Taekwondo 23/10

Last session was not good at all. I was a bit annoyed when I started warming up. Furthermore, my inability to concentrate was adding and I became very negative towards myself (because I could not preform the most simple of kicks) and of others. It was not a pleasant feeling and I just wanted to get out and take a shower. However, I am planning to, after the football season, continue and increase my time in Taekwando. Instead of being just satisfied with a yellow belt, why not a blue or red?
It is vital, in any activity, to come with a positive behavior and open attitude. This was maybe not the best day of my life, but very educational in order to understand the importance of bringing a positive attitude to the training session.

Max getting help from his son to massage me.

14/10 - 25/10 Excellent school exam fees

I recieved a text message from reverend George telling me that he needed 30 000 Kes to pay the fee for the national exams for grade 8. Knowing that this is really important, whereas I contacted the Swedish ladies asking them to contribute with 5 000 Kes per family. I was really happy that they were more than willing to contribute and quickly I got 20 000 Kes in place. I asked my mother to contact her friends to ask for another 10 000 Kes. 

On sunday we’re going to the beach for the brake, but when we get back I hope some more has agreed to contribute. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the last 10 000 Kes in place before November 7, because that’s when it’s due! 

Thanks to Karin, Linda, Åsa, Christina, Jeanette and the Öberg family for giving the money needed! Unfortunately, I couldn't join the group going there on tuesday because of school, but I’m happy my mother managed to deliver the fee for the exams to reverend George, he was hugely appreciative for this! No kid in Excellent will be excluded from Secondary school because the fees for the exams were not paid!

The Öberg family also brought notebooks, pens (for the older students) and stuffed animals (for the kindergarden classes) from Sweden to the school. The children in 5:th grade in Sweden wanted to make pen-pals in Excellent school and the kids happily accepted.  This is a great way for both Swedish and Kenyan kids to practice their language and writing skills as well as exchanging experiences and learn about other countries. The father in the Öberg family is a priest, and this is great - Reverent George usually think the Swedes has a bad connection with God. Now we could prove him wrong! I hope this restores some of his faith in the Swedish people! 
It was very successful in both getting the funds needed, but also for my own experience. I felt awkwardly by knocking on the doors and ask for donations. Personally I would not like to do the door knocking process again.

I also got to see pictures of the new water tap that we managed to raise money for. It is fantastic that they now have their own water and can wash their hands and clean the toilets without carrying the water so far. Imagine that these small things we take for granted can actually be so important. The sanitary situation is really getting better in the school because of the money we raised. Both concerning the new toilets and the water tap. Hopefully no kid will get sick just by going to school. My mom also arranged for a visit to the school on Saturday in two weeks, so I can join. I’m really looking forward to it!

Dinner at the Nest 15/10

Back at the Nest with clean laundry and desire to help out with the dinner. I met Irene, the German lady who is the manager and she thanked me for the help. She also thanked me for coming with the middle school "cinder" performers to the other "Nest", where the bigger children lives. I spent a few hour there yesterday. She was afraid that we'd get stuck in the mud with the schoolbus, but I assured her that we did ok. The babies at the hospital were getting better, except for one who is now in the ICU. They are not sure what the problem is and Irene is worried there is some bacteria in the water that makes them sick. They are testing the water too, to see that it is OK. Irene also mentioned that it is good for the kids to meet young men because it is usually all women in the orphanage. This made me feel even better to spend time here.
I got busy right away feeding and playing with the babies. All of them were quite irritated at first, but it got better as soon as we started to load them with food. After feeding the children, I put a couple of them back in their beds. It was a good spend of 2 hours. 

The Nest visit 11/10

I went to the nest to help feeding the kids and take some pictures. I think I’m going to do my “photo book project” on two kids named Isaac and Maggie. They are really tiny, about 3 months and because kids will not get adopted until they're 6 months at the earliest, I will have some time to get good photos.

