Final CAS Essay

Over these last two years of CAS I think I have achieved to create quite a diverse program with varying activities that have resulted in development of different kinds of areas. My main activities have mostly been linked to horse riding and Interact Club but I have also done many other smaller things, like help out ARTSCO at school events, gone to Habitat for Humanity and tried out their house building, done a season of volleyball and track as well, among other things.

                      I think that I have been able to both help myself and the community around me. Especially for Interact, almost everything we do is do directly help the people of our surroundings. We have visited orphanages and donated food, money, clothes and toys as well as tried to advertise the club to our society so that the club will be successful also int the future. Also the trips with Habitat for Humanity have really been great in helping the community and building houses. By participating in such activites I have got to see happiness and try new things, but also experienced the poor conditions that many people actually live in. It makes me appreciate my life situation so much more and me greatful for getting a good education, live in a nice house etc. This makes me realize even more how important it is for us, who have all this, to help and share with people who don’t. The gaps in today’s society, all over the world, are huge in some areas and we need to even them out. The physiotherapy that I have been doing for the last 1.5 years is another example of where I am lucky. Not everyone has time or money to spend on both surgery and then rehabilitation. Physiotherapy was important to me also because it made me improve my commitment to something that was not that much fun. Just as with homework or projects that are not the most fun and perhaps takes some time, I know that I tend to push tasks in front of me instead of just dealing with them straight away. For physiotherapy this was not an option, because if I wanted to start riding again, I needed to rebuild balance and strength and that is impossible to do in one day. The exercises seemed stupid as they were so simple but once I started doing them I realized that it was harder than it appeared and that I really needed it.

                      Other activities, in particular sports like track, riding and volleyball, were also able to get me to organize my time better and focus as the time spent on sport had to be combined both homework and some free time. My efficiency definitely improved over these two years. I have always enjoyed sports, partially because of the feeling of a team. Working together is essential for any sport, even horse riding where you and the horse must be a team, and this means to trust others as well as take responsibility for your part of the task. Of course the ability to work with others is very important for everything in life and what I really see as one of my strengths now a days is the ability to give everyone a chance and work with people that normally don’t understand or agree with.

Cas has given me the opportunity to try new things as well as get better at things that I already do. Both track and volleyball were new sports to me and required commitment and regularity. I enjoyed volleyball the most but also track was fun as I got to learn tactics of running and improved my fitness level. These sports were additionally helpful in making me take losing in a better way – it is simply an indication of what you need to work on. This I could apply to my everyday life and to school. Also the creativity actions such as the IC Nairobi Mural Painting trip, the creativity strand on the Senior Trip and the mural painting for Interact Club was something new to me as I do not take Art as an IB class. However I found that it is great fun and in the future I will probably continue with some sort of art as I think I have developed some artistic skills, but mostly it is as very entertaining activity that at the same time can help people around you.

                      In conclusion I am happy that I have done this community service as I have gotten a better understanding of myself, both my limitations and strengths, and seen how I best can use them. By doing this I have also become more aware that this applies to everyone and that team work is based on people contributing with things they know well. At the same time it is possible to develop your more limited areas of ability. It has been a little challenging to do all the required activities but I have pulled through at times of personal weakness and hopefully become a more aware and responsible person.

[Word Count: 850]

Interact - Final Reflection

I have been part of the Interact club for two years and at the final club meeting today I have to say it was really touching and a little sad to realize that it is almost over. The new board was put in place and we thanked Anisha, our President, and the old board for all their work. They have truly done an amazing job.

Interact is easily the club in which I have been the most involved and most of my activities for both Creativity, Action and Service have been projects set up by Interact. Over these two years we have done a variety of activities. First of all there has an Interact stall at almost every school related event such as the PTO picnics and International Day. This has been great for advertising the club to families in the school and visiting friends. For these events, donations of prices for lotteries etc, clothes, books and toys have been essential. I think that especially the things that we give in and that goes straight to the children at for instance OVC are worth the most because you get to see the excitement on their faces when they receive them.

The best part of Interact has definitely been the OVC and Runda visits. Here I have met some wonderful kids and seen how much a meal or a new sweater can mean to somebody. They are quite different as at OVC there are fewer kids and so you can get to know them better and actually interact with them.  Some time they even remember you, which makes the visits even more satisfying to come back there. However I feel that Runda is equally as touching and the children are al excited. The best thing is when they stop and look at you for a moment and say ‘thank you’ and smile. That feeling is the most rewarding of them all.

The mural painting that I have done for Interact has also been lots of fun and helped me develop different skills. It has been an on going project that will continue even after this blog is completed. 

