Language week!

Last week was the language week here at ISK, we had many various activities planned for all the native speakers. Firstly there was the assembly last wednesday which was a lot of fun, we had 3 flash mobs and 3 songs played in 3 different languages (french spanish and swahili). As a native french speaker I was part of the french song dance, all the french speaking students had to dance to the song "Alors on dance" and it was a lot of fun. After that, on the same day there was a really interesting activity. Students were supposed to teach teachers their language. I happily agreed to that with my friend Saba and at first we were a bit nervous as to what is going to happen and how are we going to do this. We had a class of 5 teachers (students) who were Mr. and Mrs. Curry, Mr. Robbins, Ms. Bock and Coach Nixon. I think of all groups we had the most interesting ones because the students we had were like typical high school students; coming in class late, not always focusing, having side conversations etc... Overall we taught them how to greet people, ask their name, and at the end we had some extra time so we taught them a few other things like how to count to 15 and how to ask for a coffee or a beer (their idea). It was a lot of fun, it took them some time to get it right and it was really really intertaining, I thought it was really interesting to be behind the desk and to see what it's like to be a teacher and how it is from their point of view. If I had to do it again I would definitely do it, it was a bit of a challenge to get them to focus and it really helped me to see what teachers experience everyday with language classes and how it is important for us to make it easier for them as it is a tough job.

heARTS!!

Hearts heeling program: The ISK Healing Arts Program is a new program at ISK, that my bestfriend Nandi Blanchard has created, and which I’m helping to fund and develop, in which we will make use of the arts in order to help children in recovery in various hospitals around Nairobi through therapy. By using visual arts, musical (auditory) arts, as well as dramatic arts, we will undergo creative activities and exercises with children in order to stimulate them mentally and perform therapeutic relief. We will raise our own money for our own supplies and equipment and become a self-sustained organization. This is a very new group so we haven’t really done much yet, we met a few times to discuss meeting time and such. 

The first real meeting we had was this week Wednesday after school with Mrs. Elleby. For a first meeting I have to admit that it was so much fun. We basically talked about a lot of things including our fears/hopes/expectations for the group, we played at some games with our eyes closed, Mrs. Elleby discussed how important it is to be around children as she knows so much about it. We all had the same ideas, we hope that this will be a successful group, that people will join because they want to and because they like the arts perhaps, rather than joing just for CAS hours, we want to be able to connect with the kids, we want to help them and put smiles on their faces etc...

I hope that we will achieve all our goals and that going to the hospitals and entertaining the kids will actually make them happy, also that we raise our own money to get our own supplies and that we advertise this group as much as we can, as I think it is an amazing idea and community service group that is growing.

We will also meet for the next 3 Wednesdays and then after the Christmas break and hopefully by then we will be ready!

ISK BLUE VARSITY TENNIS TEAM: August 2013 - November 2013

I have been a member of the Varsity Tennis team for 2 years now and travelled twice with the team to Addis Ababa for the IITT tournament which was so much fun both years. 

At the beginning of my senior year i signed up for the the tennis team tryouts. They lasted for about two weeks. Everyone, including my coach, had realized the progress i had made over summer. However, i was still surprised when i made the first cut.



In the beginning we were about 30 players trying out, and then we were left at 22 people, which were divided into two teams of 10 players; the varsity blue and varsity gold tennis teams. I made the blue varsity tennis team just like last year and I was not only surprised but very happy because so many new players were trying out and they are all so good, plus 2 of my bestfriends are on the team: Cheryl and Imran. We have practice four times a week :


•    Mondays: 3:30pm - 4:30pm

•    tuesdays: 6:50am - 7:50am

•    Thursdays: 3:30pm - 4:30pm

•    Fridays:  6:50am - 7:50am

Our coach is Mr. Amirouche, a biology teacher at our high school which is great because some of us are familiar with him.  My main goal is to perfect my back hand and avoid double faults while serving. I also wish to play more singles matches as i am used to playing doubles.

So far this has been a really fun tennis season, we are all improving our techniques and the spirit in the team is just great! The two matches I played were double matches with Cheryl which was a lot of fun, we communicated very well and won. 

We are supposed to travel for ISSEA in Mozambique in two weeks which is very exciting and well all can't wait!