Class pic with Kambala students. Photo credits: Mr. Duncan
Overseas School of Colombo is a diverse school where Sri Lankan culture is united with the international culture. On 7th December 2018, the Kambala School from Australia came for a Sri Lanka visit in which their 1st day was spent with the DP 1 (11th grade) of Overseas School of Colombo. The students from Kambala were also 11th graders and were doing the IB diploma, they have completed their 1st year of DP and will be starting their 2nd year because of the different timetable patters. This was a great opportunity to learn more about how DP 1 went for them and how it might go for us. The day was focused on interaction with Kambala students such as getting to know each other, sports activities such as cricket and volleyball, and Theory of Knowledge (TOK) activities.
Group photo with ‘Sarong’. Credits: Mr. Duncan
We started off by providing a ‘sarong’, which is a national dress of Sri Lanka, to all the students and besides the Kambala students, it was also my 1st time experiencing Sri Lankan culture. We started our interaction with them by introducing ourselves and the helping them wear the sarong. It was quite a fun moment as it made us more social with them. After the sarong activity, we moved to some TOK activities such as creating posters of different aspects of TOK. I really enjoyed that as it was a way to interact with the Kambala students and I realized that we all share quite common bases in IB. After this activity we played a game of ‘taking a step ahead if you agree’, in this game our teacher will say a statement and if we agree, we must take a step ahead and if not then take a step back. We played this game with the Kambala students in which we learned more about each other such the common classes we do, actuates, hobbies, etc.
Cooking Sri Lankan food with Kambala students. Photo credits: Mr. Duncan
Later in the day our next task was to cook Sri Lankan food with parents and teachers who volunteered to cook. We all were divided into groups with the Kambala students and each group was assigned a cooking section with a parent or teacher. This activity was great for learning about the Sri Lankan culture and also to engage with other students. During this activities my group along with 2 teachers made Sri Lankan salad however main dishes such as dal, curry, rice and roti, were also made. After the food session we ended the day with playing Sri Lanka’s national sport volleyball and not national but a popular sport of Sri Lanka cricket. It wasn’t a serious game but more like an interaction activity and I really enjoyed it as it was a long time since I’ve played cricket. That day with Kambala students was one of the best days and events I’ve had in DP as besides meeting with other students it was relaxing day from all the work and studies.
Playing cricket after a long time. Photo credits: Mr. Duncan