Basketball trip to Paris &Brussels

            On the 29^th of November the basketball team went to Paris to play the American school of Paris.  On the first day of arrival we went sight seeing and shopping. Going to Paris was the first time I had ever been to Europe and it was such an amazing place.  Then in the afternoon we went to the school which looked really nice but in my opinion it wasn’t as nice as schools in Africa because they don’t really have a nice outdoor grassy area, but other than that it looked like a really nice school. In the evening around 5 we played the Paris team and we were defeated because for some reason we weren't really prepared and it made us all upset but we knew we could do so much better at the tournament in Brussels.  Around 7 when the game ended we went home with our host families and I stayed with Evelyn with the same girl I hosted when they came to Kenya.

On the second day  we went sightseeing and Paris is such a beautiful place and I loved every minute of it! We went shopping and we ate McDonalds and it has been about 6 years since I had eaten it and it was amazing! We went to see all sorts of monuments and we went into the museum where the Mona Lisa was but to my surprise it was smaller painting then I had ever imagined and it was hard to take a picture of it because it was far away and there were also so many people also trying to take a picture. We also went around small suburbs and went shopping for souvenirs and mementos of Paris. Every single moment I spent in Paris I was elated and amazed and where I was and how grateful I was for this experience

    On the third day we went on the bus with the ASP players and we drove to Brussels where we were going to play the tournament against the team of Brussels , the Paris team and two their schools. Once we got to Brussels it seemed to be colder then Paris and the school was also really nice. Their gym was really nice with speakers on the wall and real bleachers and it was much better than our gym and even the American school of Paris gym. When we arrived we got changed and we played against two teams and we beat them and we were really happy and surprised because when we lost against the Paris team and we watch them play we were very nervous but we ended up doing a good job. When the games finished and around 7:30 we went home with the St. Johns school in Brussels families and Evelyn and I were so surprised at how big their house was and it was really beautiful.

            On the third of December the tournament continued and we played 4 teams again and we beat them al including the Paris team. Even though we only beat them by about 2 points it was such an amazing and very intense game.  I was so proud of our team because we did let our nervous get the best of us and we gave them a tough fight and this state of thinking caused us to give all the teams a tough fight in order to beat us and in the end we ended up beating them all, and we did a great job.  We finished the games and around 1 in the afternoon we got back on the bus and drove back to Paris exhausted but proud of what we were able to do.

             Before we knew it our trip was over and  I was proud of our team because we gave the teams a tough fight and we played our beast whilst having fun. This trip was one of the most amazing trips I had ever had!! On this trip our team became closer then ever even though all the members of our team never came the people who did come made our trip memorable. We were able to play really tough but well deserved basketball games with the European teams and best of all we were in EUROPE in Paris and Brussels sightseeing and shopping! One of the best things about this whole trip was how amazing our coach was being able to stand us for all the 6 days and being able to help us reach our highest potential:)

Runda feeding program (20/Nov/11)

            This was my second trip to Runda on the 20th of November and it is amazing how Runda is such a sophisticated and modernized location and as you drive further you see an undeveloped almost slum like area. This just demonstrates how even in a suburb there are always poor and less fortunate people around the corner. As we went into the area we began sorting out the food as usual and breaking the bread and bananas. Then we went into the home for the really elderly men and we served them their food in the trays. It was really sad to see how miserable they look and the whole room smelled like pee. Despite the scene I was happy that these elderly people at least had a place to stay during their old age unlike many people who don’t even have homes. Then we went over to the area where the elderly women were placed. For some reason they looked younger then the men and a bit more joyful because they were outside in the sun while the men were so old and sick that they had to stay inside which was  really sad. After serving the food to the elderly we went back into the shed where the other food was and we waited for the kids to come by so that we could pass out the food and the candy. 
        This program from interact even though it makes me sad seeing all these people getting such little food I’m still always happy to be a part of something bigger then myself, being able to help the community and make a child or an adult happy for some time. And every once in a while i come across a child who is beaming, with a smile stretching from ear to ear because of the food they are getting. When this happens i'm always so happy to make someone else happy and i really appreciate the small things in life!          

