Diplomats In The Making

MUN last semester was a very informative and engaging experience. We started off the semester looking at Marginalized People and Human Trafficking around the world. We were assigned temporary countries until the countries for the conference were finalized and mine was Myanmar. Mr. O’Kane showed us a YouTube clip of Human Trafficking about how and why it takes place. It had model scenarios and was truly horrifying. I have a four year old brother and the part on child trafficking really got to me since I could relate to the fear, anger and panic of the mother who lost her child. We were then asked to define human trafficking in our own words but in a manner which was precise and concise as a practice of how to word things in actual MUN.We were also taught how to word tricky issues diplomatically, say for example if your country is not really making an effort to rectify and issue instead of saying 'We're not doing anything' you could say that 'The government of ... is trying its best but are not seeing any results yet' or 'The government of ... is currently not in a stable financial position but..'

Then we went on to debate Genetically Modified Food. It was hard to research the government of Myanmar’s stance on GM food as the country doesn’t have a major role in the research, development and use of GM Foods unlike the US, whose stance would be a very obvious one. However I found that Myanmar has a neutral stance, leaning towards favouring the development of GM food but does not consume or grow GM produce in the country as they have a sufficient food supply. We divided into two groups and wrote up a resolution and debated the issue.

My country for the MUN conference is Nigeria and I am in the 3^rd committee. I have been researching Nigeria over the Christmas break with regard to its history, economy and cultural and social issues, current and past.

Proud To Be A Sri Lankan (:

Creating and performing the Sri Lanka UN Day performance was a fun filled process. At first the teachers in charge wanted to do a traditional Kandyan dance but Yanika and I thought we should do something different this year and focus on a different aspect of being a Sri Lankan; baila. We had to put in a lot of time in to the rehearsals in the form of lunch breaks and after school. The teachers decided that we would sing a song ‘Apa wemu Sri Lanka’ (We are Sri Lanka) by Shohan, a Sri Lankan artist. Yanika and I were adamant about including baila and we had the perfect song in mind; the recently released ‘Rambari’ which is popular among Sri Lankans of all ages. The plan was to introduce the presentation with a Kandyan dance by Thishakya, Sandali and Nadeera, while we paraded our Sri Lankan attire, followed by us singing the song ending with the baila. I thought the fashion show thing was a bit too much, a waste of time and pointless really. We were crowding too much into a 10 minute presentation. I really enjoyed discussing my ideas with Ms. Kithmini and Mrs. Illaperuma and helping to shape the presentation.

On the day of the rehearsal in the auditorium, two lawyers, friends of Yanika’s father, saw our performance and thought the baila was pathetic and offered to help us. Ruwinda, Shamith, Sala, Yanika and I stayed after school and we, with the two uncles help, choreographed the dance. It was really fun as those two are very fun loving and nice. We told the rest of the group what we had planned and with certain other ideas and variations they had we managed to choreograph a great dance. It was a bit hard since most people left early during rehearsals for SAISA practices and some just weren’t committed enough. Some others wouldn’t voice their opinion and help in the process of shaping the dance but rather grumbled behind the backs of people who were actively involved. It really annoyed me. I learnt new dance moves and to work collaboratively and compromise. The dance had a lot of typical Sri Lankan humour like the end when I went to the front of the stage and called Umeshan out of the boys very flirtatiously and then Anisha, who was my mother, came out and saw us and was very mad at Umeshan and dragged me off. It’s the typical Sri Lankan lover scenario. She was originally going to whack Umeshan with a broom but the organizers were against ‘showing violence on stage with could have cultural implications and have the potential to offend’.

Our presentation was the opening performance as Sri Lanka is the host country. It was a brilliant performance; full of spirit and we all had fun (:

What does an attacker do?? Mr. Shipleeyy??!

Football wasn’t a very successful affair since I missed a lot of practices due to drama rehearsals and practices for the UN Day Sri Lankan presentation. The three practices I went for really pushed me because I don’t have good stamina and I hadn’t played football before. I learnt a few skills when we did drills and I did learnt more about the importance of teamwork. In the few games I played I noticed that when the girls didn’t pull together and tried to put on a one man show that side did badly. For a person who was told to play an attacker without knowing the first thing about football I think I did pretty well. I really like the game and if I had continued with the practices I would have actually been able to play at a decent level.

"You don't HAVE to write 30 mins to get there, 10 for them to let us in.."

