SOS Village: Final Service Trip

Last thursday, my service group traveled out to the SOS Village and visited with the kids. This was a very fun experience for me; since I have already visited the village, I did not need to take a tour and instead I just played with the kids. We started by playing a cricket match, OSC vs SOS. This match was so much fun because all of the kids were really enthusiastic and happy while playing. And they ended up beating us! After the cricket match I went to play some football with some of the kids and i showed them some tricks and they all loved it. After we all were finished playing games at the village, we had to say goodbye. For me, it was goodbye forever. This was a very heartfelt moment because I have spent this whole past year developing my relationship with Maric and Ishara and to say goodbye to them, that was very sad.
I will always remember and cherish the times I spent playing and getting to know these kids and hopefully one day I will be able to return to the village and see them once more.

Track and Field: ISAC

This past weekend, our track team participated in the International Schools Athletic Championship held in the Sugathadasa national Stadium. For the tournament, I competed in three different events: 800m, 400m and shot-put. For my first 800m race, I came 3rd place in my heat with a time of 2:14 minutes (2 seconds short of my personal best). And I made it into the finals. My next event was shot-put. I have never once competed in shot-put in my life so this was a good experience for me. I did not do so well in terms of the competition but I did well in terms of my personal best. I threw a 7.1 meter throw which is my current personal best. To conclude my first day, I had to run the 800m final. This was very nerve wracking for me but I used that nervous energy and used it to run. I cam third place overall with a new personal best of 2:11 minutes! This made me very happy because I not only placed top three, but I also got a new personal best! My next event was on the second day of the tournament and this was the 400m. For my first run i placed 4th in my heat and so I did not think that I would make it to the semi finals. But i did! This was great news for me! So a couple hours later I had to run in the semis. In this run I ran my personal best with a 55:84 seconds! And that put me through to the finals! I was very pleased with my performance because i did not think i would make it to the semis yet alone the finals! The next and last day of the tournament I had my 400m final. I was more nervous for this race than I was for the 800m final. I ended up coming 5th place overall for the 400m which I am very pleased with!

This was a very good experience for me because it has prepared me for our end of season SAISA tournament and im hoping that I can continue to strive and beat my personal best.

This was during my 800m finals where I came third overall!!

This is me running in the 400m semi-finals!

Semester 2 Goals

Creativity:

I have been nominated as captain as the Track and Field team and with this I get to make plans for certain workouts for my team. Also in my SOS service group, I work on teaching the kids English and I come up with certain activities for them to do to help them learn better.

Action:

For this final semester I am participating in Track and Field. My goals for this season are for me to break my personal records for each of my events. My events are 400m, 800m and 1500m. I would like to break all of my personal best and improve on my running techniques.

Service:

For this semester in service my goal is to further develop the relationship between myself and my SOS kid, Maric.

SAISA Boys Football Tournament: Kathmandu

For this years SAISA Boys Football Tournament, our team traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal. We had the privilege of spending the day traveling around Kathmandu and seeing amazing temples and getting to know the culture better.

We landed in Kathmandu in the afternoon and shortly after we arrived at our hotel we went and visited the main square and shopping area in Kathmandu called Tamel. This was a place filled with culture and history. We visited a lot of temples and learned about how Kathmandu came to be and about the history of Nepal. After we were done sight seeing, our guide took our team to a famous pizza place that is one of the 'places to be' while in Kathmandu. It was an amazing experience.
The next day we went to the famous Monkey Temple. To get there we had to climb a couple hundred steps to reach the top. But every step was worth it because the view was tremendous. We could see the whole city of Kathmandu. This was a very cultural rich experience for our team as a whole. After we completed that tour, we went on to practice football at an indoor pitch. This was a well needed practice because we had to become acclimated with the environment. After we were done with practice we traveled the the Lincoln School in Nepal (LS) where we then went and met our hosts and accompany them back to their homes.

The next day was the first day of the SAISA Tournament. Our first match was against Lahore American School and we drew 1-1 with them. Our next match was against the host school, LS. This was a very intense match because they were not only the home team BUT the defending champions. Their whole team was their watching our match and they really wanted the win. We were tied all the way up until the last 10 minutes because that is when we scored our first goal against them. Three minutes later we scored another goal to lead us to a 2-0 victory against the defending champions. This summed up our first day in the tournament.

The next day we had our last pool play match and it was against the American International School of Chennai. This was probably one of our easiest matches and we won with a 3-1 victory. Due to this win and us being undefeated in our pool, we were seeded first and that meant that we got to play the last seeded team of the other pool. For our quarter final match we faced Karachi American School. We started of poorly but then pulled it together and had a 2-0 victory over them. We made it to the semis! This concluded our second day of the tournament.

