Selling the pads

My mom got an email from a friend. She lives in Sweden but is from Congo and has started a business providing solutions for paying services through a mobile phone (something like Mpesa). She has a company in Nairobi and comes here a lot. On one of her visits, I gave her some pads. She showed it to a friend in Sweden who is involved in a project in Somalia and really wanted to buy pads to send there. Our friends company would sponsor that. If she did, I would be able to make them and maybe earn some money to give to the school. She wanted about 400 so that is quite a lot, but maybe my mom could help out and we are allowed to take some time to make them. I'm going to do a small calculation to see how much they are (it varies from what materials we use).

Bras, panties and pads drive in ISK

There is a bra, panties and pad drive in ISK. I'm thinking that I should contribute with our washable ones. I have a few bags at home, but I also have to focus on the making of a hundred new ones for the school. It is still so surprising to me that this is such a big problem in Kenya. These pads are going to Laikipia, and the washable ones will last them so much longer! I guess I should talk to the teacher in charge and explain my idea and how the pads work. I can always give him the leaflets I made to explain the pad project. I'm happy that the drive doesn't end until January. That makes it possible for me to use the holidays for sewing them.

Ziggys accomplishments so far...

Ziggy is really doing well and I'm very proud of him. We prolonged the sleeping time to five hours now, so we still have to get up at least once a night to go out with him. He comes when I call him and never does his business inside. He's been eating a lot and is growing fast, but sometimes he overeats and vomits. I've been taking him to Karura forest for walks, and he is social with the other dogs and is walking well on the leach. The vet told me that he has fleas, so I treated him, but he is still scratching himself. Sometimes he is begging at the table and tries to jump up on the kitchen counter to get to food. I guess that he is testing borders. In a few months I'll take him to puppy training class.

Help for grading

My mother is doing her 2:nd dan taekwondo grading or 2:nd dan simsa. As a senior student, my job is to help and support her. This means that I have to help her with the korean, poomses and encourage her and that my own training is non existing. She needs all the time she can get with Max, our coach. It is a good tradition in taekwondo that the higher grades need to help the lower grades. Max told me that when he didn't know the poomses, his coach threw him out of class, and the senior students helped him to learn. It is quite tough and many different things to go through during a grading, especially on the higher levels. An interview about your mental approach to fighting is crucial and the grading usually takes 4-6 hours. I also put in the application for my 3:rd dan grading. I'm not eligible to do it in one year, but the application process is very long, so I might as well do it now. Everything is being handled by the Kenyan Taekwondo federation, so they and my coach decides when it is time to apply. In that sense it is good that I have to support my mother now. I'll get  a refresher course of the things I need to know, mainly korean terms and the poomses (movement patterns). I still know that I have to work hard to get my third dan. The toughest part of the grading is fighting the simsa kwan. They are usually 5:th to 6:th dan and it is hard to put up a good fight with a guy who ranked high in the world championship. The grading is also a  time for learning from the simsa kwan, so you are not meant to know everything he is testing you on. This is hard to know in a grading situation and every time I've thought I failed. After all my gradings I've been physically and mentally extremely tired and it takes a couple of days to recover. I think we are going to take a break over christmas after my mothers grading! I hope she is going to make it and I know I will help and support her as much as I can.

Diplomas in Oakland

This lovely image was posted on Oaklands Facebook page. I'm glad that they still use the Diplomas I made for them last year! Next year, I will try to make different diplomas, and maybe update the posters and leaflets I made last year. They are doing really well now, with lots of students.

Pad progress.

I have been a bit busy lately, and are finding it hard to take time to make the pads. There is a lot going on including studies for the exams. I've got some pads done, but I really need more. I was planning to bring about a hundred, but we'll se if I can focus and do it. I think I need to ask my mom if she can sew the remaining.

My art in the art exhibit

I'm happy that some of my pieces made it into the High School art exhibition. We have been working with prints for a while, and this is my contribution.

Christmas market in Swedish school

As always, I was helping out in the Swedish market again. I was selling candy, saffron buns and other swedish things. I also helped out in the kitchen, making the usual christmas plates with ham, herring and salmon. They were really good, but I like the christmas smorgasboard we make in our house better.

