Versus Cancer

This video was created by Upandha Udalagama for the concert. This is what we opened the show with so the audience had a clear idea of our cause and what we were doing at the Cancer Hospital as a group.

And the day was saved byyy…. Facebook!

Murphy’s Law - Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Ms. Shameela had a brilliant idea to get pictures of the kids and blow them and display them in the foyer of the auditorium on the night of the concert. Since we needed really good quality photos I contacted my friend’s sister, Natalie Soysa, who is a professional photographer. She agreed to do it for free but we had to organize transport for her. So I told Ms. Shameela to organize a school van to go pick her up on Thursday since the group was planning to go to the hospital on Thursday, our first visit to the hospital this semester.

Since during these few months of organizing I’ve learnt to double check and that things  WILL go wrong at the last minute I went and checked with Ms. Shameela during lunch…. and found that she hadn’t organized anything! We both went to see Ms. Tanuja… and found out she hadn’t booked a van for Hope for Kids to go to the hospital! Ms. Shameela quickly ran around and sorted out the transport after a lot of begging and sweet talk.

Meanwhile I had to get in touch with Natalie to inform her of the time the van would be there to pick her up… and my phone died on me! And when I put my sim in Malindie’s phone I found I hadn’t saved Natalie’s number on the sim card’s memory. So I tried Facebook for Natalie’s number and then sent her a message hoping to god she’ll be on Facebook….

Malindie was busy Googling her and going through her Flicker, Twitter and Facebook for the number. She even tried online telephone directories! And I was next to her texting people hoping they’d know some way I could get in touch with her and calling all sorts of people to ask if they knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who might know Natalie’s number….

And then she replied on Facebook!

So after a few complications we all got to the hospital… to find the playroom padlocked and no one had the key! So we got some kids to come down and we played with them in the garden. We learnt that the playroom had been shut for three months now since the teacher we employed had a baby and she hasn’t been coming. It’s really not fair to expect her to come but we have to find a new teacher soon. They playroom can’t be shut up depriving the kids of some place to play.

Natalie was taking pictures of the kids… and some attendant starts yelling and making a scene that we can’t take pictures! I tried explaining to him that we had the director Dr. Kanisha’s permission but he kept insisting for a form. So I got Ms. Shameela on the phone and he calmed down. Finally.

But we had a nice time with the kids and I’m sure we got some lovely pictures. When we went up to the ward me and Thishakya saw a child not even a year old and we both felt so sick. A child that young having cancer! I held a little girl who had leukemia and I felt so sorry for her and the mother. The girl had the most beautiful eyes.

Really, we have no right to complain about life. 

Poster Pasting

We got the posters and tickets today! Along with Ms. Tanuja, the girls in the committee and some boys from other schools who were performing we went around Colombo putting up posters. I had spoken to Ms. Shameela and organized a van for us and I also prepared a list of places grouped by the areas they were in. First, we went to Water’s Edge and gave them a few posters along with a ticket book. We then continued on to Colombo. Ms Tanuja dropped us at Odel and went to CR&FC to ask if we could sell tickets at Jazz on Sunday. Jazz is quite a popular event at the CR&FC grounds to which all the young people flock to. This would an excellent opportunity for us to spread the word. While she was doing that I split us up into 3 groups. Malindie and Stephan stayed at Odel and put up a poster and talked to them about selling tickets at Odel. Arun and Priyanka went to CoCo Verandah which was a 2 minute walk away. Amit, Kasun and I went to Budz, a nearby restaurant. We also put us posters at 2 popular salons on the way. Ms Tanuja came shortly and we headed off to the area of Colombo where the hotels were located. Tara and Priyanka were dropped off at Barefoot and me, Amit and Kasun got off at Mc Donalds. Amit and I walked all the way down Galle Road to the Cinnamon Grand putting up posters along the way! It was quite a tiring day and it was well past 1 when we got back to Pellawatte.