MY CAS EXPERIENCES.

Actions speak louder than words. We decided to put words aside and express our love to the St. Nicholas Nursery Kids through our actions. We organised a tour to St. Nicholas this semester and In partnership with another CAS group, Jenga Tanzania, we managed to repaint two classrooms used by the St. Nicholas Children for studying during this tour. We also cleared the playground and removed the remains of the old swings to prepare the land for the sand and other materials which will be required for the playground reconstruction. 

On the other hand, during one of the sessions where the kids came at the IST campus, we organised a fashion show in which we dressed up some of the kids to participate in the show while the rest were audiences. We initially help them make their own crown papers to add the fun into the activity and involve the kids in creative stuffs through decorating their own crowns.

"Dust yourself and get up whenever you fall." This was what kept us going for this semester. I personally, had to learn a lot of moves which needed my extra time to practise to catch up with the rest in the next session.

However, as a group we have not really completed any full piece / choreography. There are many challenges we as a group have faced in this semester. It is challenging to work with people from other schools as we have different schedules and timings are mostly impossible. 

I personally do not feel I have given my best for this action in this semester and I feel I need to reconsider my action part. I aimed at dancing being more of a physical exercise and I have not really achieved that.

"These boots are meant for walking" worked pretty well and we really rocked it out. It was easy for me to catch up with the chord pretty quickly and made my cover which I am struggling to upload but at some point Mr. Loschi listened to it. Although, in the beginning of the song I sort of struggle to get into the next chord and I am still working on getting that right to perfection.

Jumped to another song, "Somewhere over the rainbow" which was heart blowing... This song was easy as the chords were basic with no complicated stuffs, at least not to me. So we did not spend much time on this song.

On the other hand, "Skinny Love" the next song we learnt was sort of a fail as Mr. Loschi said "They don't always work!!". So, we didn't waste time on this, and we moved on to the next song.

This song ruled my semester, "ROYALS". Nice things come with new things. I got to learn a new chord from this song, D7. The strumming was amazing and the whole guitar effect of the song ROCKS!!!

We had a planning session before we went, together, for a visit to the school in this new school year, with a lot of new enthusiastic team members of St. Nicholas Nursery Service Group.

We highlighted the key things that we plan to focus on for this year and that as they visited the school they should pay a special eye for those mentioned things, such as the play ground. Of course, not to limit them in identifying any other needs that we, as a Community And Service group can be able to play a role to meet those needs.

This are some of the needs we identified from our 2013 visit, they include damage doors for washrooms, beer cans and other litters in the childrens' playground not to mention dangerous stuffs such as pins, and a playground 'myth' - You can hardly believe it was or is a playground for that matter.  

- The next session after the visit, we put together all that was observed and listed things we could do for a start, things such as collaborative cleaning of the campus, especially the playground, and among the ideas presented was to establish a waste disposal system for them to properly dump their wastes instead of just scattering them all over the place.

- This first term we have devoted it to planning, since this had been a major draw-back for smooth running of the group last year. So, as leaders we thought we could pay more attention on the planning sector and see if we would obtain a positive outcome from it. We have had a couple of planning sessions, in which we have tried dividing the group members into smaller groups dealing with different stuffs, such as art, drama and theatre, fundraising and sponsorship. On these groups, each group has been preparing specifically for that sector and how it could make this year's goals achievable. Especially the playground project.

- Among the research done during this time is together with the things we need for the playground, and prices for these things and made an estimate or a rough budget and brainstormed how to obtain the money and other resources. This is among the things that we aim at, and hope to achieve at the end of this playground project.

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THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING...

  We began the 50th anniversary year by reminiscing around 50 years ago in 1966 a top pop-song hit on US and UK chart, "These boots are meant for walking by Nancy Sinatra".

We only had one formal session and we were introduced the new song and I sadly missed the session. But since the 'Guitar is meant for rocking and that is what I do', So, I challenged myself to find the chords and try strumming the strings on my own since I didn't have the copy of the lyrics from the Teacher. I was surprised when I actually rhymed with the actual song.... Sigh!!! Those moments when you feel all pop-star..ish :)

Looking forward to strengthening my guitar skills with my superB supervisor.

Here is part of the reference I used:

Intro: E   |    E    |   E    |   E   |  E

You keep saying, you've got something for me,

 Something you call love, but confess

A

You've been messing where you shouldnt be messing,

        E

And now someone else is getting all your best.

Chorus:

     G                   Em

These Boots are made for walking

     G                       Em

And that's just what they'll do,

G                       Em      (pause)

One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

 Link 1: E |    E    |    E    |    E   |    E |     E

        You.

 Verse 2: E7

         You keep lying when you ought to be truthing,

         And you keep losing when you ought to not bet,

         A7

         You keep sameing when you ought to be -a- changing,

              E7

TAKING IT TO THE WHOLE NEW LEVEL....

This year there have been alterations made but all for the good of the dance. So, this year we have new members from outside IST, getting the different tastes of the dances in order to make it tastier....

We have had only one session so far, and the main thing that we did was get to know one another and what type of dance everyone does so that we can figure out how to do the mix of the talents.

The challenge that I have faced is to dance with new people whom I'm not used to. This is something I plan to deal with by trying to familiarise with my team members to make sure I'm comfortable enough to dance freely.

We are currently working on choreographing new moves for a new song, and the main goal for this activity we are working on is to get everyone to contribute a step or move. This is quit challenging for me since I'm not used to making or coming up with moves rather than just learning them. Hence, being not an easy task for me, it makes me challenge myself more in order not to let down my team members and to make sure we reach our goal of getting the best final mix.

For the performing part, we as a group plan to do a couple of flash mobs together with participating in any opportunities that come up at school.

Azonto to Ngongoti....

Yeah! That's right...

This term our project was "Graduation Dance". We thought we would do a dance as a group for the graduation.  

But it was more that a group and we surely did it!! 

"We zulo nipeni mwana wangu nibabe.......Alimwigangaaaa..." That is a touchy line in the traditional song we use for the traditional dance we did on the 2013 graduation. It was ePiC..... Culture is something adorable..

The dance was "A NGONI TRIBAL DANCE". Not from my tribe, personally, so new skills learned, and ngoni words as well since we sang in ngoni as well. FUN! FUN! FUN!

Kids are inevitably fun....

We tried to make the sessions as educative as they are fun. So, we planned a session where we showed the kids videos on Road safety, then later on went for colouring...They coloured road signs...So, the aim was teaching them how to cross the road and be safe while they use the road.

We also tell them stories which are meaningful and have values that educate the kids on their everyday life. Values like, do not steal, do not be greedy, e.t.c.

Sad....nothing happened in this term...

"I will fix you" that is the title of one among the three songs we have been focusing on in the guitar club, it is the track I have uploaded. The other two being "Gone! Gone! Gone!" and "One Day Like This". So, we have been practising these songs for the big upcoming day..TWIGA IDOL. That is what we are working on currently.

This term we came up with couple of changes that we made to enhance the session.

Among the things that we have decided to change includes food. So, we used to give the kids an ice-cream each, at the end of every session. But now, we give them juice and biscuits. The kids were happy with the changes so it was a successful one.

 We also made the sessions more FUN!!! Yeah!!! FUN in deed. We usually alternate between the MPH activities and swimming.

Basically, the MPH session was just random playing with the kids. The enhancement of these sessions involve more organization and specifications.Sounds not FUN but in reality it works better. This new mode of involvement includes groups with games that we "IST students" chose, so we MAKE OUR FUN THEIR FUN...So mutual benefit since we all enjoy. The kids divide themselves according to the groups available and that they enjoy doing....on getting into the group we IST students specialize with few MTONI kids in our respective groups, which include Football, Tennis, Cricket and Drawing. This makes the interaction much easier and meaningful since both sides enjoy what is being done on the session. 

The pool part got even more interesting since we incorporated a competition. So, instead of just moving around the pool aimlessly we decided to compete, swimming from one side of the pool to the other, with the kids. OMG!!! It was fun since everyone was seriously not ready to be the last....and the kids were so cooperative...So, the activity was so successful...

On my last , pool, session, something terrifying happened. One of the kids almost drowned as she lost balance. But luckily enough I was close to her and pulled her up immediately. When I saw the kid at that state, helpless and terrified of drowning, I saw myself in her...She reminded me of myself when I almost drowned as I was learning how to swim..All in all, everything was fine and we all had fun apart from that incident. 

The sad part though is that, this is going to be my last term, with this activity. As they economist say, in life its all about CHOICES...We can't have all our wants. And for me, I had to make hard choices which among them involved not going on with this activity for the next term. If it were up to me, this would have never crossed my mind...This is among the activities that I feel I'm really giving and connecting to my community...

They saw me and they all ran and hugged me with love and they were like 'shikamoo dada', a swahili greeting meaning Hello sister! That was the first day I went to pick receive them from their bus before taking them to the AV theater. They watched cartoons.

This is among the many activities we do with these adorable kids. For this term we chose one day and we went to the pool to swim for a change. The kids were so happy some even didn't want to get out of the water and kept on saying, "I want to go back in..." It was successful and we plan to do this more often. Also, we came up with a session where kids go to make their own necklaces out of coloured pasta. The kids loved this activity since they took the necklace they made with them at home. The goal that I had for this term was successful as the activities were not monotonous and that was what I aimed to achieving.

we also enhanced the food by  including more fruits and less junk. we believe a healthy child plays even better.

