Stretch!

Last Monday I joined the after school dancing activity, partly because I was forced to and partly because I need the hours. This traditional Sri Lankan dancing activity is conducted by Mr. Malith and Mr. Hashan who are professional dancers. There were a lot of stretching exercises involved and some demanded co'ordination and balance. I am not the most co-ordinated, graceful person and I had a lot of fun laughing at myself. My legs hurt so much after the strenuous stretching exercises! 

The next day I joined the after school yoga activity which is also conducted by Mr. Malith. Again this demanded a lot of balance and concentration which I hope to achieve over time. I'm hoping the combined effects of the dancing and yoga will help me to firm up my muscles and be in a reasonably good shape. 

Up =)

• We had the primary movie afternoon today in the PMPR at 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm. 
• 30 kids showed up and we collected a total of Rs. 10,200. 
• The movie we showed was 'Up' a really fascinating movie about an old man and a house with balloons attached to it that flies by Pixar.

I asked the canteen to make the drinks for us and I gave them a cordial bottle this morning. I was depending on them to have empty mega bottle but unfortunately they had just got rid of the yesterday! So I salvaged two mega bottles from the recycling room which I gave to Rukshan to wash and fill with the drink. I spoke to Rukshan and he gave us 30 packets of popcorn for Rs. 25 each.

We have noticed that the clothes lines at the hospital are not enough and the mothers tend to hang their washing out on bushes and railings. Most of these clothes end up on the ground raising hygienic concerns. I spoke to Mr. Kolitha and got 4 wooden poles and nylon rope along with a mason's spade, a crowbar and some cement reasy to take to the hospital last evening. But unfortunately we couldn't set the lines up without permission from the director, Dr. (Mrs.) Yoganathan. I sent her a letter asking permission today and I hope she gets back to us soon. In the letter I also asked to meet her next Thursday if possible.

The Crucible

'The Crucible' by Aurthur Miller was a production by the Visual Art and English Department of OSC directed by Ms. Abeywardena. It is a play about the hysteria whipped up by the witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is set in a Puritan society where social norms almost constrict the people. Abigail, a young girl enraged when her clandestine affair with her employer, John Proctor, is terminated by him starts a witch hunt. Her ulterior motive is to accuse Elizabeth, Proctor's wife, and have her hung as revenge for dismissing her from her position as a maid in the Proctor household. The witch hunt is soon blown out of proportion and the whole village descends into hysteria. The play also functions as a political allegory for the hysteria created by McCarthyism in the late 1940's.

I was cast for the role of Tituba. Tituba is a black slave from the Caribbean. Though she is a minor character, she plays a key role in the play in that she knows witch craft such as conjuring spirits and communicating with the devil and introduces it to the girls.Even with my advantage as a drama student, this was an extremely challenging role for me, especially in terms of the characterization of a black slave. In addition, we choreographed a movement piece for the opening of the play. I am not the most flexible, graceful person on earth and adopting the raw physicality of Tituba was a challenge. But I managed to play Tituba quite sucessfully and I was extremely pleased with the extent to which I grew as a performer by widening my skills.

Cancer is a word, not a sentence

We organized a secondary movie afternoon today to raise funds for the Cancer Hospital. It was in the auditorium at 3.00 pm. Entrance was Rs. 250/- and brownies were sold at Rs. 50/-.

We raised approximately Rs. 5000/-.

Approximately 5 people showed up, apart from the Cancer Hospital people. I am extremely disappointed by OSC's lack of enthusiasm for ANYTHING.

To publicize the even I created a Facebook event and had the poster included in the newsletter and the daily bulletin. We put up posters around school and told a lot of people about the movie afternoon. Today during both breaks I went around telling people to come support us. Some people were nice enough to donate money even though they could not make it.

Our next project will be a joint charity concert with the Interact Club of Royal College. We are planning to have it in early September in the OSC auditorium. We also plan to have performances by local bands and performances by the students of OSC and other invited schools.


We also plan to get awareness t-shirts done and hopefully put it on sale at ODEL. A slogan I found on the internet which I think is very powerful is - Cancer is a word, not a sentence.

Food & Fun Fair - 13th March

The FFF is an exellent opportunity to fund raise for CAS projects. SO, we exploited it (: To raise funds for the Cancer Hospital Project we sold yellow awareness hair ribbons and bracelets for Rs. 50/- each. We also painted a yellow sun, the Hope for Kids logo, with face paint for Rs. 50/- The face paint was more of an awareness raising idea as the sun is a common feature we found in all of the kids' drawings. They always always draw a sun. Maybe it's a symbol of hope for them. I walked around the whole time selling the ribbons and I was very tired, especially since it was very hot and the SGA ran out of drinks! We raised approximately Rs. 6000/- (:

Developing Diplomatic Relations (:

Colombo Operated Model United Nations Conference March 5th – 7th 2010


Day 1 | Committee 3

The opening ceremony really set the mood for this year’s conference with the address by the representative from the IOM and the anti-trafficking videos that were played. The atmosphere of my committee was very serious and focused but it was not intimidating, as in the practice debates, because I had got to know more people and I knew they were role playing. I was excited and well prepared. I spoke a few times during the first day but I couldn't really talk much since we the topic under discussion was 'Assessing and addressing the treatment of women’s rights in the founding of the family, its sustenance and its dissolution' and Nigeria follows Shari'a law which was constantly under attack. Also, the Penal Code of Nigeria states that 'a man can beat a woman up as long as it does not result in grievous harm'. Not very female-friendly, now is that? Even though I didn't talk that much I learnt a lot about the extent of the problem and how it can be addressed. I also learnt the importance of working efficiently within a limited amount of time as we had to submit a resolution in 45 minutes. 


Day 2 | Committee 3 


The topic for the second day, after we had finished debating the resolutions from the previous day, was 'Addressing the vulnerability of refugees to human trafficking'. I had researched this topic quite well and was able to make a speech on the speakers' list as well as talk during moderated caucus and ask several POI's (Point of Information). Talking in front of everyone was really scary but I stood up to the challenge. I was kind of threatened by the Secretary General and the Head of Finance and was forced to talk. After the first time I got behind the podium, my fear seemed to disappear and I gained confidence the more I spoke. I felt more at ease on the second day since I had got to know people better.Unfortunately, we had to rush the discussion as we were running out of time. 

Day 3 | General Assembly 


The conference on the third day was held at The Water's Edge. It was very formal, the girls were in sarees, and the food was really good. I think the GA was a bit of a failure since while one committee is in session the other committees have nothing to do and are bored. Com 2 dealt with economic policies and sitting through their session was torture. I think Com 3 is the most interesting since it is the Human Rights committee and it is easy to relate to and be actively engaged in. Also it is way too many people and frequently the people at the back are not recognized at all. The chairs introduced an 'emergence topic' for all committees to debate and it was a situation where there was a conflict between China and Taiwan which escalated into a near nuclear catastrophe. Yes, their idea was World War III. I really got ridiculous towards the end and I gave a very impassioned speech about what I felt. I was so proud of myself because I spoke twice in the GA in front of aall those people and I made some good points. Aand the best part was when I got a not from the President of GA, Yohan, saying that he was very proud of what I have achieved and that I have improved a lot (: It was really tiring though and at the end of it I was really exhausted. I can only imagine how exhausted the organising committee would have been. 


After it was all over, I wished I could do it all over again. 
CO-MUN 2010 was an awesome experince (: 

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.