Coast Intercultural Trip

The coast trip was a pretty nice way to end our intercultural trips. It was really nice being able to bond with our grade for one last time but also learn new things about the local community.

On the first day we got to interact with the community straight away and learn about some of the activities they do regularly such as using coconut for multiple functions, weaving leaves together and making clothing. We were split into three different groups and we went to different stations. The first station I went to was learning how to use a coconut.  I was so surprised by how many functions the coconut has. The people use the shell as a spoons, and the insides for cooking, they also extract the oil for lotion and cooking and sometimes they also create earrings to sell. Learning how they create all of these products was really fascinating and I didn’t know coconuts had all those functions. I realized if you aren't privileged enough to have many resources you have to be creative with the little that you have and these people demonstrated that very well. From this experience I learned to be more appreciative of the things I have. Then we went to the tailor and the majority of us asked him to sew clothing. I was surprised by how fast he was able to finish sewing all our clothing. Then the last station we went to was the leaf weaving where we learned how the people weave the large palm tree leaves together to help create roofs and for other items.

On the trip we also did some creativity activities which was creating bracelets out of plastic slippers. I was surprised by how much you can create from one small item. Whenever I go to the Massai market and see all the little items that they create I never really think about how strenuous it is to create all those pieces until I sat and made my own  flip flop bracelet. It took me about an hour to make one and now I really appreciate the effort and time these people put into making all those amazing items. After creating my bracelet I saw other people creating amazing things such as turtle and fish key chains, and bouncy balls I really wanted to go and try making everything. However, I enjoyed making the bracelet so much that I decided to make another one.  I personally am a person who enjoys using my hands and making things so doing this activity was very fun and different for me.

During this intercultural trip many of the things I participated in were a first for me for an example going to the coast in Kenya, making flip flop bracelets and snorkeling. Snorkeling was my favorite activity by far especially since I had never done it before. When I got into the water I was a bit nervous because I had never really used the snorkeling masks before and breathing through the tube was a bit nerve racking. But, as I started swimming it started to feel a bit normal. When I looked into the water it felt like I was in a different world! It was so amazing and I didn't really want to leave that world.  Which is one of the reasons why I went snorkeling a second time instead of going onto the little beach.  Even though I really liked snorkeling I had a few problems when I was snorkeling. On the way back to the boat the top of the breathing tube came of so even when I was barley on the surface looking into the water. Salt water would still enter my tube and into my mouth. By the end of the day I’m pretty sure I swallowed a gallon of salt water! At times water also went into my goggles and I was blinded with stinging salt water.  Other than that I really enjoyed snorkeling and next time I wouldn't mind going diving and exploring the deep sea.

On the third day our group had the service day where first we helped build the tree nursery and then for the second half of the day we helped build the dispensary for the health clinic. This was a very tiring day yet it was very rewarding to think that the little we were helping build will last for years to come. What we had to do for the tree nursery was help build the foundation by mixing A LOT of cement and placing it onto the ground floor. The tree nursery was where they planted the baby seedlings and the cement that we were helping place would help retain the water so that they wouldn't waste any water. Once the trees started to branch and grow roots  they would move the little trees and place them into the actual dirt where they could grow their roots into the ground. At the dispensary for the health clinic our job was to collect the mounds of dirt that the other group had already dug out into trenches and we had to place the dirt on one side of the floor. This was also very tiring but it was worth it. By the end of the day we had accomplished a lot and I was very proud of what we had done for this beautiful community.

Overall this intercultural trip was a very fun trip because we were able to learn new things about the local community, give back to the people and have fun in the sun. J

Athletic Council-Dodgeball

For athletic Council we have changed our whole agenda and we decided to have a mini olympics and there would be teams of 5 who would pay 2500 for each team and all the money would go to the Mercy School. So we decided to host our first event which was dodgeball after school at 5 on wednesday after the CAS activities. We had a large turn out. About 7 teams showed up ready to play and earn points towards their ranking. Because at the end often Olympics each member of the team would get a free ticket t coast all expenses paid. Which is the best prize that has ever been offered in ISk. I was very excited to see so many people participating and having fun while at the same time helping us raise money for the Mercy School. My job was to take pictures. All the teams were very intense and ready to play, it was really fun to see all the competitive spirit everyone exerted! But i felt bad for the freshmen team because they went against all the teachers and they all got knocked out in about 2 minutes. It was really funny to see but at the same time very sad. It was a very fun day and after this event i was excited to create more events.