        Today we went to the Cancer Hospital for the first time this semester, my first time going from school. On entering the premises I had a few bad memories of coming to see my friend's mother who was suffering from cancer and soon succumbed to it. I was impressed with the playhouse and the material in it for the use of the children such as books, stationery, a computer, a tv with a surround sound system and musical instruments. The place looked really bright and cheery after the recent renovations but the room was in a state of general disarray which we immediately decided to set straight on the following Thursday. We learnt that the teacher of the playhouse had not come for a week from a young mother who came in with her timid, smiling daughter much to our displeasure. I think that we should come to an argeement with the directress that if the teacher does not show a satisfactory log of her presence and a record of her work we will stop paying her.
   We also sat and continued out brainstorming fund raising ideas which we had begun on the way and discussed several improvements needed to be done in the playhouse and what could be done with the children and their parents.

Fund Raising
-Bake sale
-Tshirts
-Walk for Cancer

Impovements
-Curtains for the windows done with plain cloth and painted by the children themselves
-Organise books and label shelves
-Organise DVDs and label boxes
-Organise toys

Activities
-Origami and crafts with kids
-Variety show
-Counselling for parents

Also a little present for the children and a small care package for the parents for Christmas.

Spirit vs. Scores

Yesterday was our match against Yellow and we lost 5 nil. I played for this match but was pulled out as soon as I was in by Rithvik since well ahem for obvious reasons, I dont know the first thing about football! (: Priyanka brought a red eyeliner pencil and I got her to draw red stripes on one cheek and a heart on the other. We drew stripes on a couple of boys and then some middle school boys actually came up to us and asked for stripes! I was DELIGHTED - they had at least a teeny tiny bit of spirit!

I yelled myself hoarse cheering for my 'boys'. Chrisni, the Yellow house captain, and I had a friendly fight over who cheered the loudest and who had the best team. The Yellow team was obviously far better than mine since they had SAISA football players, so do the Blue house, which I thought is unfair.

But as I argued its not all about the scores, spirit matters...


So spirit wise? Red's got the most spirit and we ROCK (:


Oh and we came third (:

Last Thursday, that is the 10th of September, we had our first community service meeting in the Primary Art Room. I got to know the other people in Hope for Kids and a little background information on what OSC has done so far and what we do when we go to the hospital. OSC built a playroom in the Cancer Hospital grounds 7 years ago, it has its own teacher and its a place the kids love to come to. OSC renovated it last year and we dicussed how the renovation was funded. We also discussed ways of raising funds for further improvements and little activities we can do with the kids when we go there this Thursday. We were also warned by Mrs.Illaperuma that working with these terminally ill children can be an upsetting experience.

Our fund raising ideas were;
- A car wash
- Selling tshirts
- A bake sale

I chose the Cancer Hospital project in memory of my grandmother who died of cancer and because I really want to do my best to brighten the suffering children's last days.
This is going to be a challenging experience for me since I am easily and very strongly moved by suffering people, especially children.

Frustration and Elation of a Captain

The interhouse football matches are this week and today was the Red vs. Green match aaaaaaand... WE WON! (: Woohoo! Red house rocks!

I have to say I'm dissapointed at the students lack of house spirit. I planned to have meetings and little practice sessions so the team could bond and get to know each other, but sadly no one turned up. One boy even gave me very bad attitude and I nearly kicked him off the team since I didn't want anyone with no team spirit and enthusiasm to be on the team even if it meant losing a strong player.
Team spirit and enthusiasm matter to me a great deal - there is absolutely no point 'half-assing' a job.

Today was a very frustrating day, no one came to the field to play and I had to walk around rounding up my team and to top it off I was really sick and had a sore throat so I couldn't play. I was so annoyed I told Mr.Tingley OSC is pathetic! I did not mean it, I think OSC is a wonderful school. And my co-captain was absent, at home sick I heard from his brother who went on to tell me what a bad captain I am (??!). It did not help my mood.

But my god how my mood changed when I heard we were leading 4 to 1! (: I literally jumped for joy when I heard we won!

It's hard working with a group who has next to no enthusiasm at all but I will knock some spirit into them or at least I'll make myself knomn as the girl with the most spirit! I'm looking forward to tomorrows match against Blue, hopefully I'll be well enough to go to school. I hope we kick some booty but the main thing is that we have fun playing and if we lose, lose with spirit (: