The Utsho Fun Day

"He who makes a beast out of himself

Gets rid of the pain of being a man."

- Bat Country, Avenged Sevenfold

Saturday, November 25th, 2006; International School Dhaka

The Utsho Fun Day -- fun, fun, very enjoyable day. On this day, children "less fortunate than us" were brought to ISD for the Utsho Fun Day, in which they were able to have fun while using ISD facilities such as the swimming pool, the IT Lab, the indoor gym, and the playfield. The purpose of organizing this event was mainly to give these children an opportunity to experience and enjoy ISD's state-of-the-art facilities, and learn from these experiences. This event was organized by Mrs. Amy Pitcairn, while other teachers from the Secondary School, such as Madame Viart and Mr. Horkan, were also directly involved in this event as the photographer and the secondary supervisor, respectively.

ISD students who volunteered for this big event were assigned jobs such as supervisors for activities like swimming, field sports, badminton and table tennis, book making, computers, and party games, while some were also assigned to be group leaders. I was assigned to be the group leader for the Green Team, but because I was not fluent in Bangla, my fellow Eleventh-Grader, Maisha Khan, was assigned to assist me, especially in the linguistic department.

Each group consisted mainly of ten to twelve children; ours was no exception. As group leaders, our job was to lead our team to the location where each activity will be taking place, as well as to assist them in any problem they might have in the course of the activity. Since the children were only able to speak Bangla, language and communication was definitely a barrier for me; many thanks to my partner, Maisha, for her role as translator, hence making my job easier and much more enjoyable to carry out.

The children were due to arrive at around 0930 hours; events started at 1000 hours sharp. They assembled, along with us volunteers, in the open space in front of the office. Here, they were divided into the groups they were already assigned to be in throughout the day (Red, Green, Yellow, or Blue). Group leaders must then lead their team to the venue of the first activity of the day.

Generally, it was a fun, fun day. Difficulties encountered: COMMUNICATION. I couldn't even understand them when they said that they wanted to go to the bathroom. I had to ask a fluent Bangla speaker to translate for me. The only Bangla words that I learned were "dhooy," meaning "two" and "shobuj" meaning "green." This is because I was the leader for the Green Team, and during the Sports activities at the end, my team was Team Two.

The day proceeded smoothly, from the very beginning till the very end, and those involved in it were extremely pleased to see success and CAS hours acquired. We received 8 hours for this CAS activity, and that is quite a lot, I tell you.

We are looking forward to more activities like the Utsho Fun Day, because not only was it enjoyable to be working with these kids, but it also helps improve leadership skills, and develop your patience in dealing with children.

I'm joking, but still partially serious.

I would put in pictures to make this post more colorful, but Internet is not exactly at its most favorable speed at the current moment. Till next time, folks.

AND DO YOUR CAS! (I shall do mine as well.)