Selling Drinks and Food for money for prom

            The 11^th grade class decided to sell drinks at the Macbeth play in order to get some more money for our prom  on the 17^th of November. I went to sell drinks and small snacks and foods from 5-7 and this play was a success because from the beginning there were dozens of people coming by and buying food before they entered to watch the play. I felt that going to the Macbeth play and selling food and drinks allowed us to raise a lot of money and it was worth it.

ISK final against RVA

            On the 12th of November was the RVA final and it  was such a nerve racking time for our whole team. We were practicing so hard just to be able to beat this team or come close to it because RVA was our toughest competition.  As soon as we walked into the gym we were already nervous and anxious but ready to play.  As the whistle blew and the game started RVA scored the first point but that wasn’t going to faze us we kept in running and trying to keep up with them. By half time  we were about 10 point behind them and we still had a little bit of hope left, but I could tell that everyone was already slowly giving up including myself. By the third quarter they were almost double out score and they were playing extremely well and I honestly knew that we could do better then this game we were playing. By the end of the match we lost by a land slide and it was VERY disappointing because we could have done much better! In the end we won 2^nd place. Looking back on the game I think we could have done a better job of defending and marking our man throughout the games because that was one of our major weaknesses which led them to score so many points. 

OVC Christmas party

 The interact club every year organized an OVC Christmas party and this time we had the Christmas party on the 5th of November. We walked over to the place which was about 5 minutes way from the school and we brought all the kids and we placed them into three groups of about 15 kids and we were going to go around into different stations. One of the stations was to play outside on the playgrounds, then to go into the multipurpose room to draw and that was where we  gave them cloths that we were gathering for both boys and girls so that they could use in order to change into when they went to the swimming station. The moment they went to change and got into the pool with floats you could see a light of joy ignite in their eyes. And their smiles grew from one side of their faces to the other. The moment I saw this I felt so happy for providing something so little  that we are able to receive to these kids. And I new that their Christmas was almost complete all they needed was their meal. So we went to the final station where they received their food and by that time it was almost 12:30 and then we had to get them all gathered because all the groups were almost done with their activities and we were ready to take them back to the center. By 1 o’clock we were back at the center with the happy kids and I felt so happy for what I was able to give to the kids. At the end of the day I was so happy with what I had done for theses kids, it was all worth while seeing the smiles on their faces and I knew that we made someone s Christmas great and I really  appreciated being part of  Interact because it allowed me to make many childrens lives better and it made them much happier.

Basketball game Against RVA

On the 13/sep/11 we left school early to go paly against RVA for basketball football and the tennis. This was our second game and we were playing RVA ‘B’ team which was nerve racking because we knew that the RVA ‘a’ team was pretty good and we didn’t know how good the ‘b’ team would be so we were a bit nervous but excited. When the game started we were a bit disorganized even though we knew we could do soo much better because RVA ‘b’ team wasn’t that good, but somehow by the first half we were only winning by about 4 points. We needed to pull it together and start playing properly and we did start playing a bit better by the third quarter.  Even though we won 38- 15 we all felt that we could have done WAY better in our execution of plays and defense. Our coach even said it would have been better to lost because of the way we were playing and if it was a better team we would have been destroyed because of the result of our overall playing. I felt that we did do really badly but luckily (hopefully) since it is only the beginning of the year we can only get better and learn from our mistakes.

PTO Picinic-Ball Toss

On the 10/sep/11 there was the PTO welcome back picnic and from 8 am-1pm I was attending to the athletic council ball toss. It was really fun and exhausting to attend to people rushing to play this game that looks simple but was actually pretty hard.  The point if the game was to stand behind a line and toss a ball into a hole 3 times and if you get the ball in 3/3 times you would win t-shirts and footballs, if  you got 2/3 you would receive packs of chips and candy and so on the less balls you threw into the whole the smaller the prize. In the morning there were very few people who came to try the game but then when Luka one of the boys basketball players tried to play and missed almost every single time other people wanted to play and beat him especially because he was a basketball player and he couldn’t even get the ball into the hole while little children were able to make it. It was really funny to see this happen, but at this time there were a rush of kids wanting to play, even though it felt a bit chaotic it was exhilarating to have all these kids wanting to play this game which was very deceiving.

