Lunch with Grace

Today I had lunch with Grace and Nancy. My mother and her friend who is sponsoring Nancy through high school was also there. It was lovely to meet the girls and they told us about the hard work in the school. The have eleven subjects! And gets up at 4.30 to study, then have a break for breakfast. After lunch they clean their clothes and the dorms. At night they do homework until 10.30 and it's lights out at 11.00. I just asked them: So when do you sleep?
They are getting used to the routine and even now, back in Nairobi they wake up really early. I asked them if they wanted to go to university and they answered: yeeees. I asked them if they wanted to go in Nairobi and they said: Nooooooo. Europe or America would be good! I told the to continue to work hard and make me proud, and they promised to do so! I'm happy to be able to sponsor Grace through high school and I'm sure she will do well. She is very outspoken and smart. We bought them each a nice top and som crisps and candy and a nice lunch with hamburgers! A nice day in Gigiri!

     Grace during lunch                                   Nancy, Grace and Åsa

Oh nooooo....

My application for the funds from ISK PTO was not accepted. It's quite discouraging! I guess the trick is to not stop trying.... Now, it's only the Swedish Society left on my list of applications. I really hope they will accept to give us the funds we so badly need.
On the brighter side, a lot of things are going on with the school. I still have one thing I need to share with you as soon as I'm allowed! It will not give us money, but it might help with the fundraising.

So, cross your fingers and hope for the best!
I'm planning to visit the school next week for an update on how the work is progressing. According to my map of the school there are five more rooms to buy and I know George is in negotiations with one of the tenants. I'm really curious of how he is doing.
This week-end I'm also going to meet Grace, who I'm sponsoring through high school. It's going to be interesting to hear all about her experiences in school this semester. They are in a completely different school system, so their first semester just ended. Her next school year starts in January.

Photo books for the kids in the Nest

I heard that a Swedish lady has adopted a girl from the nest. She's a friend of a friend living in Nairobi and I made a photo book for her and her daughter. They are staying in Nairobi, at least for a few years so I can follow her development. That's great and I hope the girl will appreciate some photos of her early childhood! So, one down two to go.

I know that it is important for the adopted kids to have some kind of sense of where they came from. Maybe not during the first years of life, but later when they go into their teens and grow up. I think that having images of where you spent your first time in life is going to be important, at some point in their life. So, I hope I can help through this books. I want to communicate that although without parents, they were loved and well taken care of, in a nice place and that their parents finally found them in this nice place. I hope having this book will help them in their future!

The book ended up being 24 pages and below you find a few examples of how it will look. I'm going to have it printed in Sweden and bring it back when school starts in August.

 

I also added some images from Nairobi on the last page of the book.

Report on Grace

Grace has finished her semester in the boarding school in Kisumu. George sent us her report card. It is clear that she is struggling a bit, but I'm confident that she will get used to the school and pick up over time. She is doing OK overall, but her home science is not so good (I can relate to that, she seems to be the same type as I am). I also think that it is good for her to be challenged, because she is a smart girl, and I think she will grow, mature and thrive! I still feel very proud of her and I hope she will do great next semester!

My new look

Me with my new belt and medal. Feeling pretty good!

During my last training session I felt really encouraged, and Max gave me credit for working really hard!

I- movie about the school

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This is to Children for Children. I think it explains what Excellent is all about, and the needs we have! I'm quite proud of it! I hope the girls finds it useful!

I also hope my other blog followers finds it interesting - and hey, we need more money!!!

I earned a medal!

In taekwondo today, Max brought me a medal!! Apparently "Stoneface", the president of the Kenyan Taekwondo Association and my grader, was really impressed with my performance! This is funny, because I actually really thought I'd failed the test! Max explained to me, that being a person that had practiced taekwondo for a quite short amount of time, I was not expected to do so well! It is extremely encouraging to get such fantastic, nice looking medal for my efforts! Maybe this will speed up my next grading!? Max also told me that the grading is a learning experience and that the grader wants a communication, as well as have you do things you don't know yet. So, you're really not successful in the grading process unless you partially fail it! I feel proud an encouraged by knowing this, and a lot happier with my performance during grading.

Luck is contagious!

I can't believe my luck! My mom is the communication director of the Swedish society and today a very interesting e-mail landed in her in box.
She showed it to me, and I could not believe my luck! It was from two girls in Sweden who wanted a contact with a school in Nairobi - all for their CAS. They were enrolled in an pre - IB program and I immediately answered their mail. The had BIG plans with their project and I told them I could be their "local  contact person" and even gave them the opportunity to live in our house for free, if they would visit.  Their project is called "Children for Children" and they were going to raise money for schools in Kenya to gain international experience and to build the awareness that not everyone is as fortunate as they are. They have done a lot of good stuff before like "Operation Shoebox", helping orphans in Eastern Europe. I also mailed the link to my CAS blog - so hopefully they will take a look at our projects! I hope they will choose Excellent as the one to be on the receiving line for their efforts! I'm so excited. I got an answer the day after and the seemed to be very interested in our school, and I need to book a meeting with George to discuss things. They also wanted me to send a movie about the project. I'm going to start producing it right away!