Rosslyn Tournament 15th/ Sep/12

 On the 15th of september we had a mini tournament at Rosslyn at 8:30 and we played teams such as West Nairobi, Rosslyn, RVA, Hillcrest, and Brookside. It was a very tiring, hot yet fun because we got some more experience of what other teams were like. The most frustrating part was the fact that all the games were 15 minutes each and if you didn't play well from the beginning and made your shots you would potentially lose because the time is so limited. With almost every game the score reached about 25 to maybe 10. I think we did a good job. In the semi finals we played against Hillcrest and it was a pretty tough game because we weren't scoring any points and i think since we just had lunch before and we were tiered and for the majority of our games we played outside and it affected the way we were playing. But on the other hand we ended up doing well even though i think we could have down better. In the finals we played against RVA inside and in the end we ended up winning and we showed all the other teams that we could still do really well even though we had several obstacles in our way. In the end we got medals and i won the best player of the day, i was very shocked, excited and honored that i was presented this award. We spent 8 hours at rossyln and it was worth it because we gave all the teams a run for their money.

RVA - 13/ Sep/ 12

     On the 13th of September we had our second game of the season which was a friendly against RVA. However  it was still very nerve racking because RVA has always been our number 1 rival and last year we had a terrible game against them and we wanted to show them that we could bring it. As soon as we went inside the gym i got really nervous all of a sudden and the memory of our terrible game came flooding back and i kind of felt sick to my stomach but as we started to put on our shoes and warmed up i started to get excited again .  Then Mr. Quinet gave us a pep talk which really helped and i was definitely ready to give it a hundred percent. As soon as the game started it was zero, zero for a while and i think they scored the first point but then we got it back and we caught up. we were leading by 8 point by the first quarter. Then by the second quarter it was a tie and they caught up quite fast and we just weren't scoring any points. It was so frustrating. But by the third quarter we had to step it up because the score was really close and fortunately we did step it up and we scored a lot of points. I felt so  proud of our team because we stepped it up when it really counted and we showed them that we were there to play and we wouldn't give up that easily just because we lost last year.

1st Basketbal game of the season vs Rosslyn 11/Sep

     On the 11th of September we had our first basketball game of the season. It was very nerve racking yet very exciting. Rosslyn has always been one of our rivals as well as RVA and since we had some new team members and it was our first  game i really wanted us to do well. As the game started we were all pumped and ready to go. In the beginning we scored the first shot but after that it was a slow start because for the first quarter the score was only 08-02 and we just weren't scoring. Then by the 2nd quarter we started to step it up and we started scoring. It was a pretty tough game because we weren't in the best shape  we usually are in by the middle of the season, so half way though most of us were exhausted, however this game helped us gain some experience and understand what we needed to work on  and it also reminded me of how much i missed and loved basketball. By the end of the game the score was 36 to 12 and we showed them what we had and what we would hopefully accomplish through out the season.

Shangilia Trip

        This was our first trip to Shangilia and it was very exciting because we hadn't seen them in a long time. As soon as we walked into the gate all the kids were very excited.  We started by introducing ourselves all over again and some of them remembered our names while others were still trying to learn them. It was very funny because when they tried to pronounced our  names it was very cute.  We decided to only play games because it was our first meeting. It was really fun to reconnect with the kids. We played with jump ropes and the girls were really excited and i recognized that the kids had new toys probably from other people. I played frisbee with Newton and Peter and it was really fun because we were all trying to show off our skills and they were pretty good. I think that this was a very fun Shangilia trip because it was fun to reunite and i was excited to go to the next trip and teach them new things.

Runda Feeding 22nd/ April/12

   This Runda feeding started later than usual because the people who work at Runda have chnaged their usual startying time so we waited at Java until about 11:15. When we go there we did the usual; sorting out food and then giving out the trays to the elderly. But for the first time it was really disorganized and chaotic at the end.  Usually after the people got the food they woudl exit through the other end of the cabana and sometimes they would try to get in again so that they could try and get some more food. But  it never really got out of control because there was always one guard at the end of the cabana preventing teh kids from reentering. But for teh first time it was really out of control.
    It started of normally with us giving out the food to all the people who came by. for the first time there seemed to be more older people such as teenagers and people in their 20’s which is very unusual because usually I give the food to little children.

            Then all of a sudden when there was a little more food left to hand out one of the managers came and took the food away, which was very  unusual and then they told us to move away from the edges because there were A LOT of people reaching over, asking for some extra food and more items. The guards would constantly go up to the edge of the cabana and literally whip them and hit against the wall really hard to prevent them from entering. This was such a vulgar and chaotic scene which shocked me. It was very unusual and I was really disappointed with the way the day ended but I guess it was inevitable and it was bound to happen eventually but it was such a big shock and I hope it doesn’t happen again and that next time it will be more organized and controlled.