Success in the gym

Since starting training in the gym, I improved more than I could ever hope for. I'm lifting quite heavy weights now and I've gained a better control of my body. It is very encouraging to improve. In the beginning, I didn't feel I did so good and only compared myself to the rest of the family,  who works out regularly in our gym. Now I'm proud to find that in some exercises, I can lift more than my mom (and she is really strong and spends a lot of time in the gym). My commitment to continue has increased and even my trainer is impressed. My mom always says that how you build muscles is determined both by how much you work and how easily your parents gains muscles. This was not so much fun to hear when I started, but now I realise that I easily get muscles. I'm going to continue to work-out one to two times a week and do taekwondo two times a week and MMA at least one.

Creativity is flowing in ARTSCO

We decided a couple a weeks ago in ARTSCO to create some art just to inspire each other. This is what I came up with:

Destiny rooms

After a big mess, I finally got the recipes for the rooms we bought from Destiny. To make a long story short, we had to get different rooms than the ones we planned to buy. These are a bit smaller, but quite expensive. The fact that we had to pay 20.000 kes for Logistics was a bit surprising and I don't really understand what that is. There is almost always a problem with corruption. You have to pay someone to get the right to buy a room. Technically it is a bribe. Kenya is famous for being very corrupted and it's sad that even in the slums there are money changing hands during a simple transaction. I'm not sure that that is what this is, but I need to investigate further. We did not buy land, we just purchased the rooms so that is also a bit confusing.
The next step is to find out what it will cost to do basic renovations and to buy desks and blackboards. I think that the only way to buy rooms for the school is to look at what you're buying and ask yourself if you think it's worth it, even if you know that some money goes to other things. This is also the only way we can follow up. Look at the cost and what you got for the money we put in and see that it's really there after the constructions or renovations and then report it to the donors.

Growing puppy

Ziggy, my puppy is really growing! He is getting more like a regular puppy now, biting everything, very energetic, playful, begging for food, wanting to sleep in the bed and being hard work.
I try to raise him consistently and I've learned a lot about dogs. He is not allowed to bite me and I still have to take him out to pee every night, but sometimes he forgets about that. I use simple words like no and good boy and give him lots of praise when he does something good. It is very challenging because he is still a baby. Soon he is going to get his last shot and a chip so we can register him. Sometimes I get really tired of him. He is always with me when I'm home and it is hard to work out, take a bath or even get dressed, but in return he gives me lots of love.

More sanitary towels

Dixon e-mailed me that he needed about 100 more washable sanitary towels. I had to buy some more baby blankets and flannel and dye. I dyed the flannel dark pink to match the pink baby blankets that I bought from Nakumatt. I think it looks quite nice and that the colours matches really well. I also got some dark pink thread.
Dixon has told me that girls apply for the school just to get the sanitary towels. I think it is crazy that the problem is so big so they actually changes schools just to get the access to the towels. I'm planning to go to the school after christmas, so I can ask the girls a little bit about that. It feels good to be able to make the pads and really help them!

Managing the rugby team?

My PE teacher and the coach of the school Rugby team asked me if I wanted to manage the team the coming season. I'm so excited and feel very proud that he asked me! We are going to have a meeting about what he would expect of me if I said yes next week. I've tried to google what you have to do as a manager and I really think I could do a good job.

Images and reflections from the play.

The Saturday performance really went well. It feels good to finish without technical problems!
To work backstage was a new experience for me. I really enjoyed it, but it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I've learned a lot. Especially that it's important to work together and deal well with stress and improvise when things are failing. I'm very impressed by the actors, and happy I was not one of them in this play. It is very tough to be victims of circumstances and meeting an audience that comments on the action on stage. It was a very challenging activity and I feel tired, but I'm still going to try to be a part in the next production.

Operation smile plans

In our last meeting, we decided that we wanted to do an open mike event to raise money for operation smile. We even told some of our friends that they need to participate. I think this can be a good event to raise money. One cleft lip/palate surgery cost about 240 dollars, so much money is needed. There is also a need for antibiotics, pain medication and IV's.
There seems to be a lot of surgeries going on in South America so I'm thinking that this problem might be more common there, but I will try to find out how many surgeries they perform in Africa.

Backstage work for HS Theatre production

All week I've been doing backstage work for the production of Dracula. It's been going well, even though we've made a few mistakes, and on the Friday show we had some major technical problems. It is hard work, but I enjoy it (not technical problems though). I've been thinking that maybe I should have a future career in backstage work, producing or directing. My mom, who was a film producer in Sweden always told me that producing is a lot more interesting and a great job compared to acting. Maybe she is right. I hope I can get the opportunity to try out more work in that area in school. I also really enjoy doing make-up. Especially when it is supposed to be scary with lots of blood. I also find it interesting and educating how important the team work is back stage. Everyone really need to do their best and cooperate for the show to work out and look professional. One thing that is a bit disturbing is that I don't think that the school promoted the play enough. When my brother did IB theatre and participated in many productions the school was really active when marketing them. I'm happy and surprised that so many came to the premiere on Thursday and that the auditorium was packed on Friday. Somehow word of mouth must have promoted the play. That there were a lot of small children on Friday was a bit discouraging. They made some rude comments during the play and it really upset the cast. This play is a bit scary and having the audience laughing in the wrong places kind of creates the wrong vibe.