By the afternoon many people failed and they kept coming back because they were determined to get more then one ball into the whole. It was fun watching them try to succeed. Even though it was tiring to try and get everything organized especially when all of a sudden there was a rush of kids who wanted to play. At one point during the rush of kids we ran out of candy and we didn’t know what to do because Mr. Quinet our supervisor wasn’t available and wasn’t picking up his phone and we had kids who wanted there prize so I had to use our money to go by some candy from another stall, and as soon I bought the candy with our money he cam back with candy! I was so annoyed and frustrated but relieved to see that it all worked out. By the end of the day both Binoy and I were exhausted because we worked the whole day with no breaks. I was proud of my self and I realized how much fun I had running the stand which had a lot of customers.

At the end of the day after we packed up and counted the money all the hard work paid of because we got 17,000 sh which is a lot of money and I was surprised we raised that much money but it was a success and I never would have thought that the a small game like the ball toss would draw so many customers but since it’s so deceiving it drew in a lot of eager children.  Overall I learned how to manage a game and how to keep the place more or less organized when it became hectic. At the end my arms and back were exhausted from bending over to be at the level of the kids, I was happy I ran the stand because I learned how much I enjoyed helping little kids play this game and witnessing their happiness and determination to succeed made me happy to be part of athletic council during the PTO picnic.

Interact Bonding Day

On Saturday 3/Sep/11 there was an Interact meeting which was for all the people who were accepted to join Interact. In the beginning we learned about what our goals for the first semester were and who the heads of each committee was. When we finished we were  split into our committees and those committees were split into two because there were too many people, so then  one area of  the room would have two separate tables and both would have the same committee groups but for the games we were competing against each other for the time being.

One of the bonding game options was to build a Lego tower with all the pieces the fastest and the tallest. We had to estimate the time we thought we would build it in and how many pieces we could use, and every person in the group had to be assigned a segment that they would complete. The second game option was to figure out which patient out of 6 should live depending on their circumstance, and when the group choose who would live they had to give a reason why. I choose to do the Lego tower, and our group built a pretty tall  Lego tower but since we didn’t understand the rules properly we wrote down that it would take us 10 minutes to build it when in reality it took us less then a minute. We were disappointed when we came last because the judges were judging us on how close our estimated times was. Even though we would have won if it was judged on how fast we built our tower. I felt that we were a pretty good group even though we misunderstood the instructions.  We were able to assign certain specific Lego pieces to each person who could build it the fastest and we were able to communicate well with each other.

The point of the Lego game was to show us how in certain situations in Interact we will have to assign each person a job and a  responsibility and each member has to contribute to  execute the project correctly. If it is done correctly then we are capable of creating something good with the help of every team member. The other game was to teach us that choosing one person to live would have many disagreements because everyone has a different opinion  but in the end they had to choose someone and that’s how Interact club works, many people have different opinions but in the end you have to work together to solve a problem.

            When it was around 12:45 we had a lunch break and we our group was sent out last because we lost but we felt that it was unfair since we didn’t understand the rules properly, but it was ok because we thought we were winners inside and we did our best. J  After the short lunch break we went outside to play another game. The object of the game was to have our separate committees; service, finance, international and club.  We competed against each other in a potato running game. We had to put a potato on a spoon and run to the other side of the field then around a chair and back to the starting point the fastest without dropping the potato. It was fun but unfortunately the 1^st service group lost but the 2^nd service group came 2^nd and I felt proud of us!

            After the game we went back inside and we got into our whole service group and we got to know everyone and we talked about what things the service committee does and what our goals for this year were. By the end of this I became the secutary of attendance. After our small get together it was the pinning ceremony time. We all got up and were given our new pins and finally we were officially initiated into the club, it felt good. Even though I thought that the pins were really small and I was pretty sure I would lose it, and if we did we would have to pay about 500 sh. and  if we didn’t bring one to the meeting we would have to pay 50 sh. We finished around one and I was excited to be part of this club which does so much service and interactive things with our community.

