Week Without Walls at Hambantota

"Failing to plan is planning to fail."
Every year, OSC gives its students the opportunity to ‘get down and dirty’ to help the community by organizing ‘a Week Without Walls’ where we are taken somewhere that needs help for five days. Hambantota is a town on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka that was devastated by the tsunami in 2004 and this is where the Grade 11 class was taken this year. Unexpectedly, our work started long before we got there because there was so much preparatory work to get sorted out beforehand. The grade was split into 2 groups (named ‘Shaaa’ and ‘Hunas’) and each one had their separate school to take care of. The main group leaders were elected within the groups; I was in the Shaaa group that had ThiSHAka and SaCHA as leadersJ. Our main objectives were to paint the school and playground equipment, give each schoolchild a gift parcel, paint a mural and to organize a concert for them. Each of these categories had their sub-leaders and I was put in charge of the concert as well as helping the games leader (who couldn’t speak Sinhala!) to communicate with the kids.
It was the gifts that required most work: each of us handed in Rs. 1000 and Christina (leader of the Hunas group) along with Anishka, Priyanka and Devnash combed Nugegoda’s pavements for suitable gifts. They managed to come across some unbelievable bargains which we quickly and efficiently sorted out into “boys’ gifts” parcels and “girls’ gifts” parcels. For the concert, we decided to sing “Surangani” (a popular Sinhala Baila song) and “Old MacDonald had a Farm”. After consulting my mum for more ideas, we thought of performing a small skit about a ‘Cottonwool baby’ who refused to eat her rice. J Thishakya, Prashant (games leader) and I got together and brainstormed some kids games we could play and on what days to play them: we settled with Duck Duck Goose, tag and a few other traditional Sri Lankan games. Aside from all this, we also had to be taught how to paint and mix the different paint types by the service staff who were all extremely helpful.
After putting everything we needed together in time, we all sat back in our bus seats for the 6 hour ride…

"I cried because I had no shoes…until I saw someone who had no feet."
Day 1: When we first arrived at the school we were greeted by all the kids with a small bouquet of flowers in their hands, lined up and eager to hand them over to each of us! We were touched by this simple, welcoming gesture. Not wanting to waste any time, we split the kids up into 2 groups for the games and I was in charge of one of them. The night before we decided that instead of Duck Duck Goose we should say Eluwa Eluwa Kotiya (Goat Goat Tiger) which the kids can relate to better. They loved the game although only a few understood what they had to do so we all had to join in to keep the game flowing! After a few minutes the kids got distracted and started playing on the equipment instead, allowing us to get down to business.

The rest of the day was spent removing the rust on the playground equipment and starting to paint some of them. Thishakya and I concentrated mostly on the swing while the others worked on the slide, see-saws and the mural.
Day 2: The second day was a lot more productive mostly because we knew what to expect this time. After the games, we immediately went back to our assigned jobs, determined to accomplish as much as possible. I finished painting the swing with Gurleen’s help and discovered firsthand how difficult it is to remove that kind of paint from skin (my hands didn’t look the same for at least a week)!! I then moved to the inside of the building to help Thishakya paint the pillars yellow: we finished this completely. Afterwards, Ms Fernando, Thishakya, Prashant and Sacha and I all started working on the green walls putting on 2/3 coats. The main problem we had was cleaning the brushes because there weren’t enough to go around but we managed to work around that without much difficulty. By the end of the day, the mural was completed as were most of the walls and equipment. We were absolutely exhausted but we had the next day’s goals set which we had every intention of reaching.

Day 3: Since we had to leave time for the concert, we opted to not have the games session but to complete our work as well as we could instead. The wooden furniture were taken outside to be painted while Yiseul, Thishakya and I worked on the doors. We also managed to finish the floor and get some balloons blown in time for the concert which we had to have outside because the floor was not dry. Despite its simplicity, the kids, parents and teacher loved our performances and were especially amused by the skit where we had to mime the ‘Cotton baby’ being blown above the clouds by a strong wind! Handing out the packages did not go as well as we had hoped because we only brought enough for the schoolchildren but there were other kids at the concert as well (siblings and older village children) who we accidentally gave some parcels to. Thankfully, not all the schoolchildren were able to make it that day so at least the kids who were present were able to walk away with something. Ms Malini, the school headmistress, without being satisfied by all the small treats she gave us consistently during our visits, organized a small feast for us at her home to reiterate her gratefulness for what we did. With great difficulty, we managed to convince them that it was late and we had to leave so we said our goodbyes.


"In the world there are givers and takers: the takers eat better but the givers sleep better."
Looking back at what we had achieved, I realized that adding so much colour into the learning environment of young children had effects on their minds that I’ve never considered before. As Ms Fernando explained, the first few years of a child’s life is when we form the person s/he is to become, the remainder of their schooling years are just fine-tuning what has already been formed. Both groups managed to achieve what we had planned before and we all agreed that it had been an enlightening and unforgettable experience. Special thanks to Mr De Silva (head organizer), Ms Craig, Ms Fernando and Mr Barla for being with us through every step of the way.

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