End of Year Reflection

As the school year comes to an end, I have successfully accomplished three main goals of the 8 criteria. Being in charge of Sunflower Village as the student body, has enabled me to develop and proceed with showing perseverance and commitment towards the activity, enabled me to work collaboratively with others and develop new skills.

When we started the program for the first time, I was inexperienced and somewhat nervous of what to do. The first day when the kids arrived from the school, I was confused of what to do. I was in charge of a team of 5 people from OSC, and had to train 12 kids how to swim, which some of them hadn’t even been in a pool before. It was somewhat a difficult task to get them all in the pool as some of them were afraid even with our help. It was also not the case where I sit outside the pool and boss my team around, but instead this is where working collaboratively came into play. It meant that I myself was in the pool, partaking like any other member of the group. No ranks, no bossing around, no disputes but to simply make things flow the way it was supposed. And that involved collaboration from all my team members. Most of my group from OSC could speak Sinhalese, which made it easy for me to work systematically to get the kids in the pool and kicking. This also enabled me to understand which person from our school was able to handle certain kids better. Thus made the operation inside the pool mush better.

Throughout the service, I kept a consistent reputation of being committed to my duty. Other than days which I was physically ill, I attended all the lessons on every Thursday afternoon. Amongst this there were times where we fell short of members in our team. Either they were absent to school or the service itself. This demanded me to manage a group 12 kids with almost half the number of OSC students. Nevertheless, we managed with the assistance of the swimming instructors. This again shows reflects my collaborative skills takes into account dealing with problems which appear through the course of the year.

Speaking in terms of new skills which I learnt during service, there is one in particular. And that is, the ability to lead a service program first hand with no previous experience. I found this much of a strength which I had within me, that I was not quite sure I had. It is somewhat a big deal for me being the leader of the activity where I once was the one in the pool taking instructions from others.

Overall, I honestly must admit that this year was a success for myself, my team, and the kids themselves. And that is purely because of the fact that we had kids who didn't even know how blow bubbles underwater and at the end of the year, they were swimming full lengths of the OSC pool from what we had taught them across the deep end. Their eagerness to learn instead of play during the time which we provide them as "free time" is another reason for us to feel as a successful program! 

The Opening of Key Club at OSC

Key Club International

Today the 24th of February 2011, the official opening ceremony of Sri Lanka's first key club took place at OSC in the secondary SMPR. The anointing of the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and board of directors was amongst the highlights of the evening.

• President: Damien Martin
• Vice President: Harini Liyanage
• Secretary: Annie Gillstedt 
• Treasurer: Terunaga Tamura

The Key Club is a part of the "Kiwanis Club International". Key Club is the high school  leadership program initiated for students. Its purpose is to provide service, build character and develop leadership skills in students.

Week Without Walls 2011

The last and final week without walls for all the years in OSC takes place today the 24^th January 2011. A six hour drive down to Hambantota from school starting at around 7:50 to arrive at the hotel at 3ish. The remainder of the afternoon was spent on recreational activities. 6:00 was rendezvous at the lobby to discuss the coming day where we set off officially for service on the two preschools. At this point we were to come up with personal goals in which we are supposed to constantly keep referring to and acting upon. Working collaboratively with all my peers at the schools and in the whole trip was one of my majors. It may seem simple and easy to judge, but however it is rather challenging goal one can set them self with. You always tend to lean to your friends which you regularly communicate and interact with. But once you do actually set foot on the tasks that are assigned to you, the idea of not working with a friend seems to disappear and the mind set of getting the task completed shifts into the primary. This is one of the reasons why our grade as a whole was able to accomplish more than what we expected to and more.

As a whole this week without walls program was not the worst, nor the best “perfect”. It had its ups and downs, good times and not so good times. In terms of personal goals, they were met to a certain extent and in some cases fully. Although we did the best possible for the schools in the time which was provided to us, I still think that there is room for improvement. Improvement in the sense not from what we do at the schools, but what we take with us. The purpose of the pilot trip was to estimate the requirements and needs for the schools and at the same time, give us an idea of what we are going to be faced with. All the necessary information was noted down and addressed upon at the time, but however none of the materials which the schools requested was provided to them. For example one of the requests was a new whiteboard for the classroom because the prevailing one was in bad condition. It was agreed upon that it is possible to provide a new one but however a whiteboard wasn’t amongst the list of material we took along. I think that it was a waste of time of the pilot trip if these materials were not addressed or given to the schools as the main purpose was to organize such order. It would be best if all that is done on the pilot trip is taken into account and used wisely to plan ahead rather than showing up to the schools with nothing that they requested for.

SAISA Baskeball

October 4th, the 2010 Saisa Basketball commenced. After a long time, almost about a 8 months since the last saisa, i really was out of shape. Yes there were times when i played during lunch times, but thats was not enough to keep up with the intense practice. We started with some typical streches and cardio workout. It was not until the last part of practice when we had to run suicides up and down the court did it really started to hammer me down. 3-4 sets of suicides with only about 30 second breaks, It was Intense! Since the start of the basketball season I can personally say that I have improved my skills and fitness. Each day we learn a new plays and setups. Basically each practice is something new. Coach is pretty serious about people who miss practice for that perticuar reason. As of for me, up to now i have not missed a single practice and have been commited throughout the season. As a result, I sucessivly made the team this year.

The Sunflower Project

This Thursday, a local school just outside OSC showed up at the pool for swimming lessons. We couldn't just randomly get in the pool and teach kids we didnt even know their name. So we assembled in Mr. Simms's room for a while to get to know them. We introduced ourselves and got to know know them a little. We asked them to write down their names on a piece of paper so we could remember each of their names.


After that we divided the group of kids into two groups; the ones who have some background in swimming and have previously been to OSC from last years lot. And the other group consisted of the kids who have no idea how to swim. Because we divided the groups into two, we were able to organize what we do. Teru, Yariq, and I were in charge of the kids who couldnt swim with Mr.Stanley giving us instructions on how to get a start.


In some cases, there were kids who have never got in a pool before and this made some of them scared to get in. Seeing the fear of each kid gettting in the pool for the first time, told us that it was going to be a lot of work. And we were right about it.


As of for the programe, it consists of the first half hour or so, us giving them swimming lessons. Then the remaining time we give them freetime. During this time we play water polo as a whole so kids don't end up on their own. This enables us to communicate and interact with the kids better than when were are teaching them. Out of the group there are some prefer to keep working on their swimming skills although it's free time and they are free to do so because it makes it better for us and them.


Untill now, we are able to see visible progress of the kids as they learn new skills every Thursday. About half the porportion  of the kids who couldnt swim previously, are now at least swimming 5 meters. This may not seem as much of a distance but for a kid who was afraid of getting in the water at first, it is a significant progress.