Support from Manchester

George met a British man who wanted to do a project for Excellent School in his sisters school in Manchester. I have no idea how they would like to help, but I e-mailed all my information about the school so he can use it and send it to his sister. I'm really excited about this opportunity for the school and I'm hoping it is going to help with fundraising as well as connecting the British kids with children their age in Kenya. The can send letters to each other and it might inspire the kids in Excellent to get a glimpse of the kids lives in the UK.
George wants me to join him on a meeting they are having soon and I'm hoping I will be able to come.
Apparently they met during a football game, and had already sent the Excellent kids a few Manchester United team uniforms. I do not know how happy I am about this - being a die hard Chelsea fan, but I guess I have to swallow the frustration that it was the wrong team.... every gift is, after all, very welcome! I'm looking forward to hear more about this and help in any way possible!

Progress in school

I had a meeting with George yesterday. He informed me that the building is coming along very well, but he didn't have enough money for the electricity line into the new school building. I managed to raise some more money during Christmas, so I gave him another 40.000 to fix that problem. He also said that it would be better to get our own electricity meter, and have the power company install it. This would mean that the costs would be cut a lot. I really didn't understand why, but I trust that he is right. Overall, I feel that it is safer and better to pay for your own electricity  just like we did for the water pipes. I had to reflect on that even this is a problem, and I have to help them solve every problem I can! George also lost his deputy in school which is really sad. He was a great guy and kept things in order. However, I noticed that the director of the board is very active in the school work now. This is good! That he is showing interest tells me the board is very interested in the work. George also reported that everyone in the community is telling him that the school is starting to look so nice. Georges former deputy is starting a new school in Mathare, but I think it is in district 10. I know that there is a huge need in the area, so it is good that there will be more schools. This semester, we also lost a few students to another school. Their great advantage is that they are serving food to the students. Hopefully, we can find sponsors to help us with that! I will truly try to e-mail all my contacts to see if I can help with that. I did a rough budget on this before Christmas and it it astonishing how much money we will need to provide students with food! We also have to build a kitchen and employ cooks. After all, there is about 800 students and even if the food is cheap it is going to add up...
To solve part of the problem, we are going to start to grow veggies in bags and raise chickens in a new room that we have to buy!

George and James on the new foundation

 

George, his wife and new daughter

Thank you card from Grace

I got this really sweet letter from Grace thanking me for paying her school fees. It makes me feel really good!

More school politics

This is a follow up on a previous blog post I posted quite some time ago. It still upsets me a lot that the Kenyan government just puts the money in their own pockets and doesn't care about all the kids in school. How is Kenya going to turn out when so many of their children is robbed on their education!? Do they think anything about the future? Articles like these gives me a strong feeling that what I'm trying to achieve for Excellent school is extremely important. These kids are robbed by their government and needs to know that not everyone wants things for themselves and that there are people who cares! 

Update on Immad

A week ago there was a report on swedish news about the status of Immad, who was deported from Sweden although he had a death threat in Afghanistan and only one semester left for his IB exam. The reporter is telling about Immad trying to escape Kabul travelling under a truck. They tried to call him, but only heard him talk about his batteries being depleted (apparently there were no electricity, so he couldn't charge the phone). The girls in Bollnäs are still working hard to get him back, and they gave him a lot of money to keep him safe in Kabul. Immads future is still very uncertain and I hope I'll get regular updates on his situation. I feel very worried about Immads situation, and still find it hard to believe that such a rich country would deport a young man to Afghanistan. He is totally helpless there, when all his family has been killed by the Talibans. It is hard to handle that this is the reality for a guy my age! Click te link to view the report.

Immads situation according to Swedish TV

Problems in Mathare

Over the holidays there has also been a lot of problems in Mathare over the holidays. There were a horrible event when young men from Mathare 4 B (the school is in 4A) attacked and killed three people by burning their houses. The paper claims this is just a fight between two areas in Mathare, but I'm not so sure. I hope this is not going to turn into election violence. I have to check with George how saft it is to visit right now... a lot is going on!

Directing a surrealist play in the Fringe Festival at ISK

I've been working hard on finding a play to direct and the device I'm going to explore for my IPP (Individual Project Portfolio) for HL Theatre in March. After having great troubles due to matatu strikes, sport events and the holidays, we finally were able to have the auditions for actors for our plays. I'm quite happy with my actors. I only need three, and got three good ones! I've been working hard on analysing my script, which is a Surrealistic play by Roger Vitrac, called free entry. I'm really excited about the project and I think I can do quite well. Because the play is surrealistic, it took me the whole break to find the script and finally analyse it, but finally I THINK I know what it is about. Now I need to write bios for the characters and discuss it with my actors. It is going to be interesting to see if they have anything to add to my analysis. I need to get my drama teachers approval of the play, and I really hope she will approve it - rehearsals are starting next week!!

Paying school fees

To pay Graces school fee turned out to be a challenge. First I had to send my dad to the bank to deposit the check. I gave him a letter stating that it was for Graces school fee. I called George in Excellent, who said I needed to give her the check deposit slip, but thought it would be enough to scan the slip and e-mail it to the school. Because of traveling over the holidays, I was a bit late to pay, and got worried that they would not admit her. I decided to call the school, but no one was answering the phone. I finally asked my driver to take the slip to Mathare and give it to Grace, to make sure there would be no problems. I was happy to hear that he'd found her and given her the slip, just a few hours before she was going bak to the school. I also learned that the sponsors for two other girls will have to wait for another week. That is when the results from the national exams come in. I still feel good that I'm going to help sponsor three girls through secondary school. Grace is now in form two and doing fine! I'm proud of her and got a lovely letter from her  for the holidays!

New year - New opportunities

My mothers cousin, who has visited Excellent Care Center and School and lives in Paris has been in contact with a French organisation called Codegaz. They might be willing to help us with the school. I'm going to skype with her as soon as possible. She e-mailed me an application form, but I had a hard time filling it in. I need to find a smart way of doing it, because it says that if we only want funding for our project we will not be eligible to apply. I've been working on it over the holidays and Marie has been editing it. I'm mainly going to ask for a food-program for the school. Hopefully, this can turn out to be a good possibility!

Doing well in MMA

I've been doing quite a lot of MMA during the holidays. It was good to really get into it and do some concentrated training! One session I had big problems with my round-kick. Every punch and kick were really good and powerful, but I couldn't get a good round kick going! It frustrated me so much and I got angry and irritated during training. It is quite interesting that I'm reacting that way, but round kicks should be one of my stronger kicks, due to all the tae kwondo I've been doing. The feeling that I just couldn't master this common and simple kick made me go crazy. It was even worse, when Tom gave me a lot of credit for being strong and fast... but "I really needed to work on my round kick". I realised that I was just throwing my leg in a strange bow, not getting any power in my kick, and after practising turning my foot and follow up with the rest of my body it worked out a lot better! There is something with the rotation of the hip (that is a lot easier for girls) that makes the whole thing work. I finally got it, but I need to continue to perfect the kick. It's supposed to be "in the back of your head", and I still need to focus on it to get it right. However, I would say that the whole MMA thing is starting to work out really well for me. I get a lot of credit and I feel that my punches and moves are good. I also enjoy it a lot! It's a great way to get all your aggressions out, and it is a good feeling to totally concentrate and not think about school for one hour. That it is a great work out is clear after one 3 minute round I'm sweating bullets!