Interact OVC Party

Serving cocoa to the kids 

The gorilla one of the children drew at the Drawing Station

Teaching one of the kids how to write CAR

Walking Vivian back to the parking lot

Today we held the Interact OVC Christmas party. Unfortunately it was raining, so we couldn't go play in the playground or go swimming, especially since most of the children are HIV positive. So we altered our plans and divided the party up into 4 stations: the breakfast station, clothes & books, reading room, movie, and coloring. I was a group leader, so I took one group of children to each station. We began at breakfast where we made cocoa and served mendazis, hard boiled eggs, sausages and so on to the children for breakfast. Then we went to clothes/books and helped children pick four articles of clothing and two books. There it was quite hectic because some children didn't know what to do and some took too many things. There was one girl, called Vivian, who was shivering because she was cold from the rain and she wasn't sure how to pick out clothes so Rosa and I helped her pick her clothes. The next room, the reading room, was also hectic but A LOT of fun. We got to help the children read and I love reading to kids so I got really into it. Every time we came across a word I thought I could make a connection to I tried to teach the children it. I was able to teach Vivian how to count up to five on her fingers and I taught the children at my table how to differentiate between various colors. Particularly the color red because that was written in one of their books. In this room I found that the older kids seemed as if they were trying to get more clothes through the younger kids. They kept going through the younger children's bags and the younger children couldn't say anything. Not only were they too young to understand, but as their elders the older kids probably intimidated them. Also I feel like the language barrier contributed to this too. I'm planning on telling Ms. Henderson or Parijat on Monday so that this issue can be addressed. We went to the coloring room in the end where we had a lot of interaction with the children, as we saw what they were drawing, helped them think of things to draw and so on. There was one kid who was drawing a gorilla from one of the books he'd picked up and it was excellent! I was really impressed and I'm excited for the next OVC party we have! 

NHS

Yesterday during our NHS meeting I suggested that we do a cleaning supplies drive for the Home for the Aged in Runda. We visited this Home for the Aged when we did the Runda Feeding Program and on a walk with my mom we went and talked to the director, who told us that they needed fans, cleaning supplies and other things. I figured that to start off with it would be very easy for NHS to organize a drive of cleaning supplies to donate to the Home. These items are so easy for us to acquire and make such a difference to places like this, so I think this is a very important thing to do. I love how, being NHS, I have to resources/manpower to actually go about organizing something like this. I think it's great that I'm able to connect two of the groups I work with, Interact and NHS, to work towards bettering the community. I feel very at ease in NHS and am able to contribute ideas. I also gave the idea to do Christmas grams but instead we're going to do Thanksgiving grams. I suggested that we make cookies at my house, using the Autumn leaves cookie cutters that I have. This is my first true fundraiser with NHS and I'm excited to start working on it. I created the poster below for the cleaning supplies drive and will post it on the NHS Facebook page to see if it will work.

Just Write Competition

I submitted the following poem to Just Write:

Guilty eyes

Upon a guiltless man

Hearing the mother cry,

He’s eternally damned.

He looks down as she goes by

He has shattered her world

His actions cannot be rectified.

She turns and speaks her first words:

‘Go to hell’ she hisses

Her eyes screaming blame

She’s then gracefully dismissed

Her baby’s death was not his aim.

He begins his exit

Numb to his very core

Her words had hit him even

Harder than the courthouse door.

He walks out a ‘free man’

Lawyers are congratulated

This was not his life plan

Everything’s been complicated

Reporters surround him now

Is this what freedom feels like?

An escape he is not allowed

They all look alike.

‘No comment’ is mumbled

Through his weary lips

His spirit begins to crumble

His heavy heart’s been ripped.

He thinks of the flawless girl

Her face lifeless and still

The night’s events unfurl.

She should not have been killed.

He drove his truck

Headlights so bright

She was high on her luck:

Not meant to be out that night.

He casually changed the station

Wistful blues poured on through.

She focused on her presentation

And gazed in the mirror, while driving too.

Tires squealed.

And horns blared.

His vision is real.

He was there.

Through the crash he blacked-out

He now remembers only

His attempts to switch routes.

But it was not meant to be.

Guilt for the guiltless

This is where he lies

Who said freedom was painless?

To the girl he is forever tied.

I just found out I won 3rd place with the poem above! :) 

Horseriding

I went horse riding again for the first time since school started this year yesterday. It was so much fun. I feel like it's like riding a bike; you never really forget. I had the best horse, his name was Donald. He was completely prepared to trot and canter and had a great deal of energy. Plus he easily listened to me when I wanted to turn. The only problem was that because he had so much energy he began going to fast and became hard to control. When I cantered the first time he went to fast and I lost control so I went off the track. I had to really challenge myself to get control of him when cantering but I kept working on it throughout the lesson and by the end I was able to do a controlled canter around the track multiple times. It was a great feeling to have this sort of control over Donald so all in all I'd say it was a great first lesson back. 

Shrimp Stir Fry

By learning how to make stir fry I've acquired new skills. The process of making the stir fry and the actual stir fry is shown below: 

I learnt how to make shrimp stir fry the other night from my mom so now I can make it for when I go to university. I have created a journal to write down recipes that I can refer back to when I have to cook it again. Plus I can take this journal with me when I go to university. Ingredients include:

• Ginger
• Onion
• Garlic
• Shrimp
• Green Pepper
• Red Pepper
• Green Onion 
• Soya Sauce
• Ground Red Pepper 
• Spaghetti

Basically you cut up the vegetables and fry them in a pan with the shrimp while boiling the spaghetti in another pan. Then you add the vegetables and shrimp to the spaghetti and add soya sauce and mix it well. You should also add the ground red pepper at this time.

Cookies:)

The dough

Baking the dough

The final product 

Trying the cookies at school the next day:) 

Rosa and I have made a goal to learn how to cook before we go to college and are trying to make something once every week or once every two weeks. This weekend we made chocolate chip cookies, shown in the photos. We hope to be able to express creativity through learning to cook. 

I went to participate in the Runda Feeding Program on October 14. It's very near my house so it was interesting to see this community outreach program within my own community. This program allowed me to engage with issues of global importance, as I was able to provide meals for a great number of people, including the aged people living in the hostels. The program was divided into stations, such as, bread, mendazis, milk, biscuits and so on. I was at the bread station. The experience was very factory-like, we were all in a line and I passed the bread down to the last few people in the line (Rosa & Nalin), who then put the bread into the bags of the people at our station. Therefore I was also able to work collaboratively with others in order to find the most effective way to pass out food to masses of people. I've included photos from that day. One is of me passing out food and the other is of the children waiting in line. Before we started passing out food I went around and took a few photos and the children got really into it. They loved having their photos taken. I definitely want to go again and be able to interact with the Runda community.