RVA basketball game at ISK

            The day had come on the 11th of October where we had to play RVA again outside of the tournament at Rosslyn and we were ready. This was the game we were practicing for and I was very nervous and excited and we ahd nothing to lose.  As soon as the ball was tossed up into the air my heart started raisning and as it hit evelyns hand towards one side I was ready to play. But unfortunetlyu the other team got the ball and scored the first shot and from then on it went down hill. By the second quarter we were losing by a lot and at time out we were all disappointed and I felt like were weren’t going to catch up but after some inspirational words from our coach Mr. Quinet when the third quarter started we were able to catch up and every point they scored we also scored and it was exciting and this game was the first team we played which was up to our match.We were abel to tier them out and show them what we really ahd to offer.  They were our a greatest opponent.  When the forth quarter began the score board was alternating between our team in the lead and their team. In the last 15 seconds they scored and they were up by two but unfortunately we couldn’t catch up in such little time and the score ended up being 43-45. It was a great improvement compared to the last time we played against them in the Rosslyn tournament.. I was still a little disappointed because we were so close to beating them but  in the end I felt proud of our team because we were able to show them how much we can bring to the table.

Basketball game against Rosslyn

We played another home game against Rosslyn on the 10^th of October and I was so excited because my leg was better and I was allowed to play after missing two other games one was against Agakan on the 6^th and the  other was against Hillcrest on the 7^th. I felt so useless for those games and both Nandi and I  were our teams personal cheerleaders while our team did a great job of defeating both teams very successfully. But today I got a chance to play since my leg healed and I was so excited and very nervous to play again.  During this game I got a feel of how to play again after missing out on so many games and I realized how much it sucked to be injured and how great and refreshing it was to get back into the game. At the end of the day we won an di felt proud of myself and our team and I was ready to play RVA again in a few days.

Hunger Banquet

            The Hunger Banquet is an event that the Global Issues Network organized in order to raise awareness about the all the starving children in Somalia and on the 8th of October we held the Hunger Banquet.

       On this day at 5 o’clock I went to go and help add the finishing touches. When I went inside the place already looked beautiful.  All we had to do was fold all the schedule's for the event  and put the small decorations. Then at 6:30 the event began and as the people walked into the Multie purpose room they had to get a piece of paper which had a name of person and a short paragraph about their life and their social and economic status. There were three categories the person could be put into. There was low income, middle income and high income. The low income people would have to sit in the floor and they only received water and injera, the middle income people received water in a nice glass some injera with a sauce while the high income received a full meal. The purpose of this was to raise awareness of how many Africans are livening and the seating arrangement allowed the audience to recognize how unfair some of the situations many Africans were faced with. During the event there were many performances, there was a dance done by an Ethiopian dance group and a talk by the Somalia ambassador and people from the red cross.

            The night was a great success with an auction and many participants. We were able  to raise awareness . I was very proud of our club for accomplishing this event very flawlessly. At the end of the night I was part of the clean-up group so I stayed afterwards to cleaning up the mess. But the pity was that the people who were placed in the low income including myself because even the people part of the GIN were given the tickets at random. But unfortunately many of  the low income group who were only given injera without any sauce and  they didn’t eat their food so I felt as if a lot of it went to waste, and I thought that we could  have probably given the low income group samosas which everyone likes at least but I understood whey they were only given injera because it also represents how the low income group also didn’t get to eat what they wanted and most likely to eat the same foods everyday if they were lucky enough to even get food. But the food didn’t go to total waste because we gave some of the left overs to the staff. Overall I thought this event was a great success and it did rais awareness to the people in a very creative way and I’m pretty sure that the people who went will never forget this event . In the end all the money we raised was given to the red cross.  And they were very grateful and I also felt happy for bettering the life of others by organizing and participating in the event.

First Trip to Shangalia 5th/Oct/11

On the 5/Oct/11 all the people who are part of the service group in Global Issues Network went to Shangalia for the first time. We were all excited because we wanted to go and help out and to see how this place was like. When we got there it looked a bit like a compound where someone would live because there were clothes hanging and drying outside and then right in front of the door was a stage with a really nice drawing of people performing. They introduced us to some of the kids and they told us that Shangalia is a place where they take care of kids ages from 5 to 17 and they [provide the kids a place to stay and they teach them performing arts such as dancing and playing instruments.