For the next term my goal is to focus on the fund raising part. We need to raise money for the construction of their playground and repairing their classroom. 

This term has been not so good in terms of my swimming practice for me. There has been so much happening this term especially on Wednesdays, which are my main practice days. I have been missing most of the sessions and this act is kinda pulling me behind I feel in my progress. If I reflect back and see reasons to why this has been happening, I noticed that ESP trip,GISS trip took some of my Wednesdays  but those are only two Wednesdays some times it was hard to practice since this term our practice time was intruded by the lower graders who had swimming class pushed to the same time as our swimming practice. This has been a major drawback since sometimes we had to cancel the practices as we had no enough space.

Looking on the bright side of this activity, for the days that I had practices, I managed to go a full length of the pool, to and fro, two rounds consecutively. This is a big progress that when I think of it, I want to dedicate more time for this activity next term. though, sometimes I get to swim during the weekends and for my other CAS activities that I do, I feel I'm not putting in enough and I believe that I ca do more than that.

Due to the instability of my serious swimming sessions last term, I have decided to discuss this matter with my tutors and see how we can make this more effective.

2ND TERM OF ROCKING 'N' ROLLING...

This term Mr. Loschi decided to bend the rules a bit. So, his resolution for this term is throw to us as many songs as possible and we decide to choose the easy ones we can manage to play or the ones that we wish to play.

We learned songs like UNDONE, FIX YOU and ONE DAY LIKE THIS. He usually says, “just practice 10mins every day.” At first I never took it serious, but now that I practice almost every day, though sometimes it’s only 5mins, I started to see some improvements. The skills that I have learnt from this club are growing stronger every second I hold the guitar and strum a plectrum up and down the strings.

Whaaaaa….t!!!! That was the expression I had when I came back from the Nairobi trip to find all the choreography for the Azonto dance is changed and I had only three days to catch up with every move before the first public performance. Every day was a practice and polish day to make a good first impression to our audience. Time was running out and as the time came closer the practice got even more intense, and there……3..2..1..Yeah!!!! The day that we all had been waiting for arrived, ISSEA BASKETBALL OPENING CEREMONY. This day marked the begging of a new free voice in me, from my bathroom walls audience to the ISSEA community audience, wow! That was sooo EPIC for me. It felt so good to be able to dance in front of that huge crowd of people. It built up my courage and confidence. I danced with all my spirit like it was “EITHER DANCE OR DIE!!” I hope this new confident voice will be stronger and adventurous in the future.

The next project we, the group, are working on is preparing to heat up the stage for our senior brother and sisters on their graduation…it is my hope that it will be a massive blow to leave people mouths wide open in amazement to how creative and energetic and entertaining dance can be. Looking forward to it.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PUTTING A SMILE ON THEIR FACES!!!!!

The third term of the year and things were quite hectic this time. I came across new faces in this term as there were new kids who enrolled at the school for this new year of 2013.

I tried getting to know the new kids and tried studying their behavior. This curiosity to wanting to know more about the kids came about after I saw Tarimo, a boy who joined Mtoni School this year. He came to school, at IST, with his school bag and he carried it in his hands throughout the service time. I noticed him (since he was the only one carrying a schoolbag) and couldn’t help but observe his every move. He was acting weird, and so I decided to ask their teacher. That is when everything started to fit in, he was a new student to his school and to our service group. So, he had a change in environment that was not familiar to him thus made him insecure. As a result, he was behaving aggressive towards everybody, I saw him hit his fellow student when the student tried to pass him the ball to make him play with him. But instead of playing with him he gave the other kid a hard slap on the back and went on with what he was doing, that is, walking around the hard court neither speaking nor playing with anyone. I approached him and asked his name and he just ran away from me. The day ended but my mission started. I made some follow ups on this kid, Tarimo in every session and as the days went by he adapted to the environment and he started mingling, playing with other kids and IST students, he even enjoyed the swimming sessions that we usually do as his face glitters when he is in the pool. This is when I concluded that I, don’t judge a book by its cover, seeing Tarimo for the first time you may conclude that he is an aggressive kid but when he is in fact a very charming and fun kid to be with.  As I said earlier “It is all about putting a smile on these adorable kids’ faces despite their mental disabilities.”

This is a small group of only four people in it. The main goal is mastering the famous Ghanaian dance, AZONTO, which has recently become so popular. We have just recently started the group and we practice every Friday in the Drama room, One of our members being Ghanaian to lead us through the dance.

The best part about this activity is the fact that I'm learning something new and I am discovering the talents in me. I am also learning what is happening in the Ghanaian culture in the sector of dancing.