CAS Final Essay

In my opinion many things affect a person’s education; it goes from interests, personal perspectives and life experiences. I moved to Kenya when I was 14 years old, in 10^th grade. I am a Lebanese citizen, originally Armenian. The change was a terrible experience at first seeing as I took about a year to adapt. Given my personal background, I have different points of view on important world issues. One of the many things that have helped me develop these points of view is my CAS experience. CAS was not only a program at school where I had to do service action and creativity; it was much more than that as it helped me be the person I am today. In all these clubs and teams I have been part of, I met friends from more than fifty different countries and I am so grateful for that.

Over the past three years, I have been involved in many clubs and teams: Operation Smile, Friends of Marich, the Greenhouse, HeARTS, The varsity Tennis team and Zumba. I have been involved in building a school for Kenyan children with the Me to We Organization (as I went on a trip with them in both 10^th and 12^th grade), I have helped raise money for the Operation smile organization; I have visited hospitals here in Kenya and helped children heal using all forms of art, and started building a library in West Pokot (Friends of Marich). Before moving to Kenya I wasn’t aware of such poverty and inequality, in fact only now I realize how privileged and lucky I am.  I know that I have helped, even a little bit, many children and I tried to give them a better future and I am proud of myself for that. My CAS experienced made me realize the world I live in; it made me aware of some of the terrible aspects of poverty and discrimination (in Kenyan culture). CAS helped me raise awareness on the reality of rural Kenyan education and health.

I have developed several skills though my CAS experience, I learned how to be committed to something like for example staying every Wednesday after school for heARTS, or practicing tennis four times a week or dancing Zumba every weekend, which was a lot of pressure seeing as I am a full IB student. This also taught me the importance of time management and gave me a better work ethic. In addition to that I learned how to collaborate with others and plan activities with a large group where everyone gives their opinion and is heard. CAS also made me aware of personal strength and skills I didn’t know I had, for example advertising skills used in Operation smile, some serious determination used in Varsity Tennis. There have been many ups and downs, there were many challenges along the way, especially with the most recent group I joined; heARTS. I was worried at first because I had never tried to “heal” sick children using art forms and having this huge responsibility, we were all very worried and didn’t know if we were going to make a difference. We soon realized, through the help of our chaperones and a psychologist who helped us in the process, that it wasn’t an issue at all. In fact, we are not responsible for their happiness, we just have to try and make that change and it is okay if we are not successful.

I feel like I not only enjoyed myself throughout these activities and opportunities, but that I was able of making, even if a little, change in this world. I realized even that small contributions and donations can make a difference, that anyone who is willing to help can actually make a difference. Every challenge was a lesson on the way of success (success was being able to make a difference), and it was all worth it, worth all the effort and the time. Teamwork has taught me that if people worked together and were willing to improve a life and make a change, they certainly can. Teamwork and perseverance are key factors in helping others.

As I previously said, I met very different people in my three years in Kenya and that has also helped me build the person I am today, people enrich each other’s life with their culture and wisdom. I now look at things very differently than when I first moved here and I am very thankful for what I have and the opportunities I was given. I now am also very aware of issues of global importance and I hope when I go to university next year, that I will be able to contribute and be part of service, creativity and even action clubs and groups, and continue making a difference in this word and putting a smile on people’s faces. I also hope that I will get more familiar with important issues in Lebanon and help in creating a change, as I am only aware of such problems here in Kenyan culture.

Fringe Festival !

This year For the Fringe Festival, Ms Nichols and Ms. Lavender (two IB english Teachers at ISK) decided to participate in the Fringe Festival (organized by IB drama students only). They decided to create a short 5minutes feminist play about 5 paintings and Margaret Atwood's famous poem "Manet's Olympia" that we have studied in class for the oral commentaries. They asked 5 of their students to be part of their play, myself included: Ibtissam Benbaha, Olivia Fomete, Cora Lavender and Noella Kabaluapa.
My painting was Mona Lisa, I was supposed to show the audience that Mona lisa isn't a boring unhappy and miserable person, I had to show that she is happy and enthusiastic and doesn't like people's reactions when they see her and they are disappointed. Ibtissam was Olympia (in Manet's painting and Atwood's poem), olivia was the girl with the pearl earrings, cora was Marilyn monroe and Noella was Picass'o dora. At first I wasnt too excited about this Fringe festival seeing as February is a very busy month for full IB seniors, but I soon realized that I loved being part of their play. This play was honestly so much fun, rehearsals were very funny, we got to bond with each other and the more we practiced the better it got and the final performances were really really good despite some mistakes that we made that were still really funny.
In addition to that we got to watch the other IB drama students' perfomances and plays which was also great. I had never been part of any play or acting performance ever and this was the first time I acted in front of people and it went really well, I was really nervous at the beginning but the more we practiced the better it got and the better we all performed.