Working back stage with the High School drama production

Yesterday, I started working backstage for the high school drama production "Dracula". I'm more or less a stage hand (or a slave). I'm changing and moving sets, playing sounds and movie files and generally help out with everything backstage.
I'm very impressed with the actors and director and think it is going to be a fantastic production. I'm also hoping that it will improve my chances of being a part of the next production. I might want to do more backstage work, and would really love to do make-up. This week is going to be very busy. I have to do rehearsals until late Monday-Thursday and the premiere will take place on Thursday and it will run until Saturday. I'm really enjoying it, so I don't mind but I will be very busy and will have to find time to do my homework. Wednesday is going to be a regular day, so I will at least get one training session this week.

Taekwondo thoughts

I was on a taekwondo forum, trying to find out what the different rules are for grading in different countries/schools. It is very surprising to find that it varies a lot. Apparently it can take between 6 months to 7 years to be able to grade for black belt. I know that the Kenyan rules are quite strict and the coaches often visit seminars to update themselves on each others work and keep up with new rules (the Olympic rules are different from the regular ones).
Between the Dan's there are the same rules for grading all over the world. From 1st to 2nd - 1 year. From 2nd to 3rd - 2 years. from 3rd to 4th - 3 years etc.
Taekwondo is not all about grading and it is important to remember:
Etiquette, modesty, perseverance, self-control and spirit.
It is not just about learning a new form or reaching a certain level of fitness, a martial art is not just a sport, it's a discipline and a way of life that will show it self in your every action.

National exams for the students in Destiny

I'm so happy to have payed all the fees for the students National Exams. I hope that they are will perform well!

Operation smile meeting

We had a meeting on monday where there was a visiting member of Operation Smile. He was there to talk to us about what operation smile does and to go into more detail about the problems people with cleft lip and cleft palate face. Then we discussed  the opportunity to go to one of these hospitals and watch the operations. We also discussed what the next steps in Kenya to make it even more available. I'm very interested in watching the operations and will do it if possible. Personally I did not know the issues people with this disability face and how much it can hinder someone. I feel that this is a very good project and that we really should try to help everyone with this disability.

Halloween makeup

Today in school, a lady asked me "Oh my dear what happened to you"? One of my teachers did not want to look at me and many turned away when they saw me. I even went to Village Market after school to buy a few books and people looked really afraid of me. This is why:

I had to tell everyone that it is fake! I think I did a good job with my Halloween make-up!

Planning for Destiny

We had a meeting with Dixon to discuss future projects. We now bought two more rooms and need to raise money for two more so we can finally move out of the church and not pay 10.000 Kes/month for rent.
The prices are even higher now. Dixon explained that it's because it is so close to Juja road and very many businesses close by. If we buy from the community members, it will be cheaper because they often have children in the school and want what is best for it. But many of the rooms are owned by people who live upcountry. To renovate the rooms we bought, we will need a lot of money and we don't have them. We can also do a smaller renovation to just get the rooms functioning. We also need to build desks. Lot's of things going on, but I think we know how rank the different projects.

New puppy

My new puppy, Ziggy is 10 weeks old. He was found in a box with his 6 siblings and turned in to KSPCA. We have been discussing getting a puppy for a long time because it is a very big responsibility. The week we had him, I need to go out with him every three hours so he can pee. I also try to teach him basic commands. He is doing well so far, but I've had to clean many carpets in my efforts to house train him.

ARTSCO

Due to the issues of timing, we will not be having the Bollywood theme talentshow. Now we are planning some possible visits to an orphanage and the possibility of painting a mural. We also have planned for us to bring our own artwork to the meetings just to share and inspire. We have recently gotten a donation from Fota and are planning an art show with some local artist. We are also thinking about doing some artistic activities on some of our meetings. 

