SAISA Badminton 2016

This year for the 3rd ASA Quarter I had a hard time choosing what SAISA sport I would do that season. Traditionally I have tried out for the U19 girls’ basketball team and for the past two years the sport has been very enjoyable for me. However this year I decided to try out for a less stressful sport as this is my last year and my academics are more important than a sport that leaves me too exhausted to work properly at the end of the day. Therefore this year I chose to try out for the badminton team.

(Photo credit: Ms Lockwood)

Even though it’s not as popular an activity as the gendered sports at this school, I found that playing badminton was very enjoyable as it reminded me of tennis (which I have not played in years) and because it is a game that not only requires athletic ability and skill but it is also necessary to create strategies on the spot and play accordingly. In many of the sports I have played previously, such as with volleyball, basketball and football, it was not necessary for me to think on my feet or change a play or strategy at will because of my usually defensive positions (for example, defender in football and post in basketball). Another difference is that those are team sports that rely almost entirely on teamwork, but for badminton the only time teamwork is necessary is when you play with a partner.

(Photo credit: American School of Bombay)

In SAISA there are the team placements and the individual placements. In these placements are three categories of games an individual player can enter in and those are singles, doubles and mixed doubles. And in those categories are sub-categories for player levels; seed 1 to 4. Even though this was my first year playing SAISA badminton (and badminton in general) I was placed in seed 1 as a learning experience and to lessen the pressure that comes from being a first time player and focus only on gaining skills.

(Photo credit: American School of Bombay)

(Photo credit: American School of Bombay)

Needless to say I lost all my singles matches for the team placement matches but I am happy to say that I improved a lot during each match as the point differences between myself and my opponents decreased with every match. This improvement was also evident during the individual placements as I won a few of my matches before losing during the quarter finals. Although I am not happy with my performance during the beginning of the match as the score was 2 to 11, I was able to win back 6 points during a streak in the second half and this was largely due to using my brain to change and think up strategies on the spot, like changing the placement of the shuttlecock at the last second.

(Photo credit: American School of Bombay)

In the end, our school came 3^rd in the team placements and the only individual placement we won was for 3^rd place for the girls’ doubles matches for my partner Rishika and me. The whole tournament was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I am also very happy about finding out that this sport can be played by people of all ages, so I’ll be able to play badminton for a long time after school.

(Photo credit: American School of Bombay)

(Photo credit: American School of Bombay)

Week Without Walls - Jaffna

Week Without Walls is a week-long school trip to somewhere on the island and – in the Diploma Programme – has a focus on one or more aspects of CAS. My trip was on the Jaffna Narratives, with the focus mainly on Service, where we get to learn more about our host island and its people, culture and history.

Jaffna is in the North of Sri Lanka and was subject to most of the Sri Lankan Civil War, which we learned a bit about as we explored the north in the aftermath of a vicious war. As we learned more and more about Sri Lanka’s history, we recorded our findings and our feelings on our findings through tweet posts. This is a map I made of the Jaffna peninsula and it highlights all the important places we visited:

Our trip was from the 26th to the 30th January 2015, and it started with an early flight to the Jaffna Airport (map position 1) up north. The first day we went to many places, including: the deepest body of water (or well) in Sri Lanka, a spiritual spring/bathhouse, Point Pedro (map position 2) – where we walked down the street near the beach and got to see the locals fishing as well as some graves from different religions – and Jaffna Fort (which was very significant in the war) near our hotel (map position 3).

Tweet of the day: “It was kind of harrowing to walk on the line between the calm sea and the site of such conflict in Jaffna Fort.”

Boarding the airplane - it was really small (Photo credit: Nisala)

The well. The locals have a story that an Indian god was travelling from India to Sri Lanka when he got thirsty, so he struck the ground with a lightning bolt and created this well. This mixture of Indian and Sri Lankan is very prominent up north (Photo credit: me)

This was the sign outside the bathhouse. I found it interesting that the warning in Tamil was shown first on the left, the Sinhalese, then English. In Colombo - the capital - the street signs usually show English first, then Sinhala, then Tamil. (Photo credit: me)

This is inside the girls' section of the bathhouse. It was really peaceful and the water came directly from the ocean, so there were fishes swimming around, and it was very relaxing. The bathrooms left a little to be desired, though (Photo credit: me)

Point Pedro! (Photo credit: me)

A Christian gravesite near the beach (Photo credit: me)

Locals fishing (or gearing up to fish -  I'm not sure) (Photo credit: me)

Into the fort! (Photo credit: me)

A crumbling wall inside the fort where people have scratched their names onto the walls. That's Nisala (Photo credit: me)

That's the walkway between the fort and the ocean that I talked about in my tweet (Photo credit: me)

A close up of the map on Jaffna Town. The star on the left is Jaffna Fort and the one on the right is our hotel.