            Before we went to Shangalia we all signed up for various activities that we would do with the kids and I choose to do library. So after the introduction we were split up and we went to our sections and I went to the library with Chloe and we got five kids in a small room packed with different types of books from educational books to picture books to novels.  Since it was our first time at  Shangalia we didn’t really know what to do with the kids so we decided to ask them to choose a book and read it, after about 10 minutes of them reading we decided that we should read the boosk together. So they put their favorite books in the middle and we choose a book to read together. Every person in the circle would take a turn reading a page.  It was only three of the kids who were 11 years or older who were participating while the other two kids were just looking at pictures and taking out all the books they found.

          I felt as if it was a bit disorganized because Chloe and I didn’t know what to do with all the kids so after about an hour of reading we decided to go outside and think of some games to play I think that the next time we go to Shangalia the first thing we should have done was play some games so that we could get to know each other and then we would go and start reading and doing the other activities. After we played outside for a few minutes we all gathered at the performing stage and the kids from Shangalia danced for us and then their band including one of our students from ISK also played the trumpet. Afterwards they asked Reggie from our school to break dance while the other kids watched. I could tell how excited they were to watch this. They were all so eager to learn how to do his moves. At the end of the day I really enjoyed playing with the kids, and even though our first trip wasn’t the most organized I still looked forwards to going again.

Peponi Basketball game home

             On 3/Oct/11 we had our first game at home against Peponi. It was very exciting because it was our first game at home.  The game didn’t start off well because we weren’t executing things properly even though we were winning, but we were only winning by about 4 points. I know we could have done way better. By the third quarter somehow again I sprained my ankle but this time I fell on it even harder than earlier, and just when my ankle was healing and the swelling was going down my leg  got sprained AGAIN. I was so annoyed but the pain was overpowering my disappointment. So for the rest of the game I sat out and iced it. By the time the game ended we won and I felt proud of my team for stepping it up by the second half and playing better but I was mad at myself for getting injured again and this time it was worse and that meant I probably wouldn’t play again on Thursday against West Nairobi school or on Friday against Hillcrest.

Runda feeding Program

 On the 25/Sep/11 at 10 am I went to Java house to wait for the rest of the members of Interact who signed up to help out with the distribution of food to the kids in Runda. When the teachers and all the participants arrived we got into a car and we were off to the area where we had to give the food to the kids and adults.  This Runda feeding program always occurred at the end of the month on Sunday and our job is to help organize the food. It was located at a dusty area where there was a cabana thing located in the center where the food was located. At first we had to break the bread, bananas, and to separate all the products such as the mandazees, juices, milk bread, candy into plates which we sent into a room where they had some injured and sick people in beds.                              

            Soon afterwards there was a large line coming towards the little cabana where we were seated in little sections where each person had a job of distributing one item of a specific food to each person who came by. It was very heart breaking to witness the really long line of kids who were pouring in with a small bag where all their food was squished into. Some children were carrying other little children on their back and also carrying to bags. It was really sad watching this and I wanted to do more than hand them a small carton of juice. For about an hour the line of people from 1 year olds to eventually adults kept appearing and it seemed as if the line would never end. The line started from the entrance of the compound all the way to our cabana where we were located. There were some cheeky kids who wanted more than one of the juice cartons I was distributing but I felt bad not giving them more because it looked like they really needed more than we were giving them. There were other kids who were really cute and sweet, they were really shy and very polite which made me want to give them more then  I was supposed to .After about one and a half hour we ran out of juice so helped out with the cookies and soon they also finished so I went to the other side of the cabana and helped distribute their cookies and by that time the line was almost finished so we were told to give them a lot of the item we had, so I  gave them handfuls of cookies but I felt bad for the kids who arrived at the beginning of the line because they were only allowed a few cookies while these people who came towards the end were given  a bunch of cookies, but  I guess I understood why this happened. At the end of the day  I was really glad I came to help out with this even though it was really sad to see all of these really hungry people  and I was also really amazed at the amount of people who came for food. I always knew there were hungry people in the world but you never really get affected until you witness them in real life.

