 2 people to score for our team, we went out. Everyone who usually scored in practice, missed. However they cannot be blamed, as in a penalty shootout, luck can go either way. The match was a true test for me in terms of showing my leadership as i managed to console some of our junior players who had missed their penalties and keep the team's head held high despite losing in such a heartbreaking way. For our sportsmanship we won 2nd prize overall in sportsmanship and even though we didn't win this year, it was a great lesson for me on what teams can achieve if they stick together and persevere.

For my performances at the tournament i won the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award for the second successive year =) Saisa has been a great learning experience for me and i will forever cherish the memories of the two tournaments i played in with my friends. 

Battle of the Bands

We finally managed to pull off what we had been planning since the beggining of the semester. The concert took place on the 26th of November, from 7pm - 10 pm. It is the biggest fundraiser that has taken place at the Overseas School this year. We managed to raise over 300,000 rupees collectively from different sponsorship deals and ticket sales. On the night I was responsible for the security team, which was made up of students in our community service group. We made sure that nobody entered the building without tickets or with any harmful objects or drugs e.t.c. We had to be very vigilant and alert throghout the whole evening and as a result, we had NO major disruptive incident despite having a crowd of around 300 people in the auditorium. Me and the other members were also constantly making sure that everything was in place and the performances were running smoothly.

 Overall the night was a success as the event unfolded as planned and was the product of our collective effort. The bands that performed were: Still Thinking, Killfeed, TY2D, Blood Brothers, and guest performances by Tantrum and Hollow. In the end a small prize was given to the best band of the night which was TY2D.

The event was a great success not only because we managed to raise so much money to help with the operation with a lot of children, but also because we as a community service group managed to achieve the goals we had set for ourselves which were: To work together to plan and execute a major event, interact with the community and finally contribute to helping others in a meaningful way.

Saisa Goals

This year we have one of the strongest teams in recent OSC history. Since it is my last year at OSC i have a great desire to lead my team to victory. I have recently had to take on a new role, that of a goalkeeper. I am improving as I go along but there are still many new things to learn such as diving in a 1 on 1 situation, getting my goal kicks on target and staying focused for the whole duration of the game. I have worked on my ball throwing skills and can throw the ball half way along the field. I have had 3 games as goalkeeper but have conceded a goal or more in each of those games. As captain of my team and as goalkeeper, my biggest aim is to not concede goals a lead my team to victory. The goals i have set for this Saisa tournament are:

• keep at least 1 clean sheet
• maintain a good level of team spirit within the team
• Help in on-field communication (be as vocal as i can)
• Help calm down matters on the field if they get out off hand
• Help motivate the rest of the team to perform well
• Finish in the top 4 > possibly reach the final > Bring home the trophy :)
• If the above for some in-explicate doesn't work, at least win the sportsmanship award

Next week we are off to Dhaka. I am greatly looking forward to the tournament as it will hopefully not only  prove to be a fantastic sporting occasion but also a great opportunity to have fun with friends.

November-December

The Battle of the Bands

Our concert date is now coming coming ever closer. We have decided on the best 6 bands that will come and perform at the concert. Our main job is now to do the advertising for this concert, as the more people that come, the more money we will collect to help with the operations of these kids. I volunteered to make the poster as it gave me a chance to merge creativity with service. Advertising makes all the difference and i set about making the most awesome poster we could make. Bharat found the perfect picture to keep as the background of the poster and i set about displaying the relevant information on it. Once we printed it out, it looked really nice, so hopefully many people will show up to help with our cause.

We also needed to design the tickets for both the entrance and the raffle. I have designed a sample for both which could possibly be printed.

Raffle Ticket

Concert ticket

Football

We played our first practice match of the SAISA season. We played the boys football team from CIS. Being our first match of the season we were still very unorganized and raw in terms of our teamwork and communication. We played out a 2:2 draw and won on penalties. I scored the second equalizing goal and scored in the penalty shootout. It was a good match for me as I managed to organize and lead the team from behind as we fought out an equalizer each time we conceded.

Scoring the 2:2

Scoring in the penalty shootout



Our final Saisa team is to be chosen soon. The principles of selection are commitement, team work and discipline. We have practices 4 times a week on Tuesday, Wednesday (6 am!), Friday and Saturday morning. During all these training, we as the seniors of the team try to maintain a spirit of teamwork and lead the new players who are going on saisa for the first time or are playing football at saisa level for the first time.