On the second day wewent on a boat trip to Nagadeepa on one of the islands around the peninsula (map position 4). We went on boat to the Buddhist religious site first then walked to the end of the street to the Kovil (a Hindu temple) and left from that jetty. The Buddhist section was very tourism centred, with an information desk and a bird cage. There also used to be a giant statue of President Rajapaksa, but it was taken down after he was replaced a few weeks before we got there. There were also very few people.

However, the Kovil was almost entirely filled up. It was very colourful inside and out, with millions of patterns and paintings (Though we weren't aloud to take pictures inside). On the wall inside there was one painting set that showed the Sri Lankan Army destroying Tamil temples and religious artefacts. Ms. Lenk later told us that it was actually the Portugese who had done that and that the painting was depicted as such for propaganda purposes.

Tweet of the day: “It’s weird how religion was used both as a weapon and a comfort in the war.”

This was the boat we went on (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

Inside the boat (It was really cramped) (Photo credit: me)

Outside the boat (Photo credit: me)

The Kovil (It was MASSIVE) (Photo credit: Nela)

Then we went to ice cream afterwards. Shakthi almost threw up. Good times (Photo credit: Nela)

The third day of the trip was probably my favourite. On the third day we went to visit the children at the SOS Village in Jaffna. The SOS Village is a place for children without a home or guardians due mostly due to the war. At first it was a bit awkward, especially with the age and language gaps (the majority of them were between the ages of 5 and 13, and they could only speak Tamil with a few words in English). But eventually we all relaxed and had fun together.

We originally had a set schedule for the day, but that was thrown out the window almost immediately as we let the kids decide what they wanted to do. From learning each others' names (and repeatedly making fun of mine and my pronunciation of theirs), to makeovers that started with a thorough lice check, to swinging around kids one after another until I was so dizzy that I fell down and they dog piled me, to playing netball for the first time in years (which was really incredible since it's my favourite sport), I really really enjoyed it (I might join the SOS Village service group at school next year).

Tweet of the day: “It was awesome interacting and playing with the kids despite language and age barriers”

Group photo! (Unfortunantely I forgot to take pictures that day, which I'm kind of mad about) (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

The fourth day we started traveling down to Trincomalee. On the way we passed many sites and memorials that were significant to the war. The most important was probably the Elephant's Pass (map position: 5), which was the site of many horrific battles, mostly because it was one of the only strips of land that connected the peninsula to the main land.

Tweet of the day (relating to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE weapons museum we visited): “Why does war always motivate people to create amazing things but with destructive purposes?”

Memorial on the Tamil side of Elephant's Pass (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

Elephant's Pass (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

Memorial on the Sri Lankan side of Elephant's Pass. It's dedicated to a soldier who jumped with a grenade into a Tamil tank and died in the explosion. That's the tank that he jumped into on the right (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

 This is at a LTTE weapons museum. These were some cages that people were kept in. Not sure of they were for prisoners-of-war or regular civilians but it's still pretty horrific (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

The entrance of the LTTE museum. All the weapons and vehicles were hand-made at home by the LTTE which is kind of amazing if you don't think about what these things were used for (Photo credit: Nela)

This is a water tank that fell over after an explosion (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

This is a photo of a house that suffered from bullet and shrapnel holes. It makes you wonder what happened to the occupants (Photo credit: Mr. Lambert-Knott)

This is a super deep pool made by the LTTE to practice diving in, presumably to put bombs on the bottom of ships. The sign explaining this was kind of hard to read as every second word was either "terrorist" or "evil" (Photo credit: Nela)

On the fifth day we traveled from Trinco for 6 hours straight back to Colombo. The whole trip was fun but all the things we learned about Sri Lanka were kind of awful and interesting at the same time. I hope I get to do something like it again in the future.