All the different activities that I have participated in, a well as the meetings have been important for the entire club as we first of all work on our team work and cooperation with others, not only individuals but other organizations and groups. The club exists and works because we all work together towards a common goal and we have to realize that a group oh people are able to accomplish so much more than individuals. If we all take responsibility for smaller roles and let everyone participate, even if they seem a little put of place, all f us will gain new experiences and develop. I have had to work with people that are very different from myself but it has resulted in valuing different abilities in different people and that everyone deserves a respect to take part in events or activities.

Interact ahs also increased my ability to organize time and plan on when projects could best fit my timetable. However I have to say that my whole view of community service has changed over time. From being something that we all just had to do, and had to fit into our schedule it is now something that I reality value and enjoy. 

Horse Riding - Final Reflection

I have been horse riding for many many years but just as any sport it is an area where you can always learn more. The great thing about riding is also that there are so many different forms and types of riding. Often they are so different that even if you are a professional at one type, like jumping, you can be a complete beginner at something else.  This is why I enjoy it so much.

To me, the competing is the biggest challenge because of my stage fright. I have been scared to do anything in front of an audience for quite a while but have also learnt that practise is the only thing that helps. Sports are good in this way as the team can motivate you and make you feel more secure. Some say that horse riding is not a team sport but I strongly disagree. It is you and the horse in the arena and to achieve good results both of you have to work and you have to be able to understand each other and cooperate in a smooth way. Now isn’t that teamwork? Furthermore a horse is an individual of it’s own but also, the only way you can communicate is actually body language, which I feel, makes the relationship and team work between horse and rider so much more special than that of a normal team.

Another area of improvement is sportsmanship. The show areas, like Jamhuri Park are packed with people and horses during events and the competition is usually tough. In fact, the horse world is a society of its own. Connections and family name can be even more important than whether you are a good rider or not. This has really been getting on my nerves, as I am just one of those ‘new girls’ and have had a hard time to fit into the horse society, As I am also quite competitive it makes it even harder to lose to people that I do not get along with but of course, this is something that will happened during the rest of everyone’s life and after competition I have learnt to again, try to see things positively but above all, focus on my own riding and my own horse. The competition should only be with yourself and trying to improve personal scores. Otherwise you create frustration and it will not turn out well.

Horse riding has been challenging, both mentally and physically, I am thinking mostly of the recovery time after the injury. Because my knee injury was due to an accident on horseback I was a little worried that I would have been affected negatively and gotten scared. I however worked on this while I was recovering and couldn’t ride anyway, because I realised that one accident couldn’t ruin my love for horse riding. With determination I decided there was no way I would quite. However there were now physical restrains. After the injury in October 2010 I had to wait until April to get the surgery. During that time I was not allowed to do any jumping, and always wear a brace. Then after the surgery I had to wait another couple of months to be able to ride again. Once I could actually start riding regularly again I realised how much muscle I had lost and also precision when riding. It took a while to really get back to the stage I had been in.

Since my knee was fully healed I also started a new type of riding – polo. This is very different from the way I usually ride. Of course just holding the stick and hitting the ball and not the horse’s legs is hard enough but also the fundamental riding is different. Just the fact that you now ride with four rains in one hand instead of two rains (mostly) in two hands took some time to get used to. However I have advanced a lot since I started and I feel like it really broadened my understanding of horses and developed my riding. Breaking my speed record when racing was probably the thing I am most proud of. It was indeed scary because of the amount of trust you have to put in the horse but the feeling afterwards was amazing and there are few times when I have felt so accomplished.

Runda Feeding Program

Unfortunately this was the last Runda feeding program opportunity of the year and so it was a little sad, as I will graduate this year and leave Kenya when summer starts. As usual we started by placing all the food on their right places. We made plates for the men and women’s hostels with milk, bread, fruit and biscuits. Then we set up the bread, milk, cookies, and more fruit etc that were for the kids and also put plastic bags close to the entrance so that they were available.

I helped to organize the plates that we gave to the old women and then distributed bread and fruit to the kids that came. Because of little rain in Kenya there were even more hungry kids than usual and by the end we started running out of bread. It makes me so sad that some people really didn’t get enough even though we always try to make it equally distributed. I guess it would be an improvement to, in advance, get an estimation of number of people that will be there but that would be almost impossible. Apart from that there are very number of people there every time, there are also some kids that sneak into the line again and choose another line so that they will not be recognized.

Something unusal also happened this day. By the end there was a man outside that also wanted food. The guards had to tell him no because the kids were first in line. The man got so desperate that he picked up a stone and started screaming and tried to fight his way into the food stalls. It was a almost surreal to see such desperation that hunger can cause. This is jsut one of so many thousands of people that would do anything for food.