We have some bad news for the team. Due to the SAT's being on the same weekend as SAISA, 2 players including our only Goalkeeper cannot travel!! Since we have nobody who can play goalkeeper, i have decided to inherit the #1 jersey. It is a new skill for me and i hope that i will not let my team down. It also gives me a chance to organize and lead my team from the very back as i will now have a full overview of what is happening in the match.

We played a couple of matches this month including another game against CIS, Gateway, Royal Institute and Elizabeth Moir school. We beat royal Institute 4:1, Gateway 3:1, lost 3:2 to Elizabeth Moir and beat CIS on penalities after a 1:1 score during the game. I managed to keep decently in all the matches and even helped win the penalty shootout against CIS by making 2 saves. In the match against Elizabeth Moir i was especially able to show my leadership skills as it was a very rough game and tempers flew high which i managed to calm :)

October-November

Having finished my extended essay is a great relief for me as now I can concentrate on other things. The first weekend (7^th-9^th October) was the Saisa girls’ volleyball tournament. Obviously we brought the house down as we supported our team through loud vocal support; however I also helped in the organization of the event. The Friday of the 7^th was the Social. My friend Bharat and I helped set up the auditorium for the night. We had to arrange the table tennis tables and make sure that the sound system was working. We were also responsible for the music and the general supervision of the night’s proceedings.

Making sure the music kept flowing :)

On the match day’s I also helped by being the ball boy in different games.

U.N Day

U.N day means two things: 1) a chance to represent your country 2) food :) This U.N day the school held interactive activities with the students to discuss some of the common themes that come up during U.N discussions and resolutions. I was asked by Ms. Snyder to help supervise the students and demonstrate my leadership skills. During the discussions i took part in the debates regarding the question of child marriage. This was a good chance for me to interact with an issue of global importance knowing that i had to take into account the ethical implications of the standpoint i was taking. The session ran quite smoothly and i didn't need to assert myself at all. Afterwards i tried food from nearly every part of the globe: That is why we should all live together peacefully :)

Germany, France, Finland and Ethiopia

Community Service

As I mentioned earlier, my service group had been planning the charity fundraiser called “the battle of the bands”. The purpose of this event is to help fund the operations of those infants with the cleft lip and palate disease. I mentioned earlier that i had visited some of these children in hospital and really seeing their suffering first hand helped re-affirm my motivation to do something about this global issue. We planned our concert for the 26th of November and organized an audition for the 21st of October. Planning such an event requires great organization and commitment. We set about creating a Facebook page inviting bands to come, some of us contacted people we knew from other schools to come perform. There were also logistical issues such as the amount of tickets to be printed, the posters, the prize for the winners and the food etc. On the 21st of October 8 bands showed up from different local schools. We checked them for their quality and also had a chance to pick out some faults and issues that would arise for us on the concert dates in terms of logistics in the auditorium.

Football 

The new season had begun! A new team and a new motivation to finally become the first OSC football team to win the SAISA tournament. We are still figuring out the general shape and direction of where the team is headed in terms of our style of play but i hope to build on my skill and demonstrate my leadership skills as captain througout the season.

Warmup

15th September - 5th October

This month was by far the most hectic month in the diploma program. We had major tests and deadlines such as lab reports and essays. We also had the king of all essays due at the end of September: the Extended Essay. Despite this heavy schedule, i managed to squeeze in a few hours of CAS.

Football


I continued to take part in the football training that takes place on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Being the captain, its is important for my that i demonstrate leadership and set an example for the younger players.

Warming up

Stretching 

Few of us have now been playing together for more than a month and we have a few nice moments during each training, which is a good sign as Saisa draws closer. Saisa training, for the tournament that takes place in Dhaka in December, is set to begin next Monday, 10th September.I am really looking forward to playing competitive football soon. I have been working on my long distance shooting since a while, trying to improve my skill. Even though the shots skied against the shots on target ratio is still 8:1, I have started to hit the back of the net with some good shots and i am starting to find the right ratio between accuracy and power.

Refereeing


Like last year, Mr. Shipley requested me to referee a football match on Saturday. I therefore came in and refereed a match between the U-14 girls of OSC vs U-14 girls from the British school. This experience helps me in seeing the game of football from a different angle and is also fun as i am on the field and don't have to run around.

