Track & Field

A few days ago, I was asked by Sarrah M., our girls' high school captain, if I wanted to become her replacement, because she is playing football this season instead of track. She asked me because she thinks that I have potential to be a good captain, and because I care about the sport and our team.

At first, I was unsure, because I felt as though there were more experienced students in track who would like to be captain, but when a few of the coaches approached me, asking me to consider the proposition, I decided to say yes.
So for this whole semester, I am not only HS girls' captain, but overall HS captain, for Dominic H., the boys' HS captain has stopped track due to upcoming exams.

I am quite glad that I have accepted this offer, because I am passionate about track and field, and I believe that I can support and encourage our team well. On top of that, this semester is our 'ISSEA' season: we are traveling twice for international meets: once to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the second time to Victoria, Seychelles.

IC trip (after)

So as you probably deduced from my last post, I went to Coast this week for my intercultural trip.
In my last post, I wrote that i hoped I would come home inspired, and I did. We visited A Rocha, a Portuguese organisation which has turned global. Here is a quote from their website, http://www.arocha.org/ke-en:

"A Rocha Kenya currently focuses its work around Watamu, where it operates its conservation programmes out of a residential centre, Mwamba. 

Malindi District is home to some of the richest and most diverse habitats in the whole of Kenya - 10% of Kenya’s Important Bird Areas, considered internationally important for bird conservation, are found within a 30 km radius of Malindi. 

These include Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, which is the largest remnant of dry coastal forest in East Africa and considered to be one of the most important forests for bird conservation in mainland Africa. 

It also includes Mida Creek, considered one of the most productive mangrove ecosystems on earth and of international importance for some of its bird species.

Despite the richness and diversity of local habitats in this area, an exploding population and desperately high levels of poverty are putting a huge strain on the delicate relationship between the local people and the surrounding environment.

By working with the local communities, A Rocha Kenya aims to achieve the long-term conservation of threatened habitats and species in the Malindi-Watamu area."

This clearly shows A Rocha's motivation to conserve the Malindi-Watamu area and bring its fauna and flora back to their original glory.

On the trip, we visited and collaborated with A Rocha three times: the first time, on wednesday, we went out into the ocean snorkelling, after having learnt about certain types of fish, corals and algae, and the effect that humans have upon this fragile ecosystem. The second time was on thursday in the afternoon, to collect gear for the night's activities and to help set up. The last time was thursday night.
On this last time, we were capturing and tagging birds from the creek.
We worked from 8PM to 3AM, through the A Rocha team stayed up all night, and didn't stop until 6AM.

The 'head' of the operation, Andrew, was talking to us about volunteering work. He said that we could volunteer at A Rocha for a while if we wished to do so, and I was thrilled: I would love to do volunteer work for an organisation such as A Rocha, because I think that what they do is incredible and inspiring.
Hopefully, I will be able to volunteer this summer, and gain some work experience, as I am considering doing an ecology and conservation course in university.



Enough said about A Rocha. For my reflection on the trip, I'm making a video, (which will probably be used during the assembly to show the high school what you did on your trip), and I'm going to make it so that the mood is light, (fun music, happy memories etc.), but I will be putting in the photos taken while we were visiting community projects, so that the assembly can understand that though we did have a lot of fun, this trip was all about the environment and how we, as humans, are holding its future in our hands.

Intercultural Trip (before)

Tomorrow (29th) is the first day of my intercultural trip, 'Mida Creek'.
On this trip, I know that we will be kayaking for around 2 hours every morning, and visiting local projects helping the environment as well as sustaining the community.
(Our trip will be mostly physical.)

It will be located on the shores of a tidal creek, which is around 5 square kilometres.
Some of the activities planned include visiting Turtle Watch and A Rocha, two organisations that take care of the environment: the first rehabilitates injured sea turtles, whilst the second ensures that no illegal activities take place within Watamu Marine National Park, tag birds and other wildlife, and study wildlife populations.