Athletic council Food stand

On 24/Sep/11 from 10am to 3pm I was at the school selling hotdogs, hamburgers, candy and snacks to the kids who came for the 6 aside football tournament and the girls volleyball tournament. At first I was managing the orders then I started to manage the money which I didn’t like so I was in charge of putting together the hot dogs  and the hamburgers for the customers, and we had a lot of customers which was great because it meant we were probably getting a good income. At one point of the day there was only Chase and I who were at the food stand and all the other athletic council members left and it was the lunch rush and it was very hectic because there were only two of us against about 20 hungry, tired and sweaty people looking for food so at one point Mr. Morris came to help us and then eventually other members of the athletic council came to help out and it was back under control. From that point on the customers started wavering thin. Then we ran out of hotdogs and then soon it was hamburgers so we had to only sell the snacks and by that time the tournament was almost over and we started to serve the few hamburgers that were left over to the referees. By the time it was 3 we started to clean up and we went home. During this day I learned how tiring it is to run a stand and I also learned that running a stand isn’t a two or three man job you needed about four or five people to help out or it gets chaotic.

Runda feeding Program

 On the 25/Sep/11 at 10 am I went to Java house to wait for the rest of the members of Interact who signed up to help out with the distribution of food to the kids in Runda. When the teachers and all the participants arrived we got into a car and we were off to the area where we had to give the food to the kids and adults.  This Runda feeding program always occurred at the end of the month on Sunday and our job is to help organize the food. It was located at a dusty area where there was a cabana thing located in the center where the food was located. At first we had to break the bread, bananas, and to separate all the products such as the mandazees, juices, milk bread, candy into plates which we sent into a room where they had some injured and sick people in beds.                              

            Soon afterwards there was a large line coming towards the little cabana where we were seated in little sections where each person had a job of distributing one item of a specific food to each person who came by. It was very heart breaking to witness the really long line of kids who were pouring in with a small bag where all their food was squished into. Some children were carrying other little children on their back and also carrying to bags. It was really sad watching this and I wanted to do more than hand them a small carton of juice. For about an hour the line of people from 1 year olds to eventually adults kept appearing and it seemed as if the line would never end. The line started from the entrance of the compound all the way to our cabana where we were located. There were some cheeky kids who wanted more than one of the juice cartons I was distributing but I felt bad not giving them more because it looked like they really needed more than we were giving them. There were other kids who were really cute and sweet, they were really shy and very polite which made me want to give them more then  I was supposed to .After about one and a half hour we ran out of juice so helped out with the cookies and soon they also finished so I went to the other side of the cabana and helped distribute their cookies and by that time the line was almost finished so we were told to give them a lot of the item we had, so I  gave them handfuls of cookies but I felt bad for the kids who arrived at the beginning of the line because they were only allowed a few cookies while these people who came towards the end were given  a bunch of cookies, but  I guess I understood why this happened. At the end of the day  I was really glad I came to help out with this even though it was really sad to see all of these really hungry people  and I was also really amazed at the amount of people who came for food. I always knew there were hungry people in the world but you never really get affected until you witness them in real life.

Food stand Athletic Council

            On 24/Sep/11 from 10am to 3pm I was at the school selling hotdogs, hamburgers, candy and snacks to the kids who came for the 6 aside football tournament and the girls volleyball tournament. At first I was managing the orders then I started to manage the money which I didn’t like so I was in charge of putting together the hot dogs  and the hamburgers for the customers, and we had a lot of customers which was great because it meant we were probably getting a good income. At one point of the day there was only Chase and I who were at the food stand and all the other athletic council members left and it was the lunch rush and it was very hectic because there were only two of us against about 20 hungry, tired and sweaty people looking for food so at one point Mr. Morris came to help us and then eventually other members of the athletic council came to help out and it was back under control. From that point on the customers started wavering thin. Then we ran out of hotdogs and then soon it was hamburgers so we had to only sell the snacks and by that time the tournament was almost over and we started to serve the few hamburgers that were left over to the referees. By the time it was 3 we started to clean up and we went home. During this day I learned how tiring it is to run a stand and I also learned that running a stand isn’t a two or three man job you needed about four or five people to help out or it gets chaotic.