Community Service

We have a few busy months ahead of us in terms of Community Service. Our concert is planned for november with an audition planned on the UN day next friday. Last thursday we went to visit the hospital where the kids with the Cleft lip and Palate disease are kept. We were able to see first hand the children we are helping. As they lay in their cots, so small and helpless, i really empathized with them and feel really pleased i am trying to help them through this service program.

5th-15th September

These last 2 weeks have been action packed for me:I participated in the sports day, playing for the green house and also atteneded the football training that takes places on Tuesday's, Friday's and Saturday's.

Sports Day
Sports day gave everybody a chance to get some action. Teams of 6, 3 boys and 3 girls participated in games of football, volleyball, basketball and kickball. There was also a swim event at the end. I partcicpated in football, volleyball and kickball. In football our team won 2 of their 3 matches. I scored 2 goals in the game against the yellow house, scoring with my left foot and right foot.

 In volleyball i helped get the volleyball over the net to the best of my ability :)

In kickball i could not contribute much because my right toe was stubbed, so i had to use my left foot instead.

Football Practice
We continued our practice. It was really rainy on all the days, but we still played, getting wet from top to bottom. The previous week was more about having fun and we really enjoyed it.

Community service
I intended the first group meeting. We discussed our main aim for this year. Our group is going to hold a battle of the bands, in which 2 bands from different schools will come and perform at our school to determine the best band. We plan to raise enough money through sponsors and ticket sales to help in the operation of kids suffering from the cleft lip and palette disease. We discussed our plan to organize this event. There is advertisement, organization and collaboration that have to be dealt with. During the concert i will be responsible for the supervision of the auditorium. We have also planned visists to the hospitals where we will meet the infants with the disease. It will help us get closer to our cause and experience first hand, the effects of this disease.

23rd August - 05 September

     The start of the school year has been hectic, with many assignments due. Service officially started last week, however i was unable to attend because i was down with a bad fever. However i managed to rebound from that by Saturday and was able to play in a "friendly" match of football against our favorite opposition Colombo International School. We won 4:1 with our exclusive "Robben", Bharat, scoring a hat-trick! It was a good games in-terms of trying out new things as we had an experimental lineup. It allowed us, the senior members of the team to display our Leadership skills. It was also good action.

     As mentioned before i started working on my guitar skills. So far i have been self-teaching myself using a simple book i received as a gift. I practiced simple strumming and finger positioning for 5 hours yesterday. My fingers are hurting all over and my progress in-terms of skill was very slow, however i am confident that if i continue i will soon be able to play a little better. Next i will start learning the very basic major chords.

     I also got the opportunity to take some more photos of different flowers i could find around me in order to keep up my creative quest. I made a simple collage out of them. I also managed to spot an interesting type of  fruit, i have no idea what it is but it sure looks interesting!

After-school activities

I have joined the after school activity of football. We play on Tuesday's, Friday's and Saturday's. We are still very rusty from our Summer break, but all of us have realized; to do well at Saisa we will need to get into shape from now. In the first few training's, people ranging from 8-12 have showed up. Since these aren't many, we usually end up playing with the lower grades. However this helps develop our game as we learn to collaborate with other's and develop the finer aspects of our game as we can't use our physicality against little kids. As mentioned in my aims, i m am looking to create a create a great team spirit in our team, so that when we play other's our communication will be telepathic!
I will update with a few pictures soon.  

Aims for the Final Year

It's finally arrived!! i am a senior!! This year is going to be be a tough one in-terms of studies. I have however set myself specific CAS goals to accomplish as well.

I felt that i managed to fulfill the goals i had set for 11 grade: http://karlgcas.blogspot.com/2010/09/aims-and-objectives-2010.html. This year however i aim to elaborate on some of those and work on those areas i didn't cover as well as i would have like to.

 I am going to try to involve myself more with Service as it was one of my weak links last year. I am continuing with Cleft lip and Palate, this year we aim to concentrate a bit more on working with the community and interacting more with the kids. I will also try and work with DAWG on the side. I think stray dogs are a big problem in Sri Lanka. Their welfare and sterilization is helpful to both the community and the dogs themselves. I am therefore looking forward to contributing to the cause.

I am also looking to continue my leadership role with the football team as the captain. This year i aim to work on those skills and hopefully help my team achieve more this year; in this i also aim to collaborate with the others to create a greater team spirit . Last year was a dissapointment for us in terms of Saisa Football. This year we have high hopes for the team and we will hopefully win a lot !!!

