WEEK WITHOUT WALLS!

Last week we went on WWW to Hambantota. This was a great opportunity for us to get some CAS done.

What we did:

Day 1:
Travel day. Once we reached the hotel we had lunch and afterwards left to go and see the 2 schools we would be doing service work at for the next 2 days. As we were introduced to the schools a day before starting work, we were able to get a better understanding on what exactly we were to do the next couple of days. I found it very good that we did the visit as this made the next day easier to get settled and start working asap. The school was small and showed levels of poverty as there was no proper equipment or technology available. We had time in the evening to set some goals for our selves for the next few days of service work. These were my goals:

• Interact with the local community and get a better understanding on local rural life style and ways.
• Work collaboratively with others to produce a good final product that we could be proud of.
• Represent our school, behave well and show respect to others.
• Stay commited
• Find out how the tsunami has affected the school community (survey=language barrier)

Day 2:
First day of service work at the local school. Once we arrived the children welcomed us with flowers. We spent an hour playing games and getting to know the children and their mothers before starting actual work. I personally really enjoyed this as this was the first time ever for me to actually interact with the local rural community. It was difficult as language acted as a barrier for me to communicate with the locals. We begun working on our set tasks right away after spending a little time with the school community. I begun by drawing out the outlines on the wall from where we could start painting from properly. Together as the mural team we set a goal for the first day which was to finish the two biggest parts of the mural, the tree and the elephant. We were able to reach our goal and even work further on from it which was great, this helped us the next day too as it meant that we would have more time to finish everything else. I enjoyed this day as we worked really well as a team and as painting turned out to be more fun that I expected. I enjoyed the fact that we could be creative while painting as we could come up with new ideas as we went on. We were also able to do some problem solving as we faced problems along the day :D In the evening we again got some time to set goals for the next day of service:

• Tomorrow should be more organized
• Clean up better and try not be as messy
• Spend more time with the children
• Work hard so that we will be able to finish everything on time



Playing with the children of the school on the first day




First day at service

 Day 3: In the morning we yet again had time to play and interact with the children of the school. I was unable to attend this as I had to go paints that had run out the previous day. We begun working on the mural and were able to finish it on time. We were also able to paint the whole wall (above the school sing) which was a great acchievement for our mural team. We were a lot more organized today than the previous day and it helped us to get things done faster, especially cleaning up. Our whole mural teamwas very happy with the outcome.
What we learnt during these two days of service:

• time management
• interacting with small local children. Overcoming the language barrier
• working well in a group as efficiently as possible
• plan well and stay organized
• developed new skills



Before and after



End of Community basketball!! December 10th 2011

We had our last saturday community basketball held the weekend before we went to christmas break. We had organized the tournament to be held that day and that turned out to be a success. This tournament brought people together as athletes played with new people each saturday.  We also were able to make profit which we will use to get the sports equipment with soon.

Tähdets!

Now as the community basketball has come to an end we have really noticed how people enjoyed this CAS and what it offered to the community. Many people have been asking us when does basketball start again and that they cant wait till it does. This proves that this CAS has been a success.

The winning team

Being a part of this CAS has allowed me to improve my skills of working together as a team to pull everything together and make each session a success. As a CAS leader I have developed my overall skills as I have been required to be in charge making sure everything is working right as well as to have control. It has proved to me that I am able to make commitments and be a reliable leader and a team member.