For our third and final day of the tournament, we had to face the LS for the semi final match. Since we beat them the first time, they were really determined to beat us and take revenge. We obtained 2 goals very early in the first half and then just played defense for the rest of the match and secured a 2-0 win and that put us through to the finals!! For our final match we faced the American school in Bombay (ASB). This was a very tough match for us because they were a great team and we just were not playing our best game. They had a corner kick early in the first half and one of our own players ended up kicking the ball into our goal. This gave ASB a 1-0 lead. We kept trying to equalize but we were not able to manage that for the rest of the first half. So at half time we were down 1-0. We started the second half off strong and then equalized! We were all so happy and excited and we kept playing our best game. We made it to overtime and still no one managed to score a goal. So finally we went into penalty shootouts. This was a very intense moment for our team. We scored our first penalty and so did they. We missed our next penalty and ASB scored theirs. We scored our next one and they missed theirs. This put us at a 2-2 tie with two people left. Everyone scored their next penalties and we went into the next set of penalty takers or the sudden death phase. ASB missed their penalty and it was up to us to score and if we did, we won the tournament. And sure enough we did! So we won SAISA!! At this moment all of us went and ran all around the field screaming, cheering and celebrating our victory! Our team made history for our school because we were the first ever boys team to win any SAISA championship ever! It was such a good feeling.

My last ever high school football season resulted in us winning the tournament. I am so proud of my whole team and we could not have done it without each and every one of us. I am so proud to have played in a Gecko shirt for my last football season in high school! GO GECKOS!

Sri Pada

IThis past weekend, my family and I traveled to the central province in Sri Lanka to climb Adam's Peak.

Adam's Peak is believed to be where Buddha put his footprint and where he step foot on Sri Lanka. Adam's Peak is a very important experience for all Buddhists throughout the country and it was a price late to climb. 

My family and I woke up at around 1am so that we could arrive at the base of the mountain at a decent time. Our whole reason for going there so early was so that we could see the sunrise. We started our hike around 2:15am. It started out as a relatively easy climb until about halfway. Then it got difficult. But it was all worth it when we got to the top. 

We arrived at the top around 5:10. So we were hiking for about 3 hours. At the top, there was a temple, and it was truly amazing. There were a couple hundred people at the top praying to Buddha and waiting for the sun to rise. Everyone was all gathered around and facing the east so we can see the sunrise. And at around 5:45am it happened. The moment everyone was waiting for. It was truly amazing. 

Climbing Sri Pada was an amazing experience and I am glad that I got to climb it! It was really nice to get more involved with the Sri Lankan culture. 

This photo was taken at the top of the mountain at the start of the sunrise.

A little later when the sun was coming up.

This photo was taken at the top of the mountain while the clouds were rolling in and the sun was coming up.

The reservoir and the sunrise.

A panoramic view of the valley and sunrise.

Adam's Peak on our way back down the mountain.

This was the view of Adam's Peak from the bottom of the trail.

Football

This past week during practice we have been practicing this new defensive covering technique. I have been talking with my other captain and we have been Planning and Initiating the types of plays to be used during our matches so that we are well prepared for our final season SAISA Tournament. 

This year we have a really strong team. Everyone on our starting squad has been playing football for a long time and we have been playing together for a while so we understand each other and our playing techniques. All of us have a really good feeling about placing in our final tournament. 

Every week on Friday we have practice games. We play these games so that we get maximum practice and opportunities to play against people other than us. So far we have played three matches and won all three. We have scored 15 goals in these three matches: Nikita- 5, Devin-4, Me-3, John-2 and Christian-1. This just shows how strong our forwards and midfielders are. We have only conceded 6 goals to the opposition. This ratio shows us that our defense is also very strong. HOWEVER, there are still things that we need to work on such as our covering and man marking. We need to Develop these Skills so that when it comes time to perform at SAISA, we will be the most prepared and best team out there. 

SOS Service Meet: Swimming

The children from the SOS Children's orphanage are still coming to our school every Thursday. Us service members are still engaging with the Issue of Global Importance of the orphans around the world. Our goals are still the same, we are creating elder sibling bonds with the children so that they feel like they have a family outside of the orphanage.

Every week we complete activities with the kids to help them better develop their English. This helps me to Develop New Skills because I am not a Sinhalese speaker so it is hard for me to communicate with these kids. But I am managing and it is really fun! After we are finished with our English learning activities, we go to the Swimming Pool to swim because this is the kids favorite activity. When we get in the water, we teach them how to swim and then we play various games.
Seeing the smile and entertaining them is one of the best things to experience. We as a service group are making the kids lives a happier place and providing a 'family' outside of their orphanage and this truly is a blessing. I love these kids and I am glad that I am a part of this service group.

Photo Credit: Alo Lenk