Athletic Council Meeting

On the 21/sep/11 the members of athletic council got together at the Muthaiga Mall after school to talk about how we were planning on advertising and promoting for each sports event. We came up with some really good ideas that would help towards spirit week which transformed into spirit year. For every student from a certain grade who game after school to cheer for our teams would get points toward spirit ‘year’ and it was called spirit ‘year’ because this applied to the whole school year. This new idea was great because it meant that the points that each grade received depends on how well the grade participates in the games the whole year and not only through the one week that it was usually on. We also came up with some games that we could play which could draw in more viewers so that they would stay after school, such as eating contests, obstacle course, the slip and slide and karaoke. The advertising ideas were to make posters or movies and announcements so that kids are aware of the games and the points that they can receive if they come. This day was very productive because we were able to organize little groups to come up with the ideas I mentioned early of how to make people interested in the games and each group was in charge of how to advertise the game and the certain activities that would go on before the games. The new spitit year idea is great because it allows our school to be more spirited and overall it is a fun activity.

Basketball Tournamnet at Rosslyn

On the 17/Sep/11 there was a tournament at Rosslyn. It was our first tournament of the year and last year we lost really early in the day after our third game, and this year we wanted to go all the way to the finals.  Our first game was against Rosslyn and we beat them and from our first game onwards we kept winning until we reached the semi-finals where we re-played Rosslyn to get into the finals.  Before the semi-finals we had a break and I felt that because of the break it affected us and when we went to play Rosslyn again we were doing terribly!! First of all I think we felt as if this game would be an easy win because we already beat them but as soon as the game started we had to grind it out and by the first 10 minutes the score was only 2-2, and we were playing really badly. And for some reason I couldn’t score ANY of my layups they just kept missing! I was soo frustrated, and we all started to become frantic when we realized we were struggling to score so we started turning the ball over and messing up a lot! But during one of the time outs Mr. Quinet convinced us to calm down and slow it down and just execute the plays without rushing it and we did. In the end the score was 10-8 and we only won by two points. That game was really nerve racking and straight after that intense game we had to play RVA ‘a’ team!

We were all so tired and nervous because the previous years they were one of our greatest competitors. As soon as the game started they went out in full speed and ran us over, and for some reason we just froze up and kept turning the ball over and they kept getting steals and running right past us. At one point in the game when we got the rebound and we were going to score I was running towards the basket and somehow my leg got tangled with one of the RVA players and I feel on my ankle and I think I sprained it so I had to go out. It really hurt and I’ve never been really injured in basketball before, usually I would get a scab or a stubbed finger but never an injury where my ankle gets swollen, so I had to sit out and get it tapped. I felt so bad leaving the game but I had to and at this point we were losing by a lot and I felt so defeated and deflated, but after I walked on my ankle a bit more I insisted that I should play , so I got  back in the game.

A few minutes later the whistle blew and we lost by a lot. From the start RVA seemed to want to win more then we did they were mentally prepared whilst we were nervous from the beginning which caused us to play really badly. It was a very disappointing game but we learned that we needed to work on so much more before we played RVA again and as I said earlier we could only get better and somehow we had to find a way to relax when we played against RVA instead of becoming frantic and unorganized. During this game I realized how much more we needed to work to be able to look and feel calm and composed so that we could show our full potential in  a game.

Muthaiga Mall Athletic council get together

            On the 21/sep/11 the members of athletic council got together at the Muthaiga Mall after school to talk about how we were planning on advertising and promoting for each sports event. We came up with some really good ideas that would help towards spirit week which transformed into spirit year. For every student from a certain grade who game after school to cheer for our teams would get points toward spirit ‘year’ and it was called spirit ‘year’ because this applied to the whole school year. This new idea was great because it meant that the points that each grade received depends on how well the grade participates in the games the whole year and not only through the one week that it was usually on. We also came up with some games that we could play which could draw in more viewers so that they would stay after school, such as eating contests, obstacle course, the slip and slide and karaoke. The advertising ideas were to make posters or movies and announcements so that kids are aware of the games and the points that they can receive if they come. This day was very productive because we were able to organize little groups to come up with the ideas I mentioned early of how to make people interested in the games and each group was in charge of how to advertise the game and the certain activities that would go on before the games. The new spitit year idea is great because it allows our school to be more spirited and overall it is a fun activity.