In terms of action i also aim to participate in other sports activities. I am going to try and participate in the Saisa Basketball season. It is a totally new skill for me and i aim to work on it a bit. My aim is to at least practice, even though i may be no good.

Last year i managed to fulfill my creative goals. This year however i have set the bar a bit higher. I gave up early on Guitar last year. This year my guitar has been brought back out of the attic for a renewed attempt. I aim to at least be able to play the guitar fluently without sounding like an absolute begginner. I am looking forward to this new challenge.As mentioned before, i also aim to continue my creative drawing. This year i will also continue with a hobby i began during my summer breaks, capturing different types of flowers in Colombo. I will also expand this to: capturing any interesting moment.

Finally the most important thing: Have fun and try to enjoy my final year ( if that is even possible)!!
I aim to persevere in all the activities i undertake namely football, Service, art, guitar and Photography.

The 8 learning outcomes which i will aim to follow are listed below.

• Undertaken new challenges: A new challenge may be an unfamiliar activity, or an extension to an existing one. 
• Planned and initiated activities: Planning and initiation will often be in collaboration with others. It can be shown in activities that are part of larger projects, for example, ongoing school activities in the local community, as well as in small student-led activities. 
• Worked collaboratively with others: Collaboration can be shown in many different activities, such as team sports, playing music in a band, or helping in a kindergarten. At least one project involving collaboration and the integration of at least two of creativity, action and service, is required. 
• Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities: At a minimum, this implies attending regularly and accepting a share of the responsibility for dealing with problems that arise in the course of activities. 
• Engaged with issues of global importance: Students may be involved in international projects but there are many global issues that can be acted upon locally or nationally (for example, environmental concerns, caring for the elderly). 
• Considered the ethical implications of their actions: Ethical decisions arise in almost any CAS activity (for example, on the sports field, in musical composition, in relationships with others involved in service activities). Evidence of thinking about ethical issues can be shown in various ways, including journal entries and conversations with CAS advisers. 
• Develop new skills: As with new challenges, new skills may be shown in activities that the student has not previously undertaken, or in increased expertise in an established area.

Summer 2011

The summer was a quiet time for me in terms of CAS. I did not have any opportunity to get involved in service and since my leg was still recovering from the injury i had sustained earlier in March, i was still unable to fully commit to action.

 I did however join a fitness center and start training my leg to ease it back into action. I went to this fitness center for a whole month.

 It helped me a lot because not only was the training different from the usual, "pick up the weights and build your muscles type", the instructor was also very knowledgeable. Along with the training i learnt many aspects of how the body functions and which muscles are responsible for certain actions.

I also tried to do some work on creativity. Photography is a new skill to me. While i was in Pakistan, i went for a lot of hiking. The beautiful scenery inspired me to take many pictures.

Some of them can be viewed here: ttps://picasaweb.google.com/116545303236107333219/Pakistan?authkey=Gv1sRgCOi_layMnozjOA

I did however set myself one specific goal while taking these pictures. I aimed to take photos of every different type of flower i could find. 

Of the many different places i hiked, these were some of the flowers i photographed, i have put them together in a collage

I aim to continue this for all types of different flowers i see in Colombo.

March - May

Due to my injury playing football I was unable to participate in any activity concerning action. I did regularly attend the CAS program I was involved with, but apart from that April went by without having anything significant to blog about.I am now on the road to full recovery and hopefully i will be participating in more activities.

Looking back at this year however i feel i have fully achieved my objectives.

• I have undertaken new challenges 
• Worked in a team, as a leader and collaborator
• Been creative
• developed new skills (this one could use some work)
• Played a lot of football!
• HAD FUN !!! (as much as the IB allows you)

Action

12th of March 2011Fun Fair 

Our grade set up the soccer goalie stall. The objective was to score at least 2 goals against a goalkeeper standing between the posts. I volunteered to keep goal for the first hour. In fact I had so much fun I ended up standing between the sticks for 2 ½ hours. The money we raised from the stall went to helping victims of the earthquake in Japan. I felt proud of indirectly helping 

quake victims by playing Goalkeeper.

