Back to crossfit

I haven’t been able to really work out a lot because of all the work with artsco, composers as well as with all the school work which is piling up. Thankfully my box have been incredibly understanding and are helping me wherever they can. Because of the weird times this semester I haven’t been able to participate in classes very often but today I managed. It was very nice to finally do a group workout. I was very happy because I ended up in a group with 3 mazing people who both know me as well as pushed me. It was really nice to feel part of something outside of school again.

Artsco talent show

The talent show was finally on Friday which even though it was fun I was very happy that it is over. I was happy though being the stage managers because I get to be control and in my element and in this kind of a situation all I really need to do is to tell people what not to do. I had a small group of people working with me backstage and they were great but sadly I can’t say the same for all the actors since some were very rude my my crew and myself. It is very frustrating putting in so much time and effort to do these amazing events and not being treated well by the performers. All of the work that we do is to make them look good and not always getting that respect is very irritating. Thankfully I got the chance to work with someone who is also quite experienced in backstage work which was very entertaining. I also managed to persuade her to join the crew for next semesters play.

Composers talent show

We did very well in performing on Friday which was a load off of most of our shoulders. I personally was both scared about the talent show as a whole and for composers club individually. I was also nervous because this was one of our first times including a rap in our song. During our rehearsal process we were stiff and boring to watch but thanks to Troy (our rapper) who talk the show away by really moving around the stage and almost tripped over the wire which lightened up the entire group. We were slightly giggling and starting to not care as much about the audience which made us so much better.

The Play is Over

We did it. Even though we had many of the actors struggling with lines and the lights and sound didn’t know their cues and even having props being used up (our fake cigarets). But we somehow made it. Two nights and now we need to collect all of our props and our costumes and demolish the set. I do love doing the play and all that it entails (almost all) but one problem which I face every year is what now? I ma excited to “get my life back” but I will still miss theatre until the next play.

Buttons for the pads

Yesterday, I dyed flannel for the next design of pads. My mom got me another fleece blanket from Oneway to use. They are expensive, but I can still get quite a few pads out of it. My main problem now is that I'm running out of snap buttons. Luckily, my dad went to America yesterday and I'll take the opportunity to order at least a 100 buttons from Amazon. I have quite a few pads now, but I'm going to give them all to Dixon in the school when I meet him within 2 weeks. The Kenyans schools are out as of next week, but I know that most of the students still hang around Destiny so it will be good to give them some more pads for Christmas.

Flannel Dying

Yesterday, I dyed flannel for the next design of pads. My mom got me another fleece blanket from Oneway to use. They are expensive, but I can still get quite a few pads out of it. My main problem now is that I'm running out of snap buttons. Luckily, my dad went to America yesterday and I'll take the opportunity to order at least a 100 buttons from Amazon. I have quite a few pads now, but I'm going to give them all to Dixon in the school when I meet him within 2 weeks. The Kenyans schools are out as of next week, but I know that most of the students still hang around Destiny so it will be good to give them some more pads for Christmas.

Tech Rehersal

Yesterday we had the tech. rehearsal and it is quite unnerving to watch the the play with some of the actors still holding their scripts because the opening night is on Friday the 4th of November. But it is coming together which is quite nice. Like many plays this is very based on timing and since this play is also about death it makes timing even more important. We finally made it through the first act in one run with no interruption or big mistake which was a huge accomplishment. Our rehearsal yesterday was very much tiresome and you can really see that in the actors since they start to get out of character. Towards the end of the rehearsal it became more of a comedy rather than a murder mystery because we were all very tired. I do sometimes wonder how people work with plays as a full time job. Even our 1.5 hour rehearsals after school are tiresome much less 8 hour work days like we did this week end.

Destiny money

Last week, our family payed for the National Exams in Destiny school. It is quite expensive, because they need to keep the children in school all day, with food and they also need people to overview the test taking. We paid for this quite a few years, but next year we don't have to. Then the state will recognise the school and pay all the necessary fees to get it done. The National exams are really important to Kenyan students. The score is what determines where they can go for secondary school. In Mathare, most of the children who proceeds to secondary school goes away to boarding schools all over Kenya. I think it's great that they get to go outside the slums for four years, but unfortunately most of them also comes back to the slums after they are done. Usually people in the community help gifted students to go on to higher education. This happened to Destinys head teacher, who came back to start Destiny school to give back to the community. I'm happy to say that Destiny always score pretty good in the exams. Last year there was an article in the paper about how well the students did. I always get a report when the results are in and it's great to see how well they are doing. Unfortunately, many of them can't pay the fees for Secondary school, so they have to finish their education after year 8. We have tried to find donors for smart students, but it's hard to make people take on a commitment for so many years.

Destiny

We have a friend in Sweden who used to live here. She's been helping me with some fundraising activities in Sweden, and last year she got in contact with a Rotary club in Stockholm. They helped us fund some new rooms and some furniture. However, the biggest challenge is to pay the teachers in the school. Teachers get payed from how much money the school has, and it is never enough to pay everyone a full salary. The result of this is that the teachers leave the school. Dixon, the headmaster is really struggling with this because without teachers there is no education for the children. Rotary would not fund teachers salaries, but we got some private members that send us money every month now. It is not a lot of money, but helps keeping at least one teacher to stay in the school for a longer period of time. Last week Ann e-mailed me to tell me that we got another sponsor. I tried to check the account and it seems that we've got another 2000 Kes last month, but nothing this month. I think I need to check this a bit closer and not tell Dixon yet. It would be bad if he is counting on the extra money and then he might not get them.

