DRIVING LESSONS: Summer 2012

During my summer break, I went to Lebanon, my home country, for two months.The 13th of June 2012, I turned seventeen. Since I live in Kenya, where people drive on the left side of the road, I realized that summer 2012 was my only opportunity to learn how to drive on the right side, before I come back to Lebanon for university. So i asked around and all my Lebanese friends recommended Skaff driving school.( http://skaffdrivingschool.com/)

Skaff Driving School is One of the biggest driving school in Lebanon. They provide every single service related to driving:Teaching you how to drive properly, insuring you cars, doing all the paper work in the legal and official departments. All their cars have 2 driver's cabinets. (2 steering wheels and control pedals).

"Driving you safely for the rest of your life is our main interrest and product."

I got their number from a friend who learned how to drive through the company and I booked an appointment with one of the driving teachers, Nabil. I took twenty lessons in total, each an hour long. We drove all around Lebanon: Jounieh, Beirut, Adma, Feytroun... Skaff has a very efficient system: each student has to drive the previous student to their house, except if you're the first student of the day. Nabil was an amazing teacher, who helped me concentrate on driving even when listening to music or chatting him. 

In the beginning, I was scared an uncertain of my capabilities as a driver but with time i could see the improvement and at the end i felt like a professional driver. Now i'm confident i will pass my driver's license test as soon as i turn 18 in the summer of 2013!

INTERACT CLUB BOOK SALE 2012 ...more pictures

ISK GOLD VARSITY TENNIS TEAM: August 2012 - December 2012

At the beginning of my senior year i signed up for the the tennis team tryouts. They lasted for about two weeks. Everyone, including my coach, had realized the progress i had made over summer. However, i was still surprised when i made the first cut.

In the beginning we were 30 players trying out, and then we were left at 20 people, which were divided into two teams of 10 players. I made the gold varsity tennis team! We have practice four times a week :

• Mondays: 6:50am - 7:50am
• tuesdays: 3:30pm - 4:30pm
• Thursdays: 6:50am - 7:50am
• Fridays:  3:30pm - 4:30pm 

Our coach is coach George, with whom we discussed our goals for the season. My main goal is to perfect my back hand and avoid double faults while serving. I also wish to play more singles matches as i am used to playing doubles with my sister. 

Adding to practice hours, I play tennis for one and a half hour every Saturday with my formal coach, coach Peter. It is a much more intense training as we don't have to share 3 courts between 10 players.

OPERATION SMILE: Saturday 8th of September 2012

"Changing lives one smile at a time"

Operation smile is a worldwide children's medical charity whose network of global volunteers is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults. It was founded in 1982 in Norfolk (USA), and has provided free surgery and related health care to more than 160 000 patients born with cleft lips and other facial deformities all over the world. The organization is present in more than 60 countries, with 12 in Africa.

In each country where they work, their goal is to create self-sustainable programs that provide free surgical care as well as education and training. They ensure every patient treated by Operation Smile benefits from the best equipment, procedures and highly trained medical volunteers, no matter where they live.

In Kenya, approximately one in 500 to 700 children is born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate. Children suffering from clefts often face numerous challenges to their health and survival. Facial clefts aren't just a cosmetic problem: 1 in 10 children born with a cleft dies before reaching their first birthday.

Those that survive, grow up with significant malnutrition, speech abnormalities and breathing problems, These patients, due to stigma, are normally outcast, who don't go to school and live a life of shame and isolation.

I recently joined the Operation Smile club in ISK. We meet on Mondays once every two weeks to brainstorm and plan fundraising events. Our club donates all its profits to this honorable cause.

On the 8th of September, we had a booth at the PTO picnic held in our school, We were selling 'operation smile" T-shirts (green and blue), cupcakes with smiley faces on them and brownies. We were also distributing brochures about the organization and we were raising awareness with the hope of receiving a lot of donations. Some of my friends and I went around the picnic explaining what our club is about, selling cupcakes an collecting donations.

