WWW : Dryzone "The Paradox"

"The Paradox"- As Mr. Lockwood called it is a accurate name to how our trip went. We visited the dryzone of Sri Lanka which consists of the upper half (Trincomalee and Anaradapura) and it was completely wet! We spent two nights going to sleep while listening to rain and had to climb Sigiriya's sister rock by the name of Pidurantalagala while trying not to slip.

Despite the rain though the trip was amazing. It consisted of night walks, open-jeeps rides through the city, climbing and some relax time at a 5 star hotel. Throughout this trip there were many learning outcome addressed.

Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth.

Undertaken new challenges.

Worked collaboratively with others

Considered the ethical implications of their actions

So first off there were many instances on the trip where all we did was talk and get to know each other. In this time we got to know about everyones likes and dislikes, phobias and whatnot. This really showed when we were walking up through a forrest like area and you could clearly see a difference in personalities. One group would be talking and making jokes about everything around them while another group would be climbing up and jumping through rocks trying to make everything a competition. There was even a group that spend 80% of their time playing with stray temple dogs and giving them names.

There was a lot of challenging activities in this trip and its understandable when not everyone can do it. However the amount of people in our group who did things that they would usually never do was amazing. Climbing Pidurantalagala was a daunting task for even me. Taha even rapped on the way back which i'm sure was out of his comfort zone but it was one of the highlights of the trip.

There were a lot of instances where we had to work together with the whole group. For example trying to work through managing our luggage and trying to make sure we all make it to the bus in time. There was really no times when we were separated into smaller groups to work on anything since the total group itself was pretty small.

We had limitless discussions on ethics and it was really interesting since we all had a different religion and different mindsets to other religions. For example some of us would go to a temple just for the site seeing while others would go to take in the ideas of the religion and the culture(Not necessarily take up the religion). This seemed to be an issue but out late night evaluation sessions where we just talked as a group really helped in educating the whole group of the matter. There was also multiple discussions of free will and different dimensions that was inspired by Stephen Hawking book "The Grand Design"

Overall this trip was an amazing experience and I need to thank Mrs. Fert and Mr.Lockwood for planning it and actually making it more fun that any of the other trips in my opinion.

Not going scuba diving like we were promised was a bummer though :P

SAISA Basketball

So the end of our season is soon approaching and in a about a week we are going to be on our way to Dhaka. Training is getting more and more complicated as we are trying to introduce a motion offence. It takes a unbelievable amount of cooperation between our starting five, reserves and coach to reach the level of coordination and flow that we require to do any damage during the tournament. Throughout training we are trying to find out everyones weaknesses and find a way to use each others strengths to balance those weaknesses. I've been told that i travel before i start my dribble and i never changed it, later in one of our games against gateway the referee called me for traveling on 4 occasions and then i knew that i had to do something. So far i've been spending around 2 hours a day on my movement and even when i'm just walking around school i imagine that i have a ball in my hand and dribble before i lift my pivot foot. Coach said that he saw an improvement in my movement but i still have the tendency to travel. Guess it's hard to shake a habit you've had for 2 years. I need to show perseverance and commitment to this and i hope to shake this habit by next year, thats the goal.  One of the key outcomes of this SAISA is developing new skills and i've been trying to do that every time i play. I tend to do this by taking tips on different things from different team mates. Like i mentioned before.... we all have our own strengths :)

Secondary Production: Stage manager

I've taken the job of stage manager for the secondary production since i was low on creativity. My job will basically be sourcing materials and props for the play and also being in charge of having the each scene organised and set.
Just yesterday I was running through a marketplace trying to find rattan baskets and hand scrubs. Pretty interesting, i got to use my mediocre Sinhalese skills.  
I will also be running any errands that Mrs. Jackson needs. Currently the rehearsal times collide with my basketball practices, therefore I will not be attending any rehearsals until the SAISA season is over. Rehearsals will be on tuesday and friday.