Paying for the national exams

The Kenyan National Exams are coming up. When  writing the exams, the school need to pay for it, the transport and overseeing and food for all the children and examinators. Because our fund raising for the new rooms went quite well, I can now help Dixon with the fees. It's going to be a total of 32.000 Kes. I'm also giving him the 120.000 Kes for the last rooms. I'm going to do a christmas drive for getting money for the renovations. My mothers friend also promised to give money as birthday gifts, so some more money will come our way. The National exam is the whole basis for getting in to secondary school, so I think it is very important that the students get the chance to do them. This is the first year Destiny provides the student the chance to take the exam. Destiny started only 3 years ago, and did not have 7 or 8:th grade the first year, and no 8:th graders last year. I really hope that they will perform well this year and I know from visiting the classes, that everything they do in grade 8 is to prepare for the exam.

Slum tourism

I found this interesting article online. I don't see myself as a slum tourist, but my mother says that we bring tea, copypaper, pens and candy to "pay" for our visit. After all, we are intruding on their school day when we come. The project in Destiny has been running for three years and most of the people living in the area have their kids in the school and knows that we help with a lot and are not just tourists. We visit the same place every time, so people there knows us. It is very sad though that tourist come to just get a tour of the slum and look at how people live there. I'm glad that they can make some money from it on the streets. I don't think slum tourism seems to be a nice thing to do and I hope they don't ruin the reputation of the people who goes there to help.
Article about slum tourism

Hanging out in Destiny

Thursday and Friday, I had no classes because of the parent - teacher conferences so I managed to go to the school in the slums. When we go there we usually take a big highway, go through the whole slum to the big road on the other side and then back into the slums again. There is another quite big road we can take, but because of all the attacks and bombings that has been taken place on that road we hardly ever use it. Today however we did. Nothing has happened there for some time so our driver thought it was safe. My mom told me to close the windows and take of my earphones. This road divides the Mathare slums from Eastleigh, the somali neighbourhood in Nairobi.

Once in school I was really treated as a rock star. The kids wanted to touch my skin and my hair and hold my hand. Usually they can be a bit shy but I think that because all the older classes were away, they got the chance to spend more time with us. I'm always surprised by how happy and sweet they are, even though they lead a tough life in the slums. I'm also very happy for helping them building toilets and a shower and Dixon is saying that the new toilets are much safer for the smaller children.

I also visited a class in grade five who were in one of the rooms we payed for. They were also very happy and sweet. Everyone wanted to have their picture taken with me. Usually I do most of the photographing, but today I got to be in the pictures.

Running water in the toilets

Toilets that you can flush

Hanging out with the 6:th graders

Talking about Maths

Participating in class

Painful training

Stretching is important in Tae-kwondo. It makes me more flexible and something we need to do every time we train. It can be quite painful, but we are not always doing it this tough. We spent a lot of time on the stretching during our last session, but we also had time for some kick combinations and finished with 60 kicks in 60 seconds. Hard work!

Swedish society year meeting

As always, I helped out on the meeting with the Swedish Society. This year, we were selling salmon wraps, hot dogs, drinks and snacks. Unfortunately, there were not so many people there but enough to make it a fun event. I always like to help out at these functions because I always meet new Swedes in Kenya and it is nice to speak Swedish and reconnect with other Swedes in Kenya.
My mom is not going to be in the board this year, so I really hope that they will contact me when they need help. They always say that I'm great at selling things in the functions, so I hope I will be able to continue helping out.

My new belt

I finally got it! It only took 6 months after my grading. I'm very proud of my 2:nd dan black belt. Now I can proudly wear a black belt with my name on it. This is the first black belt that has the name on it, so it is very clear to every martial artist that I have a high rank. This belt has two golden stripes and for the next grading in Korea in two years, they will only add a stripe for my 3:rd dan. I feel very proud to wear this belt because it shows my progress and dedication to Taekwondo. I've learned so much over the five years I've been training and developed a lot. My coordination, balance, flexibility and cardio has improved and I know some korean, the tae-guks and the mental part of martial arts and that is a big thing! I also have a great coach, who supports me in all parts of my life - not only tae kwondo!

In the gym

I'm actually getting stronger! It is encouraging to get results and now I feel safe enough to do a few exercises in the gym without Tom. The wights are a lot heavier than when I started out and I started to enjoy the training.

Success!

I got the message from my Sweden that we managed to raise the 120 000 kes needed for the two rooms in Mathare. We had to pay for the landlord to go down to Nairobi and negotiate the terms of the 4 rooms we wanted to buy. We already had money for two rooms, but needed more time to get the other two. Dixon managed to negotiate that we would get the other two if we payed before end of december. It was a bit stressful, not being sure of if we would be able to raise the money, but we made it, with a lot of help from a friend in Sweden. Now we can fully pay for the rooms and the next project is to raise funds to rebuild them and build desks and blackboards. I am still very surprised that a small room with corrugated iron sheets as walls and no floors can cost as much as 60 000 kes each. But I guess that there is a lot of people in the slums, so the rooms become very expensive.

