Operation Smile Concert Poster

For Operation Smile, the club that supports children with hare lips, we are organizing a charity concert night on Saturday the 14th of April.

Those performing will be the Composers' Club from school: it's good practice and good experience for these students, as many of them are in IB Music or IB Drama, and so the performance should aid them in achieving better public speaking skills.
As well as helping ISK students, we are also helping Kenyan children with cleft lips and palates become cleft free and 'smile-prone'.

The problems that these children face every day include stigmatization, being ostracized and having people, including their own mothers and fathers, run away from them in fear.
They have huge difficulties when it comes to drinking, eating and speaking, and this hinders their social development. Many of them won't live for very long, and most will never have the chance to start a family.
With an operation that costs as little as $240, these children can live a normal life: go to school, make friends, grow up and create a family. (If you wish to Donate, Volunteer, Tell a Friend or Get Help, please click on the appropriate links.)

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I volunteered to make the poster for the concert, because I enjoy using photoshop, and I love doing creative things to help others:
(The girl in the poster's name is Brigid, and she lives in rural Kenya. She who received her operation shortly after this photo was taken.)

If you would like to come and see our students performing songs that they composed or re-written, and you would like to help us with supporting the Operation Smile project in Kenya, then please come to the concert on Saturday 14th of April at the ISK Arts Centre.

Prom Themes...

There were a number of themes that were proposed at the beginning of this year. They included 'Casino Night' 'Winter Wonderland', 'Arabia', 'Neon Nights', 'Wonderland', 'Chinese Dragon Festival' and 'African Nights'. I proposed one of them, the 'Alice in Wonderland' theme.

This is the theme that the prom committee agreed on, though it has been warped a little: now we're calling the 2012 prom 'Walk into Wonderland'.

This theme will hopefully be 'enchanting' for the seniors, though we are making a light psychedelic, (not relating to drug use in any way), twist on the theme.

We finally revealed it to the school on wednesday with a short video that definitely attracted our audience's attention. We also gave the two free tickets to the seniors who won them for the auction.

Prom Dates

There have been many obstacles in the way of our prom committee this year, one of which is the date of the event.
In the school calendar, it is scheduled for the 14th of April, a Saturday. However, that date is no longer free. Because we have chosen our location (Muthaiga Country Club), we need to settle our dates with them.
After having learnt that the 14th was no longer available, we opted for the 28th, which is also unavailable. We considered many other dates, but none were suitable. In the end, we had to pick Friday the 13th of April.
Unlucky for some, but this will be a great, and lucky, night for the seniors.

We are unveiling the theme soon.
:)

Auction (follow-up)

If you remember my post about the student and teacher silent auction, then know this: we raised ksh55,600, which is quite a big sum, and will definitely strongly help us financially.

I know that I forgot to include this detail in the auction post, but the Prom committee announced that whoever was bought for the highest price and whoever bought them would get a free ticket to prom. Those two people are two seniors, Emily and Travis.

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.