The nest had 8 kids in the hospital due to some respiratory problems, so the staff needs a lot of help (parts of the staff needs to stay at the hospital with the babies). I decided to come back this weekend to help with the feeding. It was quite chaotic, with about 20 babies to feed at once, but I also got some time to play with them. They bigger babies, (about 1 year) are extremely contact seeking and as soon as I sat down they came to me. They wanted me to play with them, sit on my lap and be hugged and they would not let go! Fortunately it was “nap-time” so I helped the staff put them in their cribs.

When we were about to leave, the staff told me they didn’t have water. They asked us to take some laundry home. Of course we took a huge load home (my mother promised to do the laundry as long as I help with the folding.) 

I’m hugely impressed by the hard work the staff puts in. Imagine 30 babies and the water comes and goes...... And still the babies are so well taken care of. I feel very encouraged by that a few hours working in the orphanage actually makes a big difference, but at the same time I feel blessed that I have a family that cares for me and that I really have nothing to complain about! To work at the Nest is really a humbling experience!

Northern Sweden helping Excellent school

Mom had a meeting with the Swedish ladies and came home very excited. They had a few new, good ideas about fundraising. They are all from this place in northern Sweden, called Piteå and it’s a quite small community where everybody knows everyone. They wanted information and pictures from the school, to get their friends and various organizations involved. I think this is a really good idea. Stockholm is such a big city, and all the big companies are already committed to different charity projects (right now, the horn of Africa which is needed!) so It’s really hard to get  money for smaller projects. The ladies all seem really smart and I’m sure they are known as trustworthy and efficient people in their community. I started right away to design a special page for them. This flyer is designed to get people and/or companies to buy Christmas cards. Here’s the result:

MUN

Due to higher levels, my participation has been limited to just one meeting every Monday on week 1's. However, I feel that MUN is very interesting so far. The things we continue with, are to identify what world problems we should address and why. I get a lot of inspiration being around people like Amir and Parijat, who both have previous experiences in MUN and have very interesting ideas. Generally, the group is thinking like each other, which is good in order to agree on ideas and suggestions.

JV Football Games and Taekwando

30/9
Another opportunity to stretch our perfect start to the season with an away game against Strathmore Academy. The only blow was the loss of our star striker Izzat, whom had netted around 7-8 goals in just 4 games and gotten promotion to the A-team. We went there, along with the Varsity team. However, nothing went to plan. The JV played in such a bad way that it cannot be called "football". It ended up with a 2-1 loss, with multiple injuries. We just had to shake it off for an even bigger and more important game.
1/10
Oshwal Academy was our next opponent, who also had a good start to the season. ISK's record away to them was a very unsuccessful one, although I was with the winning side a year before. However, they,like our last opponents, were more focused than we were, and also got a lot of luck with a referee decision going against our way. Personally, I believe we can come out of our current negative form, but our practices must focus more on our bad elements than try to improve on our best abilities.

30/9 Taekwondo

Today would be my first training session for over 2 weeks, which felt good. I had missed the fast movements of kicks and punches, and since I did not participate that much during the week's football matches, I felt good. However, what haunts an athletic guy like me are injuries. As I was stretching, I pulled a muscle (which I still cannot identify) I could not kick with my right leg, so I focused on my other leg. Overall, it was an okay practice but not the ideal one. It ended with my teacher Max demonstrating how to do Pumses (Specific fighting patterns).

Discussing fund raising

28/9 Excellent school and care center

My mother invited some new Swedish ladies to our home for dinner. I told her that this is a good opportunity to present the school, myself and my role as well as ask for help in raising funds for the project. I told them about the school and their problems and they immediately started discussing ways to help.  I stayed at the dinner table for about an hour and then went to my room for homework.  The ladies wanted a brief presentation in Swedish of the school that they could e-mail to their friends and family, so I made one. This was also a way to get my presentation skills in Swedish better, or updated as I had not made any presentation in that language for more than 3 years.

It is really great how easy it is to get people to engage in good projects. I’m expecting a lot of help in the future from these ladies!