Operations smile/Amazing race

Today I went to school to sell snacks. All the money we make is going to the Operations smile fundraiser. The Amazing race was a race around the school. I wasn't there for the actual race but I was there for the preparations. Throughout the school there were either games or people warming up for games. There was one football game on the lower field. Two basketball games on the basketball courts. And there seemed there was going to be a football tournament on the upper field. Lots of teams came and registered and almost all of the teams were wearing matching clothes. As we were selling food and preparing for the race to start we were playing music and a lot of people started dancing and we were just hanging out and having fun.

Lots of bags

I've been putting on snap buttons on pads and sewing bags today. There is about 40 small pads and 20 big left to sew, but I ran out of material. My mom is buying more on Monday, so I started with the bags. I've made 55 so far, but now I cut up about 50 more. I need to buy strings as well and but about 300 more buttons on the pads, but I can't do that until I get the 700 I ordered to England and to USA. I'll get those in the middle of next week. It is a bit irritating to run out of the material when I'm really getting into it!.

Factory

Here is an image on how our study looks right now. I'm glad my mom is helping out because it is really hard work to sew so many pads. The thing that takes time is cutting them. Sewing is quite quick. I'm also waiting to get the buttons, so right now these big piles of pads are not even done. I'm going to spend a week end to fix the buttons, but I still need to sew about 150 more pads. Hard work!

High kicks

Taekwondo is all about kicking. I think I perform the high kicks really well now! I'm going to work on getting them even higher. To kick Max in the head is my ultimate goal. Today we also had sparring. It is great to learn to spot your opponents openings and weak spots and just take advantage of them to get a good kick in. This is really all about this when you are competing - to find the openings and taking advantage of them.

Ziggy goes to school

I started Puppy training with Ziggy. Every Friday, he is socialising with other puppies and learning how to heel, stop, come, fetch and drop.
He is a little bit too old for this puppy class, he just turned 6 months, but he is such a submissive and nice dog, so h can easily interact with the other puppies. He is usually the one the trainer picks for performing an example.
I have to wear a fanny pack with lots of treats, because he gets a lot everything he does something good. Good behaviour should be rewarded says the trainer and before his brain knows how to interpret my signs he needs a lot of encouragement. He is doing very well and I'm proud of him. I guess this class is more for me and teaching me how to train him.

Operations smile problems

We are trying to plan events in school for operation smile. Usually we do an open mike event, but there is just too much going on in school so there is a big problem to get approval from the teachers. We were also thinking of a fun day on the weekend and a dance but right now the prom tickets are being sold, so there is a problem finding a good time. It is quite frustrating that it is so hard to do a good event for raising money to operation smile. I think we just have to keep trying and not give up!

Poomse training

We have decided to train poomses every other taekwondo class. It is going to be so much easier to grade if we don't forget the poomses. Both for my black belt and my 2:nd dan black belt, I had to re learn all the patterns. Thinking about all the korean I have to learn as well, and all the other things, it would be great not to repeat the patterns for my 3:rd dan. I must admit, that I've already forgotten the first poomses, and are good at the 2:nd dan ones, so we have started with 1-3. I also know there are going to be a few more for the 3:rd dan. I'm not allowed to grade until next year (there has to be two years in between 2:nd and 3:rd) so I'll have some time to practice.

Buying buttons from all over the world.

This snap button business is hard work. I ordered to Kenya - didn't work. I ordered to France, only half of them came (and not the pliers I need to attach them). I ordered to England and realised I ordered to few. Finally America, 700 buttons for about 50 dollars. I will get them in a few weeks and then I can attach them to the pads I have made. I think these plastic ones are better than the metal, who sometimes fall off. Now my godmother will bring some and my father will bring the big order!

Destiny planning and reflection

The biggest challenge in Destiny School is the lack of class rooms. We have bought about five rooms so far but are still dependent on the church. There are now 460 students in the school, and about 250 of them are paying students. To have so many students that can't pay is a struggle. Dixon is now only taking in new paying students, and he raised the fee to 400 kes a month to be able to pay all the rent and the teachers salaries but is still not able to make all the payments.
One idea is to buy a bigger plot of land close by and to move the school there. There is a plot that cost 1,8 million Kes, and that is of cause a very high amount to raise. The problem is that there are no possibility to expand on the grounds where the school is located now.
Another problem is that we don't have much money coming in through our channels. My mothers friend is having a presentation for Rotary in Sweden today, so maybe we can get some money from them. I'm also exploring some other opportunities, but it is hard to write about them in my blog at this time. We aslo have the pads that we are selling to the company who is going to give them to girls in Somalia, but that will not bring so much money.
I think it is quite hard to raise money in February, because usually people has been very generous during christmas.

Destiny pad follow up

My mothers cousin is here and we made a trip to the school to film some more for a follow up on the pad project. We reconnected with the girls and one of the girls we interviewed last time told us she scored really high on the national exam. She said it was partly because of the pads and that they made her able to never miss school. The girls also gave us feed back on washing the pads and drying them. We found out that they are not always doing it correctly, and that they sometimes don't really know how to use them. More information is needed! I have to think of how to make the girls understand how to wear and wash them. Other than that the feed back was great (and many girls did everything right) and Marie is going back to Paris to try to get funding for the project.

Banish is hanging pads