Mural Painting - 3rd meeting

The last meeting for the mural painting was this Friday. We are not finished but it is definitely coming along nicely bad I believe we will have a very nice final result.

Because of sport practice and trips for other clubs, many people were away this time. In total there was just 4 people, who all were there for the frist time, and myself. This put me in a position where I had some leadership roles. It was my role to explain how we had started the mural and about the inspiration we had gotten from the poem. It also took some time to explain that they should not be afraid of ‘ruining somebody elses work’, since the mural is such a mix of several people’s efforts and talents. Simply put, there are few areas of the mural that are results of only one person’s work and I really had to show the people that were there for the first time that they should also put in what they thought would suit the mural. It was nice to be a smaller group and we discussed our ideas of the mural amongst us and so could develop better and better dieas. Just like myself, some of them did not take an art class but I really felt like this gave us an opportunity to allow us to explore the artist within us, and not being afraid of being judged or criticized. 

 Photos taken by: Reggie RStyles

Horse Riding

Because of several reasons I have not been riding for quite some time. School has definitely been a major reason as I have had to spend more time than usual on homework and revision for exams. But mostly, there have been some trouble at the stables which has made it hard for me to go there. The last time i was there, one of the horses was put down because of problems in his back that would never get better and the same week, the horse that I mos often ride, tried to jump and electric fence and got caught. Half of the flesh on his front leg was burnt of and we all though he was going to die. I just found it so terrible that even the idea of the stables made mes ad. But i realised i cant go on like this forever and besides I miss it too much when I am away. So I went the other day and took a nice ride on another horse. The horse with the hurt leg is going to survive but has gone to Naivasha for special treatment. I knew I had not been riding for a while so I took it easy and mainly focused on making the horse relaxed and enjoy the work as much as I did. It felt really good and as always, horse riding let’s me take my mind of stressful things like school and just enjoy the ride. I really thought about the basic things when riding, as this is often forgotten. The tempo, the position of the hands and to look up, as these is my biggest problems.It was quite a calm 45 minutes but it was exactly what i needed to get bak on track.

There is a new horse at the stable that I haven’t sen before and they say he is quite young nd with a little temper. I think it would be nice to try him as well as I know the other horses already and it would be a challenge to try a new one and see if I can work with him. But in any case i need to prioritise my time so that i can have time to riding more often and keep developing.

Mural painting - 2nd Meeting

The second time of mural painting once again took place in the art room but now the sketching of the mural was done and so we started coloring the mural. It was important that the fantasy side was really colorful and stood out so color composition was essencial. Team work might not seem as a big part of just painting amural but it actually is. there has to be oragnization of the mural and everyone should be able to take part. One of the difficulties was actually to find space to paint as there were so many people that expecially wanted to paint on the 'happy' side. it was a bit crowded so we all had to adjust a little bit so that we all could to paint something taht we wanted, even if it meant movinga moving something else for a whie and then coming back once the others were gone. Somethin I also thought about was how fast this mural is coming along because of all the poeple involved. If one I had done it by myself it would have taken such a long atime and of course it would ahven been so much fun.there are people from all different grades involved in hte project and so I get to tal and interactwith new poeple of other ages which I would not noramlly do. And at the same time I get to express my inner creativity.

Mural Painting - 1st meeting

After doing the Nairobi Mural painting Inter Cultural trip last year I was really looking forward to the painting the Interact mural as well. The mural is to be put up in elementary school once it is finished and gives students opportunity to work together and develop artistic skills as well as give the opportunity of creativity. 

This was the first mural painting meeting and we met in the art room to first of all come up with a design for the mural. Ms Taylor had chosen a poem called ’Where the Sidewalk Ends’, that described the divine nature of kids’ minds. This was the main source of our inspiration. I don’t take art classes in school but still find it very entertaining. This was a great opportunity for me to get a chance and do something creative and learn a little bit more. We chose one drawing that divided the rectangular mural in half. One side was dull and almost scary city and the other the happy fantasy world of a child’s mind. The link between the sides was a little road travelling away from industrialisation and conformity.. the good thing about this mural was that even though we chose one ’template’ everyone could add things to it. I contributed with two unicorns on the happy side for instance. However, as for most activities it is always important to take initiative as there are many people that want to make their deas part of the mural. 

Over all i actually feel like I got more out of this activity than I had hoped for. origninally I expected to merely paint certain areas a color that was already decided but in fact all of the students in hte group got a chance to really participate and but in their own opinions and contributions. Also, the fact that we all had to try and come up with an idea did put me out of my comfort zone as this not soe´mething I normally do and so am not fully secure with the task. I think that by doing the mural paintinga couple of more times I will definitly develop and especially start to feel more comfortabe in areas that might not fit me perfectly. As long as one can work together with others, most things usually work out fine. And of course, middle school will hopefully have a colorful mural to light up their shool days once we are done.

