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A Leadership Position (Semester 1)

Last year I took over one of the three service leader spots for OSC’s Housing and Habitat Service Group. We had our first orientation session last Thursday, and have been preparing consistently to organize all of the plans we have for this year. We have created a calendar which incorporates all our SMART goals for this semester and will be sharing it with a group soon.

We have also counted all of our earnings from last year’s home run and bake sales, and have somewhat decided what materials we are buying with those finances.

But more than the thankless tasks that are involved in being a service leader, I’ve realized there are so many other personal things I need to address to become the best leader I can. Being a leader means many things. It means having good communication and collaboration skills, and being able to problem solve.

Additionally, interacting with people and trying fit the needs of all of our members, is really important to me. I want people to feel comfortable and create an environment where we can share our ideas. That is going to be my number one goal as service leader this year.

Re Learning Safety in the Workshop

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Summer Work at US Embassy Colombo

This past summer, I became an unofficial real estate agent for the US Embassy in Colombo. I got an internship in the GSO section. GSO stands for “General Services Office”. And the job description is pretty much exactly what you do. General Services. I had to wear proper work clothes, which was fun.

I enjoyed a lot, numerous, way too many meetings. I visited many houses that I had found online, looking to increase the housing pool number. I worked on my how professional writing skills as I and wrote up reports on the houses. Additionally, I reviewed Embassy members’ housing concerns (you would be shocked to know some of those), and led Final Walkthroughs for houses that are awaiting new arrivals. Other, more pressing matters, included discussing money issues with partners such as the Shangri La Hotel, and terminating a property contract we had started no more than two years previous.

 

I both enjoyed and excelled in the workplace. I was able to create my own rhythmic schedule and thus, with this freedom, I used the Embassy gym everyday, ate really good cafeteria food, and attended Zumba classes. I visited my parents in their offices from time to time. I got very used to the Embassy community and my coworkers and I was sad to leave at the end of summer. I will miss my amazing colleagues who were so dedicated to their work and my boss who treated me like a real employee and taught me so much about the professional world. It was truly a great experience and I would love to do it again.

Edit: Recently the team and I went to lunch to catch up. I hadn’t realized how much I missed them!

 

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Housing and Habitat (My Service)

Last semester, I became a member of the service group Housing and Habitat. Our school promotes various service groups of all kinds to benefit many different communities around Sri Lanka.Ā 

One of the 7 garden beds. In this image we are evening the cement and layering the bricks on it.

The service group I am invested in, Housing and Habitat, has various purposes. Our first quarter of work we created the batons for a baton relay hosted at the school, raising awareness for Cop27.

Towards the second quarter we began building the four garden beds that are now completed and in use for different types of vegetables and garden greens. We spent many Saturdays mixing cement and laying bricks for this project. The biology teacher at our school uses the beds for experiments as well, by her request.Ā 

At the very end of quarter two, we set up a stall for a service fundraiser. Me and a partner made cookies and brownies which, Iā€™d have you know, sold out immediately.Ā 

Now, coming to the start of this new semester we are organizing the details behind our annual fundraiser, ā€˜The Home Runā€™. We are in the process of designing posters and T-shirts. And later in the future, we plan to build furniture for local schools in Colombo.

A few people from our Housing and Habitat group mixing cement.

Housing and habitat has taught me the value of beingĀ able to use your hands to accomplish tasks rather than just your brain. It has also taught me a lot about collaboration with team members and cooperating with people even though at times it can be frustrating. It gives me skills that will be helpful in the future especially when it comes to containing patience for the people around me.

 

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“With the lights out it’s less dangerous” – Working With Victims of Trafficking

Today I was going to come on here and write an opinion piece complaining about the lack of institutions put in place to save victims from trafficking and how the common mindset in America right now is ‘if we don’t see it it’s not happening’, which is absolutely false. I fell down a rabbit hole of unnecessary research and it spiked a fury in me I have only experienced in bit sized portions before.

This global catastrophe gets less attention than it deserves, like so many others, and I am incredibly mad about it. One of the main reasons, according to a former employee of US Child Protection Services that I talked to, said “it’s because we get paid dirt”. So I looked it up and of course the average salary of an CPS officer per year is $21,500 – $23,499. So then why does the average NBA player get $8.5 million a year? Where does this tell us our priorities are?… Just a thought.

So, frustrated, it finally came to my attention that I could do something. I looked up the top organizations that USAID in Colombo works with and I found a few. I have contacted them and started discussing the ways I can help through service. Plans are being finalized, and I am not as upset anymore.