HeARTS!!

One of my friends started the HeARTS group early this year, it's the healing arts program. The first semester we did training workshops here at ISK where Ms. Elleby, Ms. Blanchard and Ms. Mackay were helping us and teaching us several things: how to talk to kids, what to do in certain situations, how do healing arts work... we also made sock puppets and many different other things. During christmas we went to Gertrudes Hospital for a christmas party and that was amazing. We had lots of kids come in, some were sick and some weren't, but either way they were all great they had so much energy and they were so happy to have us there. I was doing face painting the whole time while others were making bracelets, singing, drawing etc... It was really nice going there and playing with these kids, knowing that we were making them happy. The whole group was very happy and we were very excited to go back again. 

The second semester in my opinion was much better than the first because unlike the first where we mostly did workshops at school, the second semester we did a lot more, we went to Gertrudes again and we had the Saru kids come to ISK twice. The second time at Gertrudes was also awesome because we got to do lots of things with the kids and this time they were all sick kids (some were in beds). We were drawing self portraits with them, reading stories, and making small hearts with cardboard. We were there on a Wednesday after school for almost 2hours and then we went back to ISK and discussed what was good and what wasnt and we made suggestions for improvements for next time. 

The following wednesday we had kids from Saru come to ISK but I wasnt able to be there because I had the fringe festival rehearsal. The next wednesday the same kids from Saru came back and it was so much fun because we made little sock puppets with them and then we had a small show type thing and later each heARTS student and one kid did it one at a time ( the show). Some of them were very shy and others were very happy and excited to present their sock puppets to us. 

I am really glad I joined HeARTS because I think it is one of the most meaningful things and service groups here at ISK. Instead of just having meetings and planning fundraisers like most groups, we actually do something and help the kids directly. It is so nice to know that we're making these kids happy and maybe helping some of them heal. It was scary at first because as Ms. Blanchard was talking to us from a psychologist point of view, I started thinking what if I do something wrong? is it my responsibility if I dont make the child happy? But as time went by I realized that that is not a problem at all and it is really easy to talk and play with these kids. I hope we start making our own money in this group to have our own supplies and continue visiting hospitals. I hope that even after we leave that this group will be as successful as it is now and continues growing. 

Senior Mara Trip 2014

This year for our IC senior trip we were as usual supposed to go to coast, unfortunately this year because of security issues the school had to change that and they decided to take us to the Mara instead with the ME to WE group. I already went on this trip in 10^th grade and I remember it being an amazing trip so I was really excited for this one, especially since my entire grade was going as well (almost all).

This trip started off badly and emotionally as 9 of my classmates and 3 of my best friends had to stay behind for possession of substances. We left at 11 instead of 9 after having all of our bags searched by our chaperones. Everyone who went on the trip, the teachers included, was sad and shocked. After that we left knowing that the ride to the camp would take 5hours. When we arrived there, the facilitators, the Me to We people were very welcoming, sympathetic and friendly to all of us. They then showed us our tents and told us how they are trying to economize water, and explained how everything worked there (showers, meal time, rules). The boys had a different camp than the girls and that made us all think that we weren’t treated like 17 and 18 year olds. Earlier in that day, we visited a local school, and the kids were so exited to see us and wanted to play with us so bad, then in the afternoon, we just got back to the camp and played some games and hung out. It was nice at night for dinner when everyone was together as a grade. We were then divided in 4 groups (A, B, C, D) and I ended up in group D. Then Tuesday, we visited some Masai villages and houses and we also did some service and helped the Masai mothers, we carried around 20litres of water from the river to their houses which was about 3km away, and that was the most challenging and hard thing we did in that trip (it wasn’t that bad for me because I already did it in 10^th grade). Then we listened to some of their stories and that was quite interesting. Later in that day we started building a school for the local Masai kids. In addition to that we had a beading workshop with the Masai Mamas, which was also fun and interesting.

On Wednesday we went on a safari very early in the morning and that was really nice because we got to see many animals, had lunch in the park and bonded with each other. In the afternoon we did some masai training activities.

On Thursday morning we planted trees and later we went to the Fairmont, which was very nice, we had lunch there and we got to swim and hang out with our grade.

We came back home after five days, and we were all really tired after everything we had done, and the school days seemed so boring after the exiting activities we did back in Masai mara. I thought the 10^th grade trip was better than this one, especially because of the incident on Monday morning which kind of ruined the mood from the beginning. However I still enjoyed it and learned a lot about the masai cultures, we did some service, played with masai kids, laughed a lot at nights, and even though the sanitary facilities (bathrooms, showers…) were not what we’re used to back at home, the trip was good.