Intercultural Trip to Watamu

On the 30th of January to 2nd of Februrary me and the rest of the senior class at ISK had the opprtunity to spend 4 amazing days at the Kenyan coast, at Ocean Sports hotell in Watamu.We were divided into 4 different strands with varying activites, associated mostly with the coastal life of Watamu. 

• Service
• Environment
• Culture 
• Creativity 1 & 2. 

I was placed in the second creativity group and also signed up as one of the photographers of our strand, so that we later would have pictures for the newspaper that would be made about our trip.

The IC trip was not only filled with fun but we also learned so much that you normally wouldn't at a beach hotell. We arrived at Ocean Sport's around lunch the first day and had time to settle in and enjoy a nice lunch at the restaurant. However the day started early the following morning, at 6.30. The activity was beach clean up, for all the strands. With yellow plastic bags we scanned the whole bay after anything considered trash - bottle caps to plastic and string. This was not only to make the stay better for tourists, but for the animal and marine life around Ocean sports. Especially animals like sea turtles are affected by trash and can both get trapped and try to eat it and then die because their metabolism can't break it down. It was quite tiering in the sun, even though it was early but we felt like we did something good and that kept the motivation up.

Once the different strands had gone of to their individual activities, my creativity group settled down at some tables for a workshop on water color with mrs Corum. I chose the creativity strand, not because I am very artistic but because I don't take art at school and rarely get the option to develop creative skills. I saw this as a great way of doing something different and was not disappointed. Even though we all new some basics about colors and mixing, and some in the group actually were IB art students, it was very nice to go through it again and practise and see how much water and what color should be used to end up with the perfect result. When we started our individual pieces it was quite nice how everyone slowly fell quite, absorbed by their own work. I got to practise my artistic skills as well as concentration and it was very nice to have mrs Corum there to ask for advise if necessary.

One afternoon the entire grade participated in a presentation about sea turtles and what work Watamu Marine Association does with them. We learned that only 1 in 1000 eggs surive to mature age and that female turtles come back to their birth place later in life. One of the problems here is that we start building along the coast line, some times on old nests, and mess with the turtles inner compass as they become very confused when they can't find what they came back looking for.

The activity that I think I apreciated the most was the swahili cooking. We had help from the chefs at Ocean Sports restaurant and made chicken and beans in coconut sauce, along with the indian bread chapati. My family loves cooking and I have always spend lots of time in the kitchen at home. Therefore I found it very interesting to see someone professional prepare both something that I had done before, the chicken, but also new things like the chapati and the coconut sauce. We got to interact alot and try many of the things like scraping out the coconut meat form the shell, pour the milk through it and then sqeeze it out, for maximum flavouring, and how to make the chapati thin and with the special 'layers' that it has. However something that I would have wanted to learn aswell, or at least see, is how they actually prepare this much food for and entire hotell. We only did small portions because it was easier but one of the trickiest things in a kitchen is really to be able to produce a enjoyable meal for so many people at the same time. It was a great activity and I feel like I learned more than I actually expected, mostly about timing, which matters alot in a kitchen, but also techniques that I didnt even know about before this, like how coconut is produced. Next time I would want to participate in the full process, because this time many things, like the spices and the onions, ginger, garlic and chilli, very already prepared, to save time.

Additionally to this we walked into Watamu town one day, along the beach, through the next bay and then through the streets of the town before we found the famous Italian ice cream place that indeed was amazing. It was hot and we deffintaly had to show some endurance and not just sit down in the shade and rest after half the way. Unfortunately we got lost in the town and had to walk all the way around before reaching our destiantion. Still this was nice, because we got to see more of the every day life of people in Watamu and passed shops of all kinds, kids playing, street cats, ladies doing laudrary etc.

We also had evening activities like quiz night and a scavenger hunt, which we won. It all questioned our abilities to work as a team and how to make use of everyones abilities and talents. There was also sand castle building for our strand where we had to agreee upon an idea and then make it, in 1.5 hrs. This wasn't as hard as I thought and we agreed quite fast that a turtle would be perfect. We were also divided into 2 groups and at least for me, having a bit of competition made me focus and work faster, just as for the scavenger hunt and quiz night. 


Even though I have already spent 3 years with most of the people in my grade this still resulted in many new bonds, with people that I before had not really given a chace and I got even closer to the ones that Im already friends with. I deffinatley made me realize how much I am going to miss them and Kenya once we graduate.