Tennis/ Zumba reflection:

Last year for my sophomore year, my sister and I joined the ISK tennis team tryouts and made the junior varsity, we were 12 players in total and practiced 3 times a week. Luckily I made it to the Ethiopia Tennis Tournament IITT in November last year and ISK girls came first. Because I have been playing tennis for over 5 years now in and out of school and because it is my favorite sport, I decided to join the team tryouts this year. This year, there were tryouts for about a week and a half every day. There were 30 players trying out and only 20 would make either one of the 2 varsity teams. In the middle of the tryouts they separated us into 2 groups and fortunately I was in the better group. And now, I am so happy that I made it in the Blue varsity team which is the A team at ISK. We practiced 4 times a week either morning of after school: Mondays and Thursdays from 3:30 until 4:40, and Tuesday and Fridays from 6:50 until 8:00, which is really hard work because I am an IB student.  There were 10 players in my team, half girls and half boys.

Every year, the tennis teams of different schools in Nairobi play the AISK tournament locally. I was part of the varsity team this year, which was great because I was in the junior varsity last year. 

This year, for these games against the following schools: Rosslyn, Hillcrest, Peponi, West nairobi and RVA, I played single sometimes which was tired and intense but fun as well, the other times I played first doubles with my partner Binoy, who was the captain of our team, he was the best player on the team so it was kind of a challenge to play with him. It turned out to be so much fun and we got a lot closer as well, we would always not only play as best as we could, but enjoy the game and laugh.

We got to the semi-finals this year and had to play our team's biggest rival, Hillcrest. I played doubles with Binoy again, but we lost even though we had practiced a lot earlier. The whole team lost as well. We were all quite disappointed but I thought that overall the season was really fun, I enjoyed it and made new friends which was awesome and I knew that even though we didn't win, we did everything we could and at least had fun which is the most important thing.

This year, since I was in the school's varsity tennis team, I got picked to go with seven other players of our team to Addis Ababa for the International Invitational Tennis Tournament in Ethiopia's International school: ICS (international community school). We travelled there for 5days, and we played three days total. In the competition there was our school, ISK, ICS red and ICS white, the greek school of Addis and the Pilot club of Addis, so five teams in total. I was playing at the seed 3, just like last year, so some of the people I was playing I already knew. We, overall as a team came third out of five, but as the girls, we came first and I honestly think we killed it, we won every single game except for me, I lost one tiebreak and was really disappointed, but even so, ISK girls came first easily but at least 60 points. We also as a team got a trophy for sportsmanship. 

As individuals, we all got medals. I got first place for my category which was awesome, and for doubles, my partner Shivy and I came third overall and we were really proud of ourselves because we had to play our own girl double team from ISK and did the best we could.

The tournament was really really fun and I enjoyed it a lot more than last year, we laughed and played as best as we could. I learned that the score doesn't matter, but how much fun you had during the game mattered the most. I also think that I have improved since last year and I really hope that I will be coming back next year and play even better.

Since tennis season was over, my sister and I decided to continue playing and improve our skills through playing twice a week with the Varsity Tennis coach Peter Nyamandi. We have lessons each saturday (12pm to 1pm) and sometimes two hours depending on his schedule. I have noticed a huge improvement since the beginning of these lessons and I also learned the proper technique to serve the ball. Adding to that my cardio has improved because of Coach Peter that makes us run quite often. 
Adding to tennis, as I said in previous posts, I take Zumba classes every weekend (1 hour every weekend). I go with my mother and we dance with other ladies. What I like most about Zumba is that it is not only a creative outlet, but also physically demanding! It sounds strange, but one hour of Zumba can be extremely intense and tiring. 

Im not that big of an athlete, but I swim, I do Zumba, I gym sometimes, I run, I play badminton but my favorite sport has always been tennis. In fact I have been playing since I was 10 when my mom convinced me. I’m not perfect at it and I don’t play to win, I play because I really like the game, it is entertaining and amusing, and really good action and training. Also, one of my main other reasons of playing tennis and taking Zumba classes in my free time this often is due to the fact that I am an IB student and at times very susceptible to stress. Tennis and Zumba in general help me relieve it, and provide a temporary isolation from all the academics.

Being part of a team at ISK for two years in a row now has just been great, interacting and playing with other people has really helped me improve and make new friends and relationships. The difficulties were that sometimes I would feel as though I’m not as good as the rest of the team which was really amazing this year, but as a group we always cheer each other up and it helps us build self-confidence and such for the future. During every game we cheer for each other no matter what, even if we are losing, and keep reminding each other that we can do this but most importantly that we should have fun! I have learned group integrity and spirit is really important and no matter what be there for each other and never let anyone down.

Operation smile Reflection:

Every three minutes a child is born into the world with a clef palette. Which makes it difficult to eat, drink, speak, socialize or smile. In some places children like this are shunned and rejected in too many cases their parents cant afford to give them surgeries they need to live a normal life.

Last year, a lady came to talk to us at a High School Assembly about an organization she worked with. This organization was called operation smile, and offered free of charge operations for poor people, especially children, suffering from deformities such as cleft palates. She showed a short announcement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01aTvJSsA68 ) which was so impacting, I believe about half of the people present had tears in their eyes. I immediately knew I wanted to be part of the group of Operation Smile opening at ISK.

I was member of Operation smile last year and it was, because there was this lady that came and talked to us during assembly about operation smile and children that have cleft-lip and how it is for them and how just a smile can change someone’s life and make their future completely different, then we watched this really touching movie about the organization and if affected me a lot, which is why I joined that club.  This club I had no idea about, I think is the best thing I did last year, which is why I decided to join this year as well hoping we will make many children smile and get rid of their cleft lip ! 