Group photo (Photo credit: Nisala - taken by one of the teachers)

Goals for Week Without Walls

Week Without Walls is next week and I am going on the Jaffna trip. The point of this trip is to explore Jaffna and Tamil culture by visiting historical and cultural sites and talking to the people as well as visit a school to interact with the kids there, and to show or display our findings in different media.

My goal for this trip is to learn as much as I can of the Tamil culture up north and how it was affected by the war; to learn more about my host country and its history. The war that affected this culture is an issue of global importance because of how the end of the war was handled. The post-conflict recovery of the region is what we will mainly be focusing on, through a grass roots level of investigaion, to better understand how the people were affected personally.

A secondary goal for the trip is to learn and use more forms of media to document our findings. By becoming more familiar with different forms of media, it will be easier to complete other assignments that require the use of them.

Quarter 1 Reflection - Action

This quarter was very eventful in terms of action. I joined the SAISA Girls' U19 Volleyball Team. I had been on the team last year, and so my main focus this time around was improving my individual and teamwork skills. My serving and receiving were already pretty consistent, so I mostly wanted to focus on my spiking and being more aggressive, which I have a bit of a problem with in all sports. In terms of teamwork, I wanted to work a bit more on combos with the setters mostly, but the other member as well. One combo that we worked on a bit was a quick, where the setter sets a ball quickly to the spiker, to surprise the other team. I think we had a pretty good team this year in terms of teamwork as well as our awesome powerhouse captain Greta. One problem that came up a lot was support for the team, and so as my combined roles of team member and SGA Communications Officer, I made a few posters in support of our team and to encourage people to come watch our matches.

The SGA Spirit Coordinators made a promotional video, with video from one of our practice session, to play during assembly and on Facebook to spread the word even more.

Later on, we made our way to Mumbai, India for the SAISA tournament. I think that this was the time when our team bonded the most, through sharing cheering and chants and junk food, through dance parties and slaps on the butts, and through winning the entire tournament undefeated. Our toughest matches were probably the last two, especially the second last one against Dhaka. We were close to losing and making silly and avoidable mistakes, and we fought and shouted a bit at each other before our coach intervened. That was when we decided that winning did not matter unless we were having fun and enjoying being part of the team, and through our more relaxed outlook we won!

(Image credit: Diana Vargas)

This was probably my favourite SAISA to date, not just because we won, but because I really felt part of the team and genuinely enjoyed the sport and everyone’s company. I can’t wait until next year!

Quarter 1 Reflection - Service

The first quarter of the year, in terms of service, started out well. Service sign up was on August 21, and I was trying to branch out from my previous service groups and try something new. I eventually signed up for the Alzheimer Service group with 3 other students. The beginning of the semester was a bit confusing as we had a small group and no supervisor, but these issues were soon sorted out when Ms. Lenk became our supervisor and we worked in conjunction with her sixth grade service group. This expanded our group while at the same time raising awareness on Alzheimer's disease through the younger students.

Our first service session with the 6th graders went well. We were trying to see how well we worked as a service group and we were having a test run to see how to interact and treat the patients at the Alzheimer's Center. The rest of the sessions with the 6th graders went this way, with the addition of memory games and Alzheimer related activities and informational session. I learnt a lot about the disease and how to interact with both the patients and the 6th graders.

Students working (Photo credit: Anjleen Hannak)

Memory posters (Photo credit: Anjleen Hannak)

Alzheimer Service group (Photo credit: Anjleen Hannak)

Our first trip to the Alzheimer's Center was preceded by a planning session, where we brainstormed activities with the 6th graders and told them what to do (protocol & how to make a proper introduction) and what to bring. We hoped that the kids could apply these instructions, not only to Alzheimer's but also to the entire service program and the MYP and DP as a whole. This would give them a more global perspective as well, as this can be used in life outside of school. Unfortunately, for the first visit of the year, the younger students were unable to come with us to the center because they were denied permission to do so.

The visit was on October 15. Since I was the only new member I was introduced to the patients and we interacted and made puzzles with them to break the ice and to get used to each other. Afterwards we played Pass the Parcel and had a dance party (where the parcels and the music selection was organized by Anjleen, our service leader, before the visit). Granted, some of the patients could not move around a lot or very well, so the dancing was pretty limited, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves all the same.

(Photo credit: Sonali Fernando)

(Photo credit: Sonali Fernando)

(Photo credit: Bella Grieve-Darcy)

(Photo credit: Bella Grieve-Darcy)

(Photo credit: Bella Grieve-Darcy)

Something I need to improve on is definetly updating my blog more often after sessions and not as a one huge post at the end of each quarter. Because of SAISA Volleyball I was unable to attend a session and a visit, but I think that this was a good start to the service aspect of CAS. 

IB Orientation Trip

In September of 2014, the DP1 students all set out to Bordelands River Camp in Kitulgala for three days. The purpose of the trip was to get to know our fellow classmates better, as we would be working with each other for the next two years, and to build on our ladership and teamwork skills. Its other purpose was to get us out of our comfort zones and face up to the challenges presented. Since I had already been to Borderlands before in Grade 9 for Week Without Walls (a week long school trip), I did not find it as challenging as the last time, but it was just as fun. During the trip we were exposed to components of the CAS program as well as ToK (Theory of Knowledge) and we could connect the activites we did back to our school subjects.

The first day, we jumped straight into the action and "took the plunge". After a long bus ride, we were given a lecture on river safety measures. By then we were almost asleep, before we were given a rude awakening and pulled into the river, then taken canyoning and rafting. Canyoning was just as unpleasant as I remember it being - with maybe even more leeches this time around. Here I was challenged when having to jump from high places down into questionably safe waters. However, it wasn't that hard - all it takes is one stupid, reckless thought to jump. Rafting was much better this time around, mostly because we did not capsize again. I must admit that I was kind of sad that I did not have another epic story to tell my grandchildren, but I suppose only one capsized raft story will have to suffice. ~Action

Rafting prep (Photo courtesy of Mr. Lockwood)

Ha, we look like warriors waiting for battle (Photo courtesy of Mr. Lockwood)

Random river circle dancing! (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

One of our guides (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

Rafting (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

So majestic (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

Canyoning prep (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

Canyoning (Photo courtesy of Mr. Lockwood)

Epic canyoning pic (Photo courtesy of Mr. Lockwood)

The second day started with warm ups and a few teamwork exercises before we went on a hike to a cave, then to the waterfall to absail. In the cave, we learned about the history of our surrounding environment and did a few activities in ToK and art such as making artworks using only materials found in our environment (like Andy Goldsworthy). After that we went up the mountain to the waterfall and absailed to the pool at the bottom. When we went to Borderlands in Grade 9, I really enjoyed this part of the trip and it was a lot of fun doing absailing again. ~Creativity

Teamwork exercises (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

Learning about the history of the cave (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

Meditating (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

At the cave (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

Inside the cave (Photo courtesy of Mr. Lockwood)

View from the top (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

At the edge (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

"I got this" (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

"No, don't cut the rope!" (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

"Yay! This is fun!" (Photo courtesy of Mr. Lockwood)

"Oh my golly goodness, I'm going to die" (Photo courtesy of Mr. Lockwood)

On the third and final day, we went out around Borderlands in groups to have interviews with some of the people living in or around Kitulgala. The language barrier was a bit of a problem, but we were able to ask one of our guides to act as translator. The method of questioning and protocol when asking questions had to be carefully planned before hand, so as not to offend our interviewee. Our interviewee was a tuk tuk driver who will lose a lot of his business from a dam being built on the river the next year. By the river being blocked, many tourists will stop coming to Kitulgala to go rafting on the river, meaning less customers for our interviewee. This change in the environment will also impact a lot of the community also dependent on the river. Our interviewee and other members of the community have takn to protesting against the dam being built. They also have a Facebook page called "Damned - Save the River Kelani". ~Service

Overall the trip was a great experience, and I met a lot of the new people and learned a bit more about the people I already knew, as well as about myself. I really hope I can go absailing again.

Class of 2016 (Photo courtesy of Borderlands Ltd.)

A few weeks after the trip, we made a presentation during assembly about what happened and what we had learned while we were away. My group also made a short skit about our interview with the tuk tuk driver. Below is a link to a video compilation of photos and video that were taken on the trip by various people:

Borderlands Action

(Edited by Prerna Das and Yannis Grimm)