Hope for Kids - 1

Our first Hope for Kids activity consisted of visiting the children at the hospital to entertain them for an hour or so. Because it was our first time seeing them for the majority of our group, we planned on making the purpose of the visit more about getting to know them and learning about their stories.

Upon our arrival, unsurprisingly, the children had absolutely no interest in greetings. We decided to just proceed with the more fun activities. We brought along paper with crayons and pencils, board-games and picture stories in both English and Sinhalese. I believe this service is addressing a matter of global importance because we're learning about and getting to know the struggles that people go through when faced with cancer and we aim to improve their day as much as we can by seeing them almost every week.

Drawing Club - 1

I went to my first drawing club session. I'm doing for the creativity component of CAS. I also want to increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and develop my drawing skills which are lacking. As a small group, we decided on what to draw by using just our imagination and afterwards, we tried drawing the same thing but with an image as guidance. The first class was interesting because it reminded me of how bad my drawing skills are. This has only motivated me to persevere with the activity and improve as much as I can.

Goals For 2014

My first goal for the year is to improve upon my basketball skills and ultimately try out for the SAISA boys basketball team. Playing basketball in a team will improve my collaboration skills and I intend on showing perseverance and commitment in this activity by coming to every training session.
This time around I'm going to increase the awareness of areas of growth through practice.

I've joined a service activity called "Hope For Kids" that involves visiting children with cancer to talk to and entertain them. In this service, I want to plan and initiate activities. This could be seen as a matter of global importance because we're spending time with children that are in unfortunate circumstances and we aim to make it better for them.

The last after-school activity that I've joined is called "Drawing Club" and it's a good opportunity for me to increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth. I'm pretty bad at drawing despite Visual Arts being one of my classes so I hope to develop new skills and improve them.

The Final Reflection for 2014

In this year, I've fulfilled a few of the goals that I set for myself. My first goal was to take lessons and learn a new instrument. I took piano lessons every week for 3 months and was able to learn how to play. I wanted to try something new and was successful in doing so. The other creative goal that I was striving for was to raise enough money to fund an activity with kids from less fortunate backgrounds. With the co-operation and teamwork of my service group, we were able to do so. I believe this is a matter of global importance; interacting with and helping those that are less fortunate.

My action goal was to develop my skills in basketball. I also wanted to improve and maintain my skills. The biggest goal regarding basketball though was to make the SAISA basketball team and win the tournament. Although we didn't win the tournament, I was able to achieve my goal of making the team and representing the school.

Being part of the Gecko Inc. service group has definitely helped me improve my collaboration skills due to having to work together effectively and efficiently to keep operations and events running smoothly. Taking on these activities has helped me become better at organizing and carrying out activities on a large scale.

Gecko Inc! - Meeting the kids

Yesterday, my service group and I met up with the children from a local school. It was great to finally see the group interacting with the kids instead of spending most of the time planning. There were 25 kids ranging around the age of 5 to 9-years-old. We introduced ourselves and began with a fun activity to get them comfortable with us. We all grabbed the edges of a multi-coloured paruachute and ran under it when a corresponding colour was called out. They seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it!

The second activity that followed up the parachuting was quite successful. We thought we'd try a spot of ULTIMATE FRISBEE. This was another hit with the kids and we had bucket fulls of fun.

To end the day off, we gave the children drinks to cool off and pizza.

This was a matter of global importance because we are helping and interacting with kids from less fortunate backgrounds.

                                           
                                          Posing for the camera

                                          My designated Ultimate Frisbee bro

SAISA Day 1

March 11th marked the beginning of the Boys Basketball SAISA tournament. The day commenced at around 3:30 in the morning on a Tuesday. I felt like dropping dead from sleep deprivation.

The basketball team met up at the school at 4:00 and we set off for the airport with determination and fire in our hearts!

Getting through to our flight was surprisingly painless and easy. It was a reasonably short flight; most of the team just slept through it. Upon arriving at Bangladesh, Dhaka, there were noticeable differences when compared to Sri Lanka. Dhaka was clearly not as developed as Sri Lanka. There was rubbish littered on the streets, beggars everywhere and 

Basketball Training - So Intense

Basketball training's difficulty has increased exponentially. This is due to the fact that we're learning and practicing a new motion offense. We call it 'THE THUNDER'.
It takes some time to get a hang of but once perfected, it'll become a powerful tool that can be utilized to decimate our opponents. It requires a good deal of teamwork and co-ordination. The training sessions are always something to look forward to because of all the work and effort the members of the team put into every session. Here are a few wise words from a fellow member. "The overall standards of the team effort that has been displayed...by the team, is outstanding." - Kevin Fernando