Basketball Game at Rosslyn

On the 8/Sep/ 11 our varsity basketball team, Junior and senior varsity soccer team,and the tennis teams played Rosslyn at Rosslyn.
   It was so nerve racking because it was our first game of the year, and in the previous years Rosslyn has been one of our greatest competitors.  As soon as we stepped into the gym we got pumped and we started warming up and going full speed so we could be well stretched out for the game. As soon as the whistle was blown we were ready to go and by the second half it was 16-0 and we were winning. From the beginning we were doing a descent job of getting the rebounds and getting shots up even though we still had a lot to polish up on before the end of the season. But so far we did a good job (even though the Rosslyn team wasn't as strong as it use to be). By the third quarter we fouled so many times that they got bonus's and the score was 04- 22 and then at the end of the game we won 31-08.  This first game proved that we had some pretty confident and good shooters , we were a strong ('beast') team, we had a we rounded team and we had a good hight advantage.
    This game allowed me to see that we are capable of doing really well for this ISL league if we worked hard enough and are focused.

Interact-Bonding Meeting

Interact bonding

On Saturday 3/Sep/11 there was an Interact meeting which was for all the people who were accepted to join Interact. In the beginning we learned about what our goals for the first semester were and who the heads of each committee was. When we finished we were  split into our committees and those committees were split into two because there were too many people, so then  one area of  the room would have two separate tables and both would have the same committee groups but for the games we were competing against each other for the time being.

One of the bonding game options was to build a Lego tower with all the pieces the fastest and the tallest. We had to estimate the time we thought we would build it in and how many pieces we could use, and every person in the group had to be assigned a segment that they would complete. The second game option was to figure out which patient out of 6 should live depending on their circumstance, and when the group choose who would live they had to give a reason why. I choose to do the Lego tower, and our group built a pretty tall  Lego tower but since we didn’t understand the rules properly we wrote down that it would take us 10 minutes to build it when in reality it took us less then a minute. We were disappointed when we came last because the judges were judging us on how close our estimated times was. Even though we would have won if it was judged on how fast we built our tower. I felt that we were a pretty good group even though we misunderstood the instructions.  We were able to assign certain specific Lego pieces to each person who could build it the fastest and we were able to communicate well with each other.

The point of the Lego game was to show us how in certain situations in Interact we will have to assign each person a job and a  responsibility and each member has to contribute to  execute the project correctly. If it is done correctly then we are capable of creating something good with the help of every team member. The other game was to teach us that choosing one person to live would have many disagreements because everyone has a different opinion  but in the end they had to choose someone and that’s how Interact club works, many people have different opinions but in the end you have to work together to solve a problem.

            When it was around 12:45 we had a lunch break and we our group was sent out last because we lost but we felt that it was unfair since we didn’t understand the rules properly, but it was ok because we thought we were winners inside and we did our best. J  After the short lunch break we went outside to play another game. The object of the game was to have our separate committees; service, finance, international and club.  We competed against each other in a potato running game. We had to put a potato on a spoon and run to the other side of the field then around a chair and back to the starting point the fastest without dropping the potato. It was fun but unfortunately the 1^st service group lost but the 2^nd service group came 2^nd and I felt proud of us!

            After the game we went back inside and we got into our whole service group and we got to know everyone and we talked about what things the service committee does and what our goals for this year were. By the end of this I became the secutary of attendance. After our small get together it was the pinning ceremony time. We all got up and were given our new pins and finally we were officially initiated into the club, it felt good. Even though I thought that the pins were really small and I was pretty sure I would lose it, and if we did we would have to pay about 500 sh. and  if we didn’t bring one to the meeting we would have to pay 50 sh. We finished around one and I was excited to be part of this club which does so much service and interactive things with our community.

Global Issues Network

1/sep/11 I went to the second Global Issues Meeting and there were a lot of people compared to the amount that we had last year, it was exciting to see that there were more people who were interested in Global issues this year. We talked about the goals we had for this year which was to execute the Hunger Banquet (which is a new addition to our club), we also wanted to coordinate a trip to Shangalia which is a place where they take care of kids from ages 8 to 17 and teach them how to do many things such as dance and play instruments. During this meeting we were split up into our committees and I choose to be part of the service committee because I like helping people so in the service committee I also choose to be the secutary.  At the end of this meeting it was exciting to see how far GIN has come since last year, with new additions to the club and new ideas and projects we are contributing to the club. After this meeting I was excited for this year GIN club.