The plan for this week’s session was to spend about 20-30 minutes in the IT lab to teach them about the typing fundamentals, but since we were unable to book any of the labs after school, we decided to play cricket today.

This was the first time to play cricket in this service project and although all of were unsure whether this would be successful or not, overall I’m very happy with the way that this proceeded. It was very clear that the children were really enjoying, and of course it was very enjoyable for us to play with them too. Sports is one area where communication plays a key role, and as I have difficulty in communicating with them due to the language barrier it was bit of a challenge that I had to take, but this is all part of the experiential learning and something very meaningful. All of us worked and collaborated together to make this happen, and as it was successful I feel that we have made another method of interacting with them as well as taking a step to a higher level of achievement.

Unexpectedly, the RCCI service project has joined us today to play cricket as well (Rehabilitation Center for the Communication Impaired, the children have communication disorders and other mental problems). As cricket is an integral part of the Sri Lankan culture, it is no surprise that everybody wants to join! It was a great opportunity to demonstrate a unity within a community, which is something of global importance.  Sports is one area where anybody can interact with each other regardless of the background and this lead me to think about some of the ethical implications. Whether some are disabled or not, the essence lies in the fact that there is something very valuable to get out which can be learned from this service project, which will benefit us in the future. We are more than welcome to play cricket with the RCCI children again the next time we play cricket.