Movie from Destiny school Washable Pad project

Destiny film

The link shows the film my mom, my moms cousin and I made in the school when introducing the Pads for the girls. My moms cousin is going to use it when trying to find sponsors in Paris.

TKD kicking

Taekwondo is really interesting and fun. Even though I'm a 2:nd dan black belt, there are always so many new things to learn. We started doing really complicated kick combinations like roundkick, sidekick, backkick and jumping roundkick. It is challenging for both the stamina and the balance and coordination.
Taekwondo helps me feel strong, fast and able to defend myself and I enjoy getting better and better. I think martial arts are perfect to increase self-confidence and you always have to be really calm, cool as well as explosive. Taekwondo is also a lot about respect and self control, so it's even good on a psychological level.

Delivery

I got to meet Dixon the other day, to give him about 100 new pads. It was really interesting, because we were discussing Kenyan politics, especially education. It's really confusing and not so good in Kenya right now. Everyone seems to be very confused. I learned a lot and reflected on how well of I am in ISK. I feel bad for Dixon who works so hard for the school and does not get any help or understanding from the government.

More colors

I'm continuing to dye the fabric for the sanitary pads. It's an easy way to get the colors I really want. I find that blue, brown and red looks best. To buy white flannel is really cheap, but the colored is very expensive. I save a lot of money by dyeing. The patterned fleece is also quite expensive, not to mention the snap buttons. My mother ordered snap buttons from China for me and they cost a lot less, and we'll see if it works with the delivery. If it does I'm sure we can buy more patterned fleece online. The reason I need it to be cheap is that I want to make as many pads as possible and the less I spend on material, the more pads I can make.

Smaller kits

I started sewing smaller bags for the pads for selling in the PTO shop. They thought it would be good to have smaller kits for selling only five pads. I think this is a really good idea. They also wanted me to find a name for the pads. I think this is really hard, because you need to communicate what it is and it would be good to have a connection to what we try to achieve. There are so many plusses with using the pads: It's economical, it's good for the environment, it's great when you have sensitive skin. But I mainly make them to help the girls in the slum. To make them be able to go to school every day of the month and to make them feel secure during their period. How do you sum all of this in a brand name?

Operation smile meeting

We had our first meeting with operation smile this week. I now know that mainly, we try to raise funds for the organisation. I'm thinking that I might be able to sell merchandise through other contacts I have, like the Swedish society. I need to learn some more and really focus on different ideas to make some money!

Playing the "Swedish chef" in French

In my French class, I had homework to make a film where I'm explaining something in French. I wanted to cook Moule Marinere. I had to make a chefs hat to be able to make a movie. From making the pads, I've got quite a lot of experience to sew on the machine, so I made my own hat!

The movie turned out nice, but it's too big to post in my blog!

Lazy Taekwondo

I had quite a lazy class in Taekwondo. We were not really well and had runny noses, so it was hard to to all the exercises. We still had a good time and did a lot of stretching.

In the end of the class, I managed to do 100 kicks (sometimes we do 1000). Max made me do it. The video was to big to upload on my blog.

Meeting with the heads of PTO

I had a great meeting with the PTO ladies in ISK about the Washable pads. They really loved the project, but had some constructive ideas on how to improve it. I'm going to work hard this week-end to make some changes to the project..... will keep you posted!

Selling Washable Pads in ISK

I got the information that the PTO shop is willing to sell the Washable Pads. This is great news! I'm thinking that I need to do some marketing to let people know they are there.
I also needed to make a folder about the pads and how to care for them, and I came up  with this:

This folder should be in the bag that we are selling and maybe something I could give to interested students on campus. I don't know yet and have to think a bit more. We are selling 5 big pads, 5 small and a clutch to keep the used pad in. The problem now is that we don't have any snap buttons left. My mom ordered some from China. We are hoping we'll get them soon.

school progress

They are building and building in the school. Two rooms are done, two new are bought and we need money for two more. The toilets will be done very soon, but we need to raise more money to rebuild and buy the other ones. My family friend in Sweden is helping me to raise money, because I used all my contacts during the summer. She is doing really well from what I know and it's going to be very exciting to see how much she can raise.