Action/Service: Another build (:

On the 26th of March, Ms. Wolf, Esfar, James and I left on a Habitat For Humanity build. Esfar and I had gone on builds before but this was James' first time. The site we went to was a new one that none of us had ever been to before, it could be seen though that other people from Habitat For Humanity had already been to this site and had helped contruct houses. After a bit of delay getting to the site due to some confusion regarding the sites location and because of bad weather, we arrived and got straight to work.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that 4 girls from the Asian International School were already there helping out and that we would be working with them on constructing one of the houses faster and more efficiently. Similar to last time I went on a build, we put together the various components that make up cement and then formed chains of people to pass the containers filled with cement. At the end of the line was the mason who laid down the cement and smoothed it out to make the floor. We worked hard doing this over and over again until we were called for lunch (prepared by local women, we each gave 300rp for the lunch).

After lunch, we had a small ceremony of thanks with some of the locals and then left back to Colombo, happy with the work we had accomplished and eager to jump into the shower ASAP!

àIn addition, on the 30th of April we went on another build and essentially did the same work as the previous build I described above. The weather was nice so we were able to work for several hours straight completing an entire floor of a house.

Action: Food and Fun Fair

On the 12th of March we had our annual Food and Fun Fair at OSC and grade 11 chose to do a soccer shootout. Compared to last years coconut bowling, this was a simpler activity to pull off. Beforehand we planned and initiated this activity by having our grade take a vote as to what activity they wanted to do and then we made a schedule so people could sign up for a 20 minute period in the day and work at the 11th grade stand. When the day came though, we soon found out that no one was really following the schedule. This lead to Sascha, Camille, Mo and I and a few others spending most of the day at the stand. In the end though we raised lots of money and as a grade decided to send it to Japan flood relief.

Creativity: The Oscars

This year at the Oscars, an event at OSC designed to resemble the real Oscars but without the movie aspect, and with nominations consisting of things like ‘best dressed’ and ‘best laugh’, I performed a song, ‘Hey Soul Sister’, with Camille and Bharat. I increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth because even though I already knew I could sing and perform in front of an audience without getting extreme stage fright, it was an opportunity to remind myself of my strengths in this area and to showcase them. In terms of growth, I will continue to work at home on improving my guitar skills so that maybe one day I can both play the guitar and sing onstage.

I also worked collaboratively with others in that Camille, Bharat and I organised and scheduled rehearsals and then followed through with them and also did two sound checks before the night of the performance so that there would be no technical issues. In the end our collaboration was the main reason our performance went on without a hitch.