Basketball

This week we have mainly been training hard to physically and mentally prepare ourselves for the final match against ISU and this training will also help us for the next two match against Rainbow and Aga Khan International Schools. I have been practicing shooting under pressure and lay ups to increase our scores and points for the game. It has been an interesting week as we had a game with the 13+ and I still don't like playing man to man defense. Even though it is a good tactic. I have learnt how to play it but I don't like it at all.

Final Reflection

CAS has been an interesting experience and has definitely been a challenge. When I first heard of CAS I was shocked and then confused because I had never done something like this before but now I see the importance of the program. Even though there is a lot of work in the IB program, CAS is supposed to get you involved in your community and a chance to have experiences that define life. The activities I took part in gave me a broader perspective of participation and experience in different activities.
With the Creativity part of CAS, I was involve in many activities during the 18 months and mainly included learning new skills and increasing awareness of my strengths and areas of growth. I am not much of a creative person and I learnt that all the crafts, design, publishing was relaxing and developmental part for me. The advantages of this part is that I was able to produce a few pieces of work that were not so bad. It did not hurt to try and involve myself in the process.
The Action part of CAS had its challenges since I am not a sports or active person in the physical element. I mainly did Basketball and Dance ( Modern Contemporary and West African). These activities were quite difficult for me to accomplish. I did however improve my fitness level while participating in sport and dance. I also learnt that working together with a group of people was an advantage to the team. I guess two heads are better than one. I did develop new skills and had a chance to play with a team.
The Service part of CAS was a real eye opener. I joined the Cancer Charity Foundation and learnt of the effects of Cancer. Cancer affects the family both financially and socially and with the chance to interact with some of the patients I saw the privilege and gift of life. I eventually decided to take this up as my collaborative project with a friend of mine and tried to fund-raise for the Cancer home. I was good to know that I did something to help and benefit another person.
The challenges in CAS!!!! Doing activities and working on a project all week long can be very tiring especially after school. Most of the activities took place after class at 3.10pm and all I wanted to do was go home and fall asleep but I persevered and went through the activities with the best of my ability. Taking part in these activities was most of the time relaxing and refreshing for the brain. I am glad I did CAS and hope to continue to be involved in other activities and projects in the future.

Senior Choir feedback

Poetry anthology poem

My poem was about a woman who was living in the 1940s. It showcases her strength and life and how hard it is to smile at that point. It shows her soul and how she feels. This poem was to commemorate women's day on 8 March and it was an opportunity to represent women and their struggles. The stimulus was a woman's picture. She was the grandmother of Ms. Hecker our food tech teacher who lived during World War Two. Her grandmother was a survivor in Germany and managed to hide herself and other people from her neighbourhood from the cruelty of the soldiers. This was inspirational and it gave me a chance to show my skills as a poet. This subject is a sensitive and recurring topic of war and the suffering it brings. It is a world wide problem of oppression and the suffering of women during war.

Basketball

Basketball match 10/2/2014

Today we had a basketball match against International School of Uganda (ISU). We lost about 40-18. This was a wakeup call and a warm up for the game against Heritage International School tomorrow. Since we lost this game, we need to make sure that the rest of the games are won to be in the finals. ISU had different tactics that they employed during the game and it was very surprising. They switched from man-to-man defense to zone defense and it was difficult to play without knowing when they are going to change and do something different. We also faced the fact that we had mocks for 2 weeks and didn’t practice so our fitness and skills were a bit rusty.

Basketball match 11/2/2014

We had a match against Heritage International School and we won. The competition in this game was high because it determined whether we were in the finals or not. We were more prepared for this match and played the zone defense which worked well for us. We scored 19-15. This match renewed our spirits after the defeat from ISU the previous day. Heritage used the same tactics we had and played zone defense but they were difficult because they kept on scoring three pointers. To prepare for the next games, we need to practice and train hard. I need to get my fitness back and motivation to play the remaining games.

Cancer Charity home visit

The last visit for the Cancer Charity Foundation was on 11 December, 2013. We went there to see the place and the new patients. We found mainly children and most of the adults were still in the village. The director of the home told us that many patients died before the festive season that since there were children living in the place, they had to take the people who died out before they woke up. The home also provides and arranges funeral arrangements for the dead patients and transportation to their respective villages to be buried. There was a child who was sick of leukemia and we also learnt of a family where the mother and her two children all had cancer. With the money we raised with the non-uniform day, we bought flour, sugar, salt, soap, butter, rice, oil and bread. The visit went as planned and the stories of the patients were sad but they were happy. It was sad to know that some of the people we went to see the last time had died but a few remained alive. I also found out that other sponsors for the home were Barclay's and Standard Chartered. I learnt that cancer as a disease it a struggle and that life and death is one  of those struggles.

Senior Choir

Last week, we performed on stage. I was very nervous on the night that was the Christmas carol festival. However it turned out well and apparently our best songs were Holiday Romance, Alleluia and Santa Claus is coming to town. We had to also sing at the Teacher Appreciation Day Lunch, the Primary Assembly and the Second Assembly. All in all being in choir was a wonderful experience and I learn to mainly sing in Alto and control my breathing to create the best voice. Performing in front of people has always made me nervous but this has quelled my fear in that aspect. I am glad I tried something new and faced my fears