PTO Picnic

So the PTO Picnic was was a few weeks ago, on September 8th. I baked cupcakes with Meg and Benazir the night before for Operation Smile, showing our ability to work collaboratively with one another. I'm so glad we did so because these cupcakes raised a HUGE amount of money for Operation Smile. We weren't in the best location but we got people to walk around with the cupcakes and sell them to parents/other people who were simply milling about, not in our area. When they sold cupcakes they'd also tell the buyers about what we do in Operation Smile and they'd typically get more donations from them. We raised around 58000 KSH, which is enough for around two surgeries! Plus, Rosa and I manned the stall for around 45 minutes to an hour although we hadn't signed up because we didn't have enough Operation Smile members to man the stall. I think this was on part my fault because as secretary I should have made a sign up sheet with time slots rather than just writing down a list of people who wanted to volunteer so that this problem would not have existed. This will help me for next time though, because I'll be sure to create a timetable for who will be doing what when.

Selling Books for Interact

Shirts for Operation Smile:) 

I also had to work for Interact during the picnic from 12-1. I donated four books and helped sell a bunch of books too. I also took a large amount of photos of what we were doing. We were in a good location so we got a lot of business. I'm glad that I had two booths to be involved in because I felt very productive and as if I was really contributing to the groups I'm in. I particularly felt this way for Operation Smile because while manning the stall I talked to the new counsellor, Mr. Mahaffey, and told him about Operation Smile. He said he already knew about the group since it had existed in Pakistan, where he lived before, and told me to come by his office for a cheque. I went by the other week and got a cheque for $240-- enough for one whole surgery. It was extremely generous of Mr. Mahaffey and very exciting for us because we've already raised enough money for three surgeries and its only been two months of school!

Baking the cupcakes for Operation Smile 

Interact Shopping for OVC

Nalin, Rasha and I went to Nakumatt today to buy the food for the OVC trip this Saturday. I like that I was able to purchase the food because not only did it allow me to feel more involved in the process of OVC but it also gave me some valuable knowledge about buying large quantities of food. Next time we need to buy food for OVC I'll have an estimate of how much rice, ugali flour, sugar, beans, milk and tea we will need. 

First Operation Smile Meeting

Today was our first meeting of Operation Smile and I quite enjoyed my new role of secretary. I took attendance and wrote down the minutes of the meeting and posted them on Facebook. I feel like this increases my own awareness of my strengths because I get to utilize my skills of organization in taking notes and making sure they're known to everyone in the group by posting them on Facebook after each meeting. I like being able to take a more productive role in Operation Smile, with more responsibility. This also allows me to demonstrate leadership skills because I have to keep track of who's volunteered to do what and I have more knowledge of the club so people can come to me to ask questions. At the moment we are setting up an Awareness Booth at the PTO Picnic this Saturday. I'm baking smiley cupcakes with Meg to sell at the booth and we'll also be selling t-shirts and handing out flyers there. For later on in the year we want to hold a concert with Composer's Club, as last year's one was so successful and we'd also like to have an art competition for the younger kids (elementary school and/or middle school) to create a postcard. We'll then produce their art as a postcard and sell it for a profit! 

Arabian Nights

I've begun rehearsal for Arabian Nights, the production I auditioned for last year. I got the role of Sharazad, who, in being the woman who tells the stories to the King and facilitates the play, is one of the leading roles. I have a great deal of lines but at the moment we've only had four rehearsals so the pressure has not hit quite yet. We've rehearsed the Prologue and begun one of the stories, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. I'm really excited to put this production on because the character contrasts starkly with my previous character of Lucy. Though I loved playing a little girl and appealing to a younger audience I'm happy for the change of playing a wise, mature woman whose eloquence and wit drives the story. In doing the play I'm demonstrating perseverance and commitment to theatre and the drama department. I'm looking forward to developing new skills on the way as I learn about storytelling theatre and gain knowledge of Arab culture and ways to apply it on stage. Furthermore, in the story of Es-Sindibad we'll be using puppetry. Hence we'll have to create the puppets and learn how to handle them. 

Interact Group Bonding

Today was the first 'meeting' of the Interact club. I joined the club last week and was assigned to the Service committee, the committee Rasha is leading, and today we had  a group bonding session for the club. We learned a lot about the expectations of Interact and its global significance. I didn't realize that Interact was so active throughout the world and not only in Kenya--apparently ISK's Interact was named the best Interact in East Africa so we have a lot to live up to. Two of the service projects we're working with are the Orphaned Vulnerable Children (OVC) and the Runda Feeding Program. There is at least one event for each of these per month and it's required for us to participate in at least three of these per semester. I'm sure this won't be a problem for me, I'm excited to be able to interact with the Kenyan community, something I truly wasn't as involved in as I would have liked to have been last year. I have signed up for the PTO Book Sale next Saturday and I was also elected to be one of the committee leaders, along with Ashika which is exciting. It'll also give me an opportunity to demonstrate my leadership abilities. They assigned every member of Interact a pin of which I've included a photo and we are meant to wear it as often as possible, particularly to events and meetings. It's a symbol of our participation in this rewarding group.