   

Ifyou can read Swedish - you would know the story about children for children..

Here is a screen shot of their blog.

Map of the school

I made a map of the school from what I got from George in our last meeting. It is very confusing, but I think I got it right! It is kind of important, because now we know which rooms we need to buy (somehow it changes from meeting to meeting). George says that we really need money and patience - we will get all the rooms we want, eventually.... In the end he thinks that the last few families are going to feel overtaken by the school - and they will sell. We just have to wait. There is lots of problems with buying the rooms. The las rooms we bought were more expensive than the previous. The locals know there are "muzungus" funding the school and they want more money. On the other hand, these people need to feed their families as well, so even if we pay more, the money is very much needed. I still don't know how to think about this. I want the rooms, but if we pay an "overprice" that family might have food, school fees, and money for other useful things that they could not afford. Why not charge? Why not pay? It is, pretty much, all for a good cause!?

Rain reflections

We really need the rain! Last couple of weeks has been really dry in Kenya. I kind of enjoy when it's raining buckets, but on the other hand - I have the opportunity to stay indoors and not get too wet, but in the Nest there is going to be problems with drying the children's clothes. Maybe it's time to go by and see if they need my help?

I've visited the school in Mathare during rains before and it is hard to describe what the kids have to endure. Imagine dirt paths turning into mud and leaky roofs and iron sheet walls in school! Even their homes must be very wet and muddy (most rooms do not have cement floors, but just dirt ones).

Because of the lack of sewers, the streets are probably very hard to walk on without sliding and on top of that - how do they keep clean? There is nowhere to hang the laundry (I'm usually annoyed with the clothes lines hanging all around school, making it hard for the kids to pass, but I do understand the need to have them there!)
I can just see the small kids in front of me, trying not to slide in the mud and not to get their school uniforms dirty. It must be impossible! However, it is not all bad - we need it and it brings out the termites! We hate the termites flying around in big numbers, attracted to light. That means you have to turn of your lamps and close the windows or they will be all in the house. In the morning, they loose their wings and are lying around in droves on the floor, like small maggots. Some of the Kenyans actually eat them - so maybe a few kids in Mathare will get a protein boost tonight!

View from our window

In the evening I learned from the news that a mudslide in Mathare 4 A (the school is in 4B) had killed 9 people and injured 2! Texted George and both he and his family were fine. A day later I got another text that none of the kids in school were affected by the mudslide, but some of them were homeless. Considering there was a big fire about a month ago, there are now about 10 kids in school with no homes. Next visit I'll bring blankets! 

Read more about the mud slide

ISK PTO FUNDS

I was happy to learn of the announcement that I could seek funds from the ISK Parent Teacher Organization. I actually applied last year, but did not receive any funds so I'm hoping for better luck this year. I'm going to apply for school rooms and fencing, the major plan being that we will be able to buy out all the rooms in the area and fence them in (if there is enough money). I think that it will be so much safer and calmer for the kids in the school. Not having to avoid laundry lines with clothes on going to class, not having really small kids running around screaming right outside the classrooms and not being confused by people not belonging in the school hanging out on the grounds. My main concern with the application is that a strong connection to ISK is needed. I'm hoping that I am that strong connection!

Working on another application, this time to the ISK PTO. I hope they will accept my project!

Successful grading

I made the belt!
But it was hard and I was totally soaked with sweat when I was done. My tae-guk number two was not perfect, so I was quite worried for a while. However I made it! Feeling not totally happy with my performance, but still happy! The grader is the president of the Kenyan Taekwondo association and my mom calls him "Stone face" because he is so tough! I thought he was going to kill me, demanding perfect kicks and plenty of pushups. He is so serious that both my mother and sister didn't think they made it while grading for him. When my sister graded last time, he kept saying that "we have a problem" and the problem was that she was too good for that grade and needed to skip a belt. They were also graded by another really nice examiner - just my luck to get "Stone face". On my next training session, Max told me (to my surprise) that I made really good grades and passed by far. Imagine my surprise!

Good herring this year!

We got a lot of compliments for the herring att the Swedish spring picknick in Paradise lost. I have to say it looked a lot better than last year - even if I didn't have any! This week-end has been tough with grading in Tae kwondo, making herring and finally the lunch as well as a lot of studying. I'm happy it's over and that the short easter break is coming soon.