Mirror
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A
well-prepared lot One of the highlights of the exhibition was the inter-troop tower building competition. The towers were required to be portable, meaning they couldn’t dig the ground or use pegs to stabilise the tower. Therefore, the various troops had to come up with innovative ideas to construct towers in adherence to the requirements of the competition. It was quite evident that a lot of planning, team effort and hard work had gone into the building of the structures. On speaking to some of the scouts, we found out just how much happened behind the scenes. Keshan Dayaratne (18), a Senior Scout of Ananda College explained how they gave precedence to the tower being stable. In order to keep it stable they couldn’t build it too high and they had only 24 hours to build it. A task that would keep them up all night. Rasanga Fernando (24), Acting Leader/ Senior Scout of the Polwatte Troop that bagged first place at the competition, said that as the main concept of the tower had been a collective idea, each of his troop members had a specific job to do and would do it without any hesitation. They had decided to make the tower shaped like a pyramid so as to ensure its stability. He added that they had improved their timing on each of the three practice sessions during which they constructed the tower prior to the competition. Chathura Sameera (17), of the first runners-up troop of St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa explained how they would have to work very hard to build the tower within the time frame allotted to them. He added that their tower was made solely of Kottamba and Ipilipil bark and hay. They had also got the help of an engineering student who had contributed mathematically to construct the tower. He also added that this type of experience would help develop their pioneering skills and make them more aware of keeping their environment clean. The roofless tower made of bamboo and rope was the work credited to Vivekananda College. Manivasagam Perumal (19) a senior scout explained they had begun planning the structure from December and had timed to take approximately 10 hours to build it. Their Scout Leader had helped them with their strategy, he said. The Royal College Gold Troop, St. Thomas’ College – Kotte, St. Sebastian’s College - Moratuwa, Unicorn Open Scout Troop, St. Benedict’s College, Polwatte Open Scout Troop, Zahira College (second runners-up), D.S. Senanayake College, Ananda College and Vivekananda College – Wellawatte were the ten schools competing in the tower building competition. Backwood Cooking (cooking without utensils) was yet another highlight of this exhibition. I was told that the scouts could even boil an egg or even rice without using utensils and even without water if the need arose. This was quite impressive, I thought. The STCSG also launched their own Website and IT Section as well as a multimedia CD marking ‘Tribal Craft’ and recapping their past projects. Apart from the tower building competition, there were many other displays and demonstrations such as the display of Naval Crafts relevant to scouting, life saving demonstrations and special demonstrations conducted by the Fire Department. Stalls organised by the Girl Guide and Cub Scout movements were also on show. What with just having to think about all the rifle shooting, aerial runways, swings, toddy-tappers, cartwheels, catapults, monkey bridges packed into just two days, I left more informed and enlightened and just a little overwhelmed. |
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