Thanks to everyone's help and generosity, we raised about 58 000 KSH, which can pay for two surgeries, as each surgery costs about 240 dollars.

PTO PICNIC : INTERACT CLUB BOOK SALE on Saturday the 8th of September from 11:00am to 12:30pm

THE INTERACT CLUB organized a book sale at the PTO Picnic which took place on the the 8th of September in ISK. Each student donated five books from their personal collections, either children's books or literature ones. Since my committee is in charge of advertising the club and its events, i designed a poster and made 25 copies, which me and a fellow interacted posted all around the school campus.

I signed up for a shift of one hour from 11:00 am till 12:00. So i was part of the group, which was in charge of organizing the tables and deciding of the disposition of the books to optimize the sales. As one of the board members, i was also in charge of setting up the prices for the books:

• Small books: 100 KSH
• Medium sized books (paper cover): 150 KSH
• Medium sized books (hard cover): 200 KSH
• Big books (paper cover): 250 KSH
• Big books (hard cover): 300 KSH

We separated the books according to their size, their quality and their type of cover (paper or hard) which helped in setting the price (50 KSH difference). Adding to that, the books were also separated   according to the age group they were meant to be sold to.

This process required team work and leadership skills and fast decision making. At the end of the day i was informed that the book sale did great, so i was really proud of my contribution.

INTERACT CLUB TEAM BUILDING: Saturday September 1rst 2012 from 8:30am to 1pm

After selecting fourteen members for each of the four committees in the Interact club, during a board meeting, the accepted applicants were required to attend a team building event on Saturday the 1rst of September.

The board members came a bit earlier to choose the last member of the board. Amir T. Rashid was voted to be the head of the club committee. The interacters were expected around 9am. As people were walking into the multi purpose room, they were separated into their respective committees: The club committee, the service committee, the finance committee and the international committee. The meeting began with a twenty minutes long introduction on the club, its four committees, its requirements, its purpose, its service trips and its funding events. This was primarily addressed to all new coming members. 

This was followed by team building activities including assembling five squares using different shapes, the survival desert activity and a spoon race using potatoes. The survival desert activity consisted of listing from 1 to 15 and in order of importance, what we though were necessary items to our survival  if we were lost in the desert. 

The room was divided into many teams, which competed against each other. They were genuinely fun and brought everyone closer as working as a team and taking each person’s opinion into consideration, were the only ways to succeed and win. For the two first activities, each winning team won lovely pens. The two board teams didn’t win anything but they argued that they wanted to give the others a chance while everyone else pretended to believe them. 

Afterwards, there was a short snack break during which all members and supervisors were enjoying treats, brownies, cakes and chips brought by the board. We also had short committee meetings to discuss how every member can contribute to the club and the upcoming PTO book sale. Then we had the pinning ceremony, starting by the board members, which then gave an interact pin to each of the other members of the club. We ended the day by taking a group picture of everyone, before everyone headed home. It was a great event! 

MY NEW DUTIES AS HEAD OF CLUB COMMITTEE IN THE INTERACT CLUB

At the end of my junior year, I applied for head of club committee in the Interact club, after having been an active member of the committee for a year. I wrote a small speech and I presented a video about my experience in the Interact club in front of all the members and the old board. After everyone had written the name, of who they thought would be the best at this job, on a small piece of paper, it was announced that i got the position. I was VERY happy about it even though new duties and responsibilities came along with my new title. My committee is in charge of advertising the whole club to my school and the rest of the community. We do that through link articles, ticket and poster designs as well as through making videos. After summer break, the president of the club asked me to prepare a short video to explain what the club is about and to attract new members. The video was played in front of the whole school community during one of the general assemblies. The club received a large number of applications, which i take partial credit for. My mission was accomplished! The board members, including me, had to meet up after school to select and accept 14 applicants into each committee. Below is the video that i made and which got students and teachers talking about the club: