Friday, February 26, 2010

Library Service

Everyone worked hard in Library Service today. We finished organizing the DVDs last week, so today's mission was to organize the books from the beggining of the fiction section. We were able to finish 5 bookshelves. I found it easy to work today, because not many people touches those first frive bookshelves... few girls are still finding it difficult to organize the books and still figuring out their easier way to organize them. They couldn't finish it on time, therefore everyone helped them out to finish the work.
One of our member didn't come again. Hopefully he can come from next week.



Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Yoga!

Yoga! I needed to do some exercise, so I desided to start doing Yoga for after school activity on Tuesday, and today was my first day! There were only primary kids doing it, and my friend and I were kind of "err... is this the right place?" I found out that there were 6 primary kids doing Yoga, since quite a long time ago. The trainer was from outside of the school, and he had an assistant. He was friendly and I felt quite comfortable.
Since this was my first day, I didn't know what kind of clothing I have to have for Yoga. I was wearing jeans and a shirt, and he said it's not appropriate for it, therefore I have to bring some comfortable clothes for next Tuesday.
We spent 30 minutes warming up with music, and spent another 20 minutes doing Yoga. But the time was spent mostly for the primary kids today, because they were practicing a performance for their assembly on Wednesday... So we had to watch them doing it. I hope from next time, I can join them and do the proper Yoga.
It was difficult, of course. I didn't know that I had to bend my body so much! And I realized how tight my body was... ugh! I noticed I used to do some of the Yoga movement when I was small, but when I did it today... I couldn't do it. It was impossible. I couldn't believe how soft those kids' bodies were! Oh, my, lord... I actually saw myself in them... because I used to do those...
I'm looking forward for the next class, because I personally enjoyed it and had fun, even though it was tough and... just don't forget to bring water, towel and appropriate out-fit.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Week Without Wall 2010 to Hambantota

9th February 2010

We have arrived to the school in the morning. It took about 30 ~ 40 minutes from the hotel. Children gave us a warm welcome with a flower on their hands. Mr. De Silva and Christina helped us with translation. I have no idea why I couldn't use my Sinhala, after spending my Saturdays learning Sinhala with my tutor... (tears)
Before we started off, we had a bit of interaction with them, by playing duck-duck-goose and a relay for about 20 minutes.
We started painting the walls, both inside and outside, also the playing ground for 2.30 hours until the lunch has come to us. We were told how to get started by the school staff before we came, so we were ready for it.
We had lunch from 12.30 to 13.00, and started working again and we finished at 3.10. p.m. We spent 5 hours 20 minutes of service today. While we were resting, mothers of the children brought us king coconuts. I didn't have it since I had my water with me.
Some of us had difficulties with painting... I don't understand why, but I just kept on painting, painting, and painting and painting... It was actually fun, and I didn't get tired of it.





Week Without Wall 2010 to Hambantota

8th February, 2010

Our last WWW in the school year. We have come to Hambantota, at the bottom of Sri Lanka, an extremely dry zone. During this trip, we are going to be visiting a local school, which OSC is sponsoring after the tsunami in 2003. But for today, we were just travelling to the hotel, taking almost half of the day to get there... On the way, we have visited a national park, where we have seen hundreds of elephants, and few peakocks and other national animals.

In the night after the meal, we had a meeting with the group to discuss plans for the next day in the school. We were divided into two groups, and we'll be painting two different schools by using three days, starting from tomorrow.



Thursday, February 18, 2010

Library Service

First Service day of Second Semester! At first, I was the only one who was working... 12th graders are not going to come anymore, due to their exam days are coming up soon. Ananthu was supposed to come today, but he didn't show up... Later, two girl from grade 8 and 9 came to join the CS (Community Service). Great! I have some help!
Our task for today was to organize the DVDs on the shelf, in numbers and alphabetical order. This sounds easy, but it takes a lot of time to finish it... but I'm glad that we were able to finish it on time. I'm looking for the work next week.


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Elective

The elective day! I've been waiting for it since the last elective!
We did the papers again, to make the same box as we did for the last time, because I thought it's not fair for those girls who were not there to make the boxes...
Anyway, so we did it, but unfortunately we couldn't make the rid... we only made the box itself... It was going extremely slow, and I cannot believe we used one hour to just make the box, and not the rid!? It's really sad, though we'll have to move on to the next topic, therefore we are making the bracellets with the beads.


I think I should teach them faster, because when we wait for everyone to finish making one part, it obviously takes time for everyone to finish making one thing. Also, I should probably arrange the seats for them. If we put slow worker in between fast workers, then they can help each other to make the elective move smoothly. Anyway, that's what I thought from today's elective. Everyone seemed to be not enjoying it... ugh, what should I do!?
So, the goals for the next elective are;




  • Finish making beads within the given time


  • Make them help themselves, instead of always asking me


  • Make the elective fun and move smoothly.


Hopefully it will work for the next elective!

Singhala Lesson

Singhala Lesson, just day after we came back from the WWW!? Killed me...
Today, I finished the second year's book, and have started on the third year's book. I think I'm doing quite well, and I've achieved another goal of this year! Great! The third year's book is quite hard, and I can tell that I'm moving in to something harder and harder... I have to keep up with my work, that's the only thing I can do right now.
I noticed my speed of both writing and reading has been increased, and I'm more comfortable with writing. I'm really glad. Let's aim to finish the third year's book before May exam.



This is the picture of the second year's Singhala Book I finished learning today.











This is the picture of the third year's Singhala Book I started today.