This year I decided to commit myself to Operation Smile! The meetings take place twice a month during activity on tuesdays, and our group's main goal is to collect enough money to be able to operate as many children as possible, changing their lives forever.

Overall I thought that this year I have improved in many aspects of service, action and creativity, I have become more aware of the situation around me, and I was able to interact with people I have never interacted with before, and it feels so good just to know that I did something positive for others and helped or improved others’ lives.

I think as a group, same with friends of Marich, we have been pretty successful, and actually almost as successful as we expected by raising quite some money for a really great cause. Working as a group was really helpful, it was like a motivation and determination to achieve our goals, when one doesn’t have an idea someone else can contribute and help, and someone else can make that idea or plan ever better. I have learned that sometimes you have to think about other people and not be selfish, that you, even though you cant do much, but any input and any help whatsoever can make a huge difference in someone’s else’s life in the world.

I will definitely join operation smile next year and really do whatever I can to help more, raise awareness and improve all these kids’ lives.

Friends of Marich Final reflection:

Friends of Marich is a meaningful community service group at ISK, that I recently joined this year as a member in the fundraising committee, because of all the good things I heard about this club and how they help the Pokot people living in the Marich region.

Why do we help the Pokot people? Pokot people Inhabit an area in Western Kenya and Uganda, their Society based on extended family and clans. Men dominate decision-making process and Council elders are responsible for maintenance of law and order, security, social disputes, and ceremonies. Friends of Marich has been a club at International school of Kenya for a really long time and In my opinion is a really great community service group, a worthy cause and worth all the time you spend planning and fundraising to help these people in Northern Kenya.

As I said earlier, Friends of Marich works closely with the Pokot people living in the Marich region. Our goal is to raise money and awareness throughout the year to support the community living there and providing necessary aid. I was also hoping to achieve the same things this year, to help this community and make their lives better.

This year, for our high school intercultural trip week, a small group of people from the club “Friends of Marich” ( a community service club at ISK) went to the northwestern area in Kenya. Since the beginning of the year, we have been working on several fundraising projects and events, and the money was used for projects we did in the Marich region where we went.

The group that went last year built a bridge over the river to help the locals. This year we went there and fixed it a bit, but our main project was to build a library (and we were working with the local school).

We had a book drive for this library and we were able to take more than 800 books which we catalogued and organized that week. The only work we were able to do was help carrying sand and bricks to the actual building site. Our main project this year was to build a library, which we have been working on with the local school. The foundation for the library was supposed to be completed in December but it wasn’t, so the only thing we could do to help was carrying sand and bricks up a hill to the building site, and that took an entire day of work.

The trip was a great experience, it was also a lot better than what I expected, the whole group really enjoyed it and some are even considering coming back next year, and even some people that were there last year came this year as well. We enjoyed working with the people in Marich and learn more about their culture and lives. 

As I said earlier I was hoping to learn more about the Pokot people, their religion culture beliefs and really everything about them, but most importantly actually be useful and do whatever I, and we as a group can to help them and improve their lives. We have accomplished some of these goals, we several bake sales throughout the year, we had a logo competition, which we used to make t-shirts that we are actually selling right now for 1000Ksh each, we built a library in their region in Marich ( haven’t completely finished it but we did our best) and we had a book drive and collected as many books as we could to give to the Pokot people in that library.

Difficulties I have encountered, or that we encountered as a group are the fundraising plans we weren’t able to get through with, like for example the basketball tournament we were planning for a really long time but weren’t able to actually make it happen for some reason, also the tshirt selling isn’t going as well as we thought it would because of the simple fact that people don’t actually know the Pokot people like we do and they don’t think it’s worth the money and everything, so its obviously hard to convince them. I think as a group we have been pretty successful, not as successful as we expected but we raised quite some money for a really great cause. Working as a group was really helpful, it was like a motivation and determination to achieve our goals, when one doesn’t have an idea someone else can contribute and help, and someone else can make that idea or plan ever better. I have learned that sometimes you have to think about other people and not be selfish, that you, even though you cant do much, but any input and any help whatsoever can make a huge difference in someone’s else’s life in the world.

Friends of Marich meant a lot, being part of this group and meeting the Pokot people in January got me really close and I feel like now I am involved and I really want to continue helping them.

If I get the opportunity again I will definitely join the club in my senior year and this time I will try and do my best to make more fundraising plans and do as much as we can, and my friend Nandi and I were actually thinking of going to marich again for our IC trip next year, but nothing is sure yet.

Friends of Marich T-shirts selling

 Friends of Marich is a meaningful community service group at ISK, that I joined this year as a member in the fundraising committee, because of all the good things I heard about this club and how they help the Pokot people living in the Marich region. Plus I went to the InterCultural trip in January with the rest of the club members to Kitae in the Marich region in Northern Kenya which was a lot of fun.

As I said earlier, Friends of Marich works closely with the Pokot people living in the Marich region. Our goal is to raise money and awareness throughout the year to support the community living there and providing necessary aid. Last year and the years before, the group has built bridges across rivers which was a problem in that region before, they also built a playground for children.

I hope to achieve the same things this year, to help this community and make their lives better. So this year, we had a logo contest earlier in February and a student from the senior year designed a really nice logo for us and she won (Joanna Ondrusek).

So we ordered T-shirts (large and extra large) plain white shirts with only the logo printed in small at the front and on the back is written "Laying the Foundations for Future prosperity". Each member of the club has 5 tshirts to sell for 1000Ksh each and can sell as many as they want. The money will of course go to the Marich people we have been working with and trying to help. So far I have sold 2tshirts but I am still planning on selling many more to as much people as I can. 

I think It is a great cause and the money is really worth it, we want to raise awareness and try to help these people in Marich that we went and visited in  January during our Intercultural trip.