MMA

MMA is Mixed Martial Arts. I'm a beginner, but I have a lot of help by knowing Tae kwondo and Judo. My Judo trainer is also my MMA trainer. The hardest thing is to punch. I'm used to throwing and kicking, but the punching I've never done before. It is also good for my stamina, which I'm going to need when I do my black belt grading in Tae kwondo. I go for two to three minute rounds, kicking and punching on the mits and then I rest for a minute. My trainer says I can easily do three minutes and soon we are going to try four minutes. It is very tough! After every class, my knuckles are red and almost bleeding, even when I wear gloves. My trainer says it is only hardening the skin and will go away.

Tonights performance

Tonight we had a performance for the community and our families. Here is a clip:

And a photo of me:

This is my Director Ms Flemming:

And the whole cast:

My First Performance

Yesterday was my first performance for the traveling show at school. Even though it wasn't actually raining it was drizzling and the chance of it raining was big. It was also much easier with the curtains which made more space for us actors to hide behind and it was more discreet to turn the backdrop from castle to peasants homes. Because of the few fights and many noises we have had during the rehearsals Ms.Fleming who is the director asked me and my friend to take care of the backstage. Even though I wasn't in the last parts of the play hearing the many laughters of the elementary students. I knew many of them because of after school activities  and just on the playground when I was in 4th and 5th grade.

This is me in my costume.

The cast

Excellent school

I was talking to my brother about what to do for the school. He told me about his work to raise money. He is doing a lot of good things and I want to help him anyway I can. He wanted me to help him design christmas cards to sell. This is something I think I can do. He also suggested that I could help him chose photos to make a collage and give to the students. They love seeing photos of themselves and he had the idea to bring a big framed collage to hang in the school. This summer he wants me to make calendar to sell in Sweden for next christmas, so he has got a lot of ideas for me.
I also need to go to the school for a visit, but I have to do it on a saturday, or a wednesday after we are done with the play. Now, all my wednesday afternoons will be used for rehearsals. My mother also said that I should promote Emils application for the grant from Weleda on Facebook. We need many likes to be in the top. She also said I could help the Swedish society selling Swedish things and then apply for money from them to help the school. Emil did that in April and got 100.000 Kes. He will be done with his CAS work in May, so then I can take over the project. I know he will not stop working for the school, but I think that he will need even more help from me at that point. He will be very busy with his final IB exams.
I think this will be a good start even though I will ask him for more things to do and get a plan for the whole school year.
He is now working really hard to raise money to rebuild the school, but it's going to take some time to get all that money.

Theatre poster

Throwing my brother

Some pictures of when I was beating my brother in Judo! (I have to say, he was quite good because it was only his first time.) My brother was very kind to me because he has never done judo and I only used him as a dummy. My mother usually trains with me but she was sick so my brother became the hero and he didn't complain one bit. I was doing some basic techniques but still I had to teach him how to fall. Falling might sound easy but really it isn't. This is a way of falling without hurting your self as much. It was even better that I did this because then it really shows that I know how to do it and teaching is a really good skill to know. One of the major reasons why it was so easy doing it with my brother is that he is very light even though he is very strong.

Performance

Today I got the information about our performance of the traveling school play Beauty is a beast. I'm having two roles and they are not very big. We are going to do rehearsals every evening now but I think its fun. The only problem is that my mom is complaining that I'm too tired for my homework. Tonight I'm also training judo. I got my brother to join me because my mom was sick and I need someone to throw. (Kind of great to throw your brother around).
On the 16:th my parents get to see the show and I can't wait.

My mom is teaching me to upload images to my blog. It's a lot of fun. From now on I'm going to upload lots of photos.
My brother has a great blog about his CAS work and he is really inspiring me. I need to make my blog as nice as his.

My CAS projects

My brother is working with a school in the Mathare slums. He is a senior in High School. I asked my CAS coordinator if I can join him in his work and she said it was OK. This is going to be my Service project this year. For Action I'm doing Tae Kwondo, Judo and MMA. I'm soon going to be a black belt in Tae kwondo, I'm blue in Judo and a beginner in MMA. For my Creativity project I'm currently doing the school play. It's going to be a traveling play and the name of it is "Beauty is a beast". I will post things and images on my blog as often as possible!

My blog

This is my blog for Community, Action and Service in ISK, International School of Kenya.