British School Tournament

In February I heard of an upcoming football tournament at the British School of Colombo. I asked our Sports co-coordinator Mr. Shipley if we could participate. Initially we were not allowed to participate because many of our players were in the track and field team which would be leaving for Delhi in the coming month. However after continuous pestering he finally entered our name for the tournament. I felt proud because I had initiated our participation in an out-of school event.  I was the captain of the team and was looking to improve my leadership skills. We did not have our full team but we managed to get a few extra players who were playing football for the first time. We did surprisingly well in the tournament. We drew our first match 0:0. We convincingly won our next match 3:0 in which I scored. We then won our next match by a fantastic 5:0 score line. However sadly for me, half time spelt the end of the tournament and football for the next 5 months for me because I tore a quad muscle after a heavy collision with another player. We lost our next 2 matches but we were pretty pleased with our performance. It wasn’t my happiest time since I was now on crutches but at least I got a brief chance to work and improve my football skills.

Community Service:

I joined the community service program called “The Cleft lip and palette” group. The group helps raise money for children with the cleft lip disease. Cleft palate is a condition in which the two plates of the skull that form the roof of the mouth are not completely joined. This causes serious discomfort not only because of the condition but also due to difficulties in speech. I heard about the group from my friend who is also in it. I was deeply moved by the extent of damage this disease causes. When I heard that I can actually help in curing some children with this disease I joined the service. Children with the disease have to be operated within the first 2-3 months for maximum effect. Of course they can be treated at an older age but the process just becomes harder. Each operation here in Sri Lanka costs Rs. 15,000.

The objective for our service for this semester was to organize a party to raise money for the operations. We chose a venue, which was to be the Taj Samudra hotel. We then had to make advertisement posters. I was responsible for designing the posters which we then hung around the place. We also arranged a DJ. The theme of our party was to be Hawaiian. At the night of the party we were present at the venue with different tasks. My task was to sell the tickets at the door and make sure everyone donated for our cause. The party was a good idea as a reasonable amount of people showed up, however due to events out of our control the turnout was very low. Firstly the weekend we chose for our party happened to be a weekend where many students were studying for different upcoming exams. We also had an extended holiday weekend which meant that many families’ also left the city.

Since the semester is coming to an end and due logistical difficulties we were unable to book a bus to go visit a hospital where we could meet up with treated patients. However we have chalked out a plan for next semester where we will have regular visits to patients and various activities such as bake sales and charity dinners to raise money for operations. The Service program has helped me in fulfilling one of my aims of this year which was to Interact and help the community. Also I had to be creative to create the advertisement posters. It also happened to be the first time I had designed posters for a party.

February

SAISA SOCCER DHAKA

the time finally arrived for the season we had all been looking forward to. i had set my aims for this season as follows: i wanted to collaborate with others so we could win something as a team, improve on my current skills and have fun in something that is my passion. i was chosen as the captain of my team. as a team we made sure that the morale and comaradry in the team was high and that we all constantly supported each other, i made sure that we were constantly helping one another out. the flight for dhaka left on an early wednesday morning. our team was down to 12 men as some players were not allowed to travel. however we had high belief this year that we could achieve a high position.
we arrived in dhaka as the underdogs. on the first day of SAISA we showed the teams what we were capable of. we won both our matches against bombay and muree christian school. i scored 1 goal in the game. Throughout this tournament i screamed my lungs out motivating players on the pitch and keeping the communication lines between players. no wonder that by the end of the first day i had an extremely sore throat.

we started the 2nd day top of our group. we were to play the team that was hot favourites for the tournament AES. we took the lead 2 minutes in the game when i scored from a free kick. however the equalized soon after. after the halftime break we were hit by tragedy. Rasmus got knocked out and had to be taken to the hospital with a neck injury. We were down to 11, hence no substitutes. After 2 hours of wait the match continued and we really took the game to AES. It ended 1:1, but we almost beat them.

 Unfortunately luck was not to be with us. The fatigue was taking its toll on us, only 1 hour later we played the home team dhaka in an all or nothing match, the winner would go through, the loser could end up 8th. and we almost made it, upto 6 minutes till the end we led by 3:2, but the home support and use of substitutes just gave them the extra energy to defeat us. We were virtually knocked out now. The fatigue of 2 days of football without rest had its toll on us as we lost both matches on the next day. However we all did ourselves proud by performing at the highest level possible to us. We can only imagine what would have been with a full squad but personally i feel i have achieved my goals of collaboration and personal excellency.

Play

i am playing the main male character in Saba's play Confusions. we have been practicing lines on random days and we will be performing at the end of the month. this has really gives me the oppurtunity to take part in something i really enjoy doing and is creative.

Badminton

i have also been chosen to represent my school in the badminton tournament that will take place in March. we have started training Tuesday's, Friday's and Saturday's. i feel really proud at having made the team since it is a sport i am relatively new in. i am also proud because i perceviered and continued to practice to bring myslef upto the level that i could play for the school team.

January 2011

Acting
I took up the lead male role in a short play that was performed afterschool. It was Saba's IP for her drama class. We practiced for 2 weeks and on the Thursday of the 24th we performed on stage. We had a relatively big crowd that came too watch. The play was a success even though some of the others forgot their lines due to which there was a long akward pause!!! But we had fun and i enjoyed doing something creative and new. some pictures to follow....

Saisa boys football 
the year has started slowly in terms of CAS. my only real involvement this month is Saisa boys soccer. We have a really short season this year therefore we have to work our socks off. we train every tuesday, wednesday, friday and saturday. unfortunately due to bad luck, forgetfulness and the general enthusiasm about football more than the pictures, hardly any evidence is present of us TRAINING !!!
and we had a pretty rigorous course as well, Mr. Shipley and Mr Campbell made us sprint, pass, shoot jog, anything they could have possibly done to get fit. we played 4 matches against Colombo international school all of which we won by margins greater than 5 goals apart from one.
i was meanwhile nominated as team captain. It was a great honor for me and i was proud to be representing my school at an international event. This season has really helped me in developing skills i already have and pursuing one of the things that is really my passion.

WWW
this was my last week without walls at OSC.our class went to hambantoa, a city located in the south of Sri Lanka. we stayed at the peacock beach hotel. We were basically divided into 2 groups both which would visit two different schools. My school was an hours drive away from the hotel. The aims i had set myself for this WWW were:

• to take part in helping the community
• interacting closely with local children
• integrating better with my own friends
• having fun
• doing something new

I was also getting invloved in an issue of global importance since we were helping schools affected by the tsunami of 2005. The first day we were warmly greeted by the children and teachers of the school. they showed us their appreciation by giving us flowers and singing traditional songs with us. we then played a game of musical chairs with them, which apart from one (who eventually won!) noone really understood. Then we got straight down to work. we had split down into even smaller groups and my group was working on painting the equipment outside. We first scraped off the old paint so we could coat them with layers of new paint. Then we started painting with different color combinations of blue, green, red and yellow. The slick paint didn't just leave a mark on the swings, some off us even got it onto our hands and clothes, in my case hair ! for 4-5 hours we worked tirelessly and by the end of the day when we looked at the swings we could see our hard works labor had payed off. the swings were glistening with coatings off paint we had applied, only finishing touches which we would apply the next day were missing. The tiring days work probably attributed to everyone falling asleep on the way back to the hotel!

The next day we woke up again early in the morning to go to the same schools. Today we were going to apply the finishing touches to the school and also we had planned a small performance for them I had written the script for this "ultra cliched" play in which a young prince rescues a a beautiful princess from a bunch of danger men. we had translated the play in Sinhalese so that the little kids would understand. same as the previous day, we worked our socks off and had the outside playground finished within an hour, apparently noone had finished painting a school as fast as our grade did this year.

 I also worked on the main walls of the school building for a bit. Then it was time for the concert.

Our play was much appreciated by the little kids although i doubt they really paid attention ! the kids also performed for us and then our group was invited for tea by a local monk who had been really kind and helpful the past 2 days. Afterwards we received the monks blessing. I felt really happy that i had accomplished my goals. I had interacted with the kids and really worked to improve the environment in which they were to study. 

Back at the hotel we went for a jog on the beach. I was sweating by the end of this strenuous workout. That evening our class held its own little concert in which some kids performed on the guitar. Even i had set myself a goal of doing something new and i took guitar lessons from bharat. i had done a bit of guitar before at school but bharat taught me how to play the opening tune of a specific song i wished to play. 

Next morning we set off to the Yala national park 4 oclock in the morning !!! we watched out for animals throughout the day in the scorching sun, appreciating the wildlife and nature at its purest!!

we saw a leapord, elephants, jackals, various birds, bulls, deer and peackocks. it was great. i feel i have accomplished my goals for the trip, i had fun while helping others, getting invloved with the nature and enjoying with friends.