We will also visit Arabuko Sokoke forest, a national park which protects and houses quite a few endangered species of birds and rodents.

I am really looking forward to going, because I love ecology and conservation, and this trip seems to be focused around those aspects. Hopefully, I will bring back a lot in terms of knowledge and inspiration.

Prom Teacher/Student Silent Auction

The silent auction that our 11th grade Prom is finally over!
Over the past few weeks, (it started 2 or 3 weeks before winter break and started up again when we came back), there have been sheets of paper with different students' and teachers' names on them.
Any high school student or teacher can put they names down to bid for a person, and they get to make that person do anything, (within certain limits that do not infringe upon school regulations :) and the personal comfort zones of the students being auctioned), for one school day.
This day just so happens to be monday 23rd, when we are organizing a bake sale!!

We're all looking forwards to hearing crazy stories from that day, but all of us in prom are really happy about how many people have been bidding, so we know that this fundraiser is a success.

2nd Semester

This is the second week of the second semester. There is already so much work being piled upon us: English IOPs, English IOs, Maths IAs and so on.

Of course, CAS never rests either, and today was the first 'official' Operation Smile meeting. We spent it voting for students to become president, co-president, treasurer, secretary and media officer. I am now the media officer, which means that I will be writing articles for the Link, the school newsletter, taking photographs of events etc.

Upcoming activities/events:

Guitar

Today in guitar, my teacher said that I had improved, (thanks to some practice over the december break), and so he began to teach me the Pink Panther theme song with power chords :)

I am looking forward to learning the rest! My evident progress means that I have done well so far, and this really makes me happy: I know now that if I keep on trying to learn, then I will be able to achieve what I would like to achieve. And my goals for my guitar lessons are to learn how to play fluently, to practice more diligently and to be on top of these goals.

Shangilia Diary

So, yesterday, wednesday 30th, was ISK's last trip to Shangilia this semester.
However, seeing as I did not blog about this last week, let me fill you in:

Last week, we debated for an hour on whether plastic was a good material, or a bad one. The general vote said that plastic is extremely useful in many ways, and that the main problem is the use of it: how it gets disposed of, for example.
Doing these debates is really insightful, as we get a first-class look at how Kenya's future generation reacts to such things as renewable resources, the environment and energy issues.

After the debate, we split up into our groups, and this time, because around 15 people came, I could go back to my original group, which is art.
In the class, we paired up the children and asked them to draw each other.
The results were really a lot of fun to look at, and my 2 student partners, Shubam and Cora, were pleased to see the improvements that had been made.

After this, most of us went out into the courtyard to play football, and we realized that we needed to do something about the playing area. So, when we arrived back at school, we asked Mrs Lavender if it would be possible to bring the kids over to ISK to play on our field, and we also want to have a fundraiser to buy them bottles that will last a long time, board games and art supplies.

This week was our last for the first semester, and I am pleased to say that a lot of the people who came this semester will be coming next semester as feel, and people who didn't  even come at all want to come too.

Spike to support

This week, a classmate, Kara, asked me if I could create a poster for a volleyball tournament that she is organizing.
I agreed, and I researched the charity that is receiving the funds from this event.

HEART, (Health Education Africa Resource Team), is the charity that donates sanitary towels, undergarments, and gives free health education and hygiene lessons to girls in Kenya.
Now, I know that ISK has already donated underpants and pads to this association, and I think that a student-led event for this is wonderful, because it shows that we are ready to be leaders, and we are ready to care for our world.

Here is the poster that I made:

The event is quite simply a volleyball tournament called 'Spike to Support'. For those of you who don't know what spiking is, it's what the silhouette of the girl on the poster is doing.                                         I think... :)                                                                                              To participate, you need to pay 400ksh, and anyone can enter. That means that teachers, students, parents etc. can join.                                    
If you would like to support this organization, you can visit their website here: www.africaheart.com/freedom.html

Shangilia and Operation Smile

Yesterday, wednesday, part of GIN went to Shangilia, the orphanage that encourages performing arts. As I am the head of the group doing these trips, (service), I viewed the list and was pleased to see around 12 or so names. But only 6 people showed, including myself.
(It was slightly disappointing, as we had booked one of the larger buses, and we didn't even fill three rows.)

