Goals to Go (follow-up)

As you probably know, Goals to Go has been cancelled, so your Saturday is free.
This is a huge disappointment to a lot of us, and especially to everyone in Shangilia. There is no reason that we couldn't have held this event, but not enough people signed up and paid for teams, due to lack of publicity and awareness.

However, this is a learning experience, and we are therefore all the more prepared for next year's event. Next year, we will have Goals to Go, and the Shangilia children will play football with us.
I hope that this makes you understand that we will not be shut down and we will not be giving up just because of this one (humiliating nonetheless) flop.
Next year will happen.

Goals to Go Preparation

For Goals to Go, which is taking place on the 25th of February (a Saturday), I am designing, or more accurately, have designed the T-Shirts. There are two models, one black and one white, and here are the images.
The photos show the white shirt, front and back. The original design was made by myself, but a friend did the lettering at the front and back.

In case you don't know what Goals to Go is, it's an annual event created by the Global Issues Network 2 or 3 years ago.
It is a round-robin football (American 'Soccer') tournament where teams of three sign up, are then paired with another team to make a team of six. All the teams play against one another, and the winners receive prizes depending on their placement (1st, 2nd, 3rd).

This year, the money raised will be donated to Shangilia, the orphanage that we visit every two weeks.
We are asking the Shangilia kids to form two teams of six to participate in the event, and it should be loads of fun for a very good cause.

IC Trip Assessment

For my assessment on the IC trip I went to, I made a short video of our time at Mida Creek.

Unfortunately, the video that I made for my IC trip reflection can't be uploaded, so let me describe it for you:

• It begins with a photo of the creek itself, and the music being used is 'Levels' by Avicii. I used this song, because it was the one that everyone sang, ALL THE TIME. I though that it was a good representation of the way that us students experienced this trip.
• The photos are in chronological order, starting in the airport on sunday morning, showing our daily activities, and ending with short clips of everyone on the trip.
• I decided to use lots and lots of photographs to show how active, physical, and 'busy' this trip was. The pace leaves no time for the audience to think, though it is enough time for the audience to subconsciously understand our experiences and our newly-gained knowledge.
• I put the photos in chronological order so that the audience could have a day-by-day account of Mida Creek 2012. 
• However, I didn't just do this video for an audience, but also for myself: so that later on, I can remember my experiences, and so that I learn and remember something new and different each time I watch this video. 
• In regards to the audience, I made it so that they would be inspired. So that they could understand how inspiriting the trip was, and that by going on this trip next year, they too could help, and possibly make a difference in the Malindi-Watamu community.
• The last part of the video is of nearly all the participating students describing the trip in one word or sharing something which stuck with them in one word. A few of them included 'hot', 'sweaty', 'enlightening', 'kayaking', 'situation' etc. Mine was 'beach'. 

Now, when you think of the word 'beach', you must probably think of relaxing, holidays and sun-tans. However, when I said it that day, I said it because this whole trip is centred around the coastline. The coastline is many people's livelihoods, what affects their day-to-day life, and what affected our life while we were there.

(Hopefully, if you are part of the ISK community, you'll be able to see the video in assembly soon!)

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.