 However, when we did arrive at the orphanage, we were asked to have a debate on "Should, or should we not cut down trees for farmland etc.?"
I was on the side that was against tree cutting, with Cora and Shubam. On the opposing side, Meg, my co-head, Rhea and Chayse. I think that we spent around 20 minutes doing this, and it was so entertaining seeing the littler ones proposing arguments, seconding each other and going against one another's arguments. Meg, Rhea and I had quite a heated discussion at one point, but we toned it down and let everyone have their turn to speak.
In the end, it was a tie, according to the number of arguments each side made, but the tree-huggers won in all of our hearts. This made me so happy, as I know that these children are Kenya's future, and if they do look out for the environment and protect it, then I know that Kenya is in safe hands. I just wish that that could be said for everybody.

After the debate, we split up into our groups. I was supposed to do art, but seeing as all three art 'mentors' were present, and many of the other groups were missing teachers, I went to help out with reading. I think that a lot of the children were slightly disappointed when they heard that only 4 groups (art, reading, storytelling and music), were being held, but it was all that we could do.
In our reading/writing group, Meg and I split the children, Meg taking the older ones, and I taking the littler ones. I noticed that the books that we were reading had all been donated by UKaid.
In my smaller group, we took turns reading, so I read one, asked them questions about it, and they drew the characters on the board, if they wanted to. Then I got one of the students to read a book, helping them on words that they struggled with.
It was really, really amazing doing this, because I feel as though, even though I am only doing such a small thing, I could be helping them get along in life by encouraging them along with the rest of our Shangilia group.
When it was time to go, I spoke to Cora and Shubham about what they were doing in art, and what we could do next time. This time, Shubham had brought line drawings for them to color in, and I suggested that next time, we get them to draw each other's faces, and then, at the end of the session, get everyone to guess who had drawn who.

*

Operation smile is a program which was founded by an American surgeon and his wife, who is a nurse. They work to give free surgeries to children with cleft, or hare lips all around the world. Today, there are missions in many countries worldwide, Kenya included.
Last wednesday, a woman came to our assembly to talk to us about this program. She showed us two videos of the things that these children and their families go through because of their deformation. They both really pulled at my heart strings, and I felt as though I would cry. When she asked if ISK would be willing to help out with this, I almost wanted to stand up and shout "Me! I'll do it! I'd do anything."
Then, this week on tuesday, all of the students who had expressed any interest in the program were asked to come to Mrs Osborne's room. There, we talked about starting a student program that would help out, raise funds and pass the knowledge around to other schools.
At first, there were only 6 or 7 people present. But as the meeting progressed, more people showed up. In the end we had around 20 students!

We were all really pleased at the turnout, and the teacher said that the club would begin in January, when we would choose our president, co-president, treasurer, secretary and inter-school relations 'manager'.

I'm really excited, and I cannot wait to help out. :)
(The pictures have direct links to the Op. Smile websites.)

International Day

Yesterday was International Day at school, and so everybody got dressed up in their national/traditional dress. I was representing Scotland, part of the UK.

I was helping out with the 11th grade drinks stand for around 2 hours, hauling drinks and selling.  Doing this was hard work, but it was really rewarding, as we sold all of the sodas in under an hour, and people kept coming for the juice boxes. :)
After that, I spent half an hour at the passport station, where we looked after the children who came to get their passports, and were rewarded with either a sweetie, or a keychain in the shape of a globe.

I also stayed until 6 PM to help clean up with my mum at the Europe 'Café'.
All in all, it was a really good day, and it just shows how interconnected our world is, and how stupid it is to wage war on one another, and be racist, or prejudiced, because we are all the same. We all came from the same place, and we all share the same planet.
I know that these types of events, when all the parents and students come together, are really important if we are to remain a unified and globally aware community.