PTC Bake sale

We have had some difficulties raising money for our upcoming talent show. We were supposed to have a cupcake decorating table at the PTO Welcome back picnic but we didn’t get a table until too late. So now we decided to have a bake sale during the Parent Teacher Conferences which went well and we raised quite a bit of money. Not many people came though to bring food or help sell. I did come and helped out for about 1 and half hours on Friday but almost none of the freshmen came. I do hope we can figure out a better way to make sure that people come and work their faire share. Now we should have enough money for the talent show.

My Certificate Came

Crossfit

1. Since IB has started I have had issues getting up early which means that I can’t train in the mornings. I will be working with waking up early so that I can get back to my training because I know I work better after training. The problem with not training for a long time is when you get back to it you are basically a beginner again which is the worst. Thankfully I am getting back to it. I even had a personal best not too long ago which was very upliftings. The box has gotten some new interns whom I have started getting to know and they are great to work with. Over a long time one of these interns and I were teaching the beginner classes which I great for me to start learning how to work with people. It is also great because I train sometimes with the interns and we help each other with motivation and technique. Next week we are hosting a competition and I am very excited to watch and help out wherever necessary.

Doing all the math

I got a call from a lady, who knows someone, who knows someone who told her that I made washable pads. She needed some for her daughter in secondary school. I gave her some, and she was so happy about them that she wanted me to teach her to make her own. Joyce came to my house right before school started and I taught her how to make them. The interesting (and sad) thing was that we started calculating how much the materials for the pad costs. It's really hard to tell, because we get materials from where ever we are. Dad sometimes buys it in America, we buy on market on trips, mom gets some from her friends etc. The snap buttons we buy from Amazon, when dad is in America and sometimes we find fleece blankets in Nairobi to a fair price. We managed to figure out that the pads are some where between 200-250 Kes.... per piece! That is horribly expensive (but they can be used time and time again for years, so in the long run it's a good deal). Joyce realised that she never would be able to sell them for a decent price. I suggested that she can go to Gikomba or Toi market and buy mutumba and that might work and be a lot cheaper. I hope she will get an opportunity to try, so she can make a business out of it!

Emil and Marie at Destiny

PTO Picnic

1. We have already had our first performance in Composers club when we performed the Rhythm at the PTO Welcome Back Picnic. We wrote this song late last year and it is one of my favorites. The issue which we faces was that the song is supposed to have a jazzy confident and wide ranged soloist which is incredibly hard to find. This song was almost made for Annisstar. We ended up having a group of 3 girls do that part and we changed the song a bit because we wanted the girls to feel confident singing it. I was very happy with the song even though I have decided to avoid singing this year. The reason why I am not going to be singing this year is because unlike last year we have more than enough voices while last year we didn’t have enough for the song to sound strong.

Colours

I didn't have any black KAM snap buttons, so I had to use all the other colours I had. It was a "blessing in disguise" because they came out really cool. I think the girls are going to like the design and it made them a little more fun. It might sound strange that I'm putting so much energy into the design, but the girls are actually really interested and are excited and proud of their pads when they like the design. It is also much more fun to make them if they look nice. I once asked a girl if she was embarrassed to hang them up to dry after washing them, and she answered: No, Why? They are really pretty and I'm proud of them. That really made me happy. I guess I have to get my dad to buy me more snap buttons next time he's in America. Even if it's fun with the coloured ones, I will need some black and white.

Designing

I've go a new design on the pads. I found a really cute fleece blanket in one way and thought it would be great for the pads. The blanket was quite expensive, but I think I can get quite a few from it. I also dyed the flannel into a grey shade, that I think looks really nice. I'm hoping that I have some black KAM buttons left, because they would go great with this design! I'm sure the girls are going to love them!

Destiny visit

My brother had a friend from his school over for a week of vacation. She really wanted to see the school in Mathare and I thought it was a good opportunity to reconnect with the students after summer vacation. We packed up some clothes, some washable sanitary towels (always greatly needed) and went to Nakumatt to buy pens, paper, candy and toilet paper. The visit was a great success and Mari really enjoyed hanging with the kids and learning more about what it's like living in the slums. The gift they appreciated most was the pads!

Song writing

1. We have had our first real song writing session in which we are making a song for the Artsco Talent Show. We want to make a song which starts out being all sad and very angsty while it talks about pulling yourself out and doing something about the situation. In the end we plan to have it all happy and proud. To write this song we split up into one group of the instrumentalists who worked on developing a bade music which can be hard without a chorus or verse but Justin is amazing so he still managed wonderfully. The second group were people who wanted to write a rap which we want to incorporate more into our songs. We really want to move into many new styles this year instead of sticking to what we know. The last group were the people were those of us who wanted to write the actual chorus and the verses. The problem with breaking up like this is that we don’t have the time to communicate during these processes which ended up with one guy writing a great rap which doesn’t really work with the chorus and the verses but we are now trying to figure out how to incorporate it into the song.

First Drama meeting

1. We had our first meeting with Ms.Hire on Tuesday which was exciting. I am very nervous because we have so many people back stage this year and as much as we need the help it gets bad when we have too many people. We don’t want people to distract the actors or interact with things which they shouldn’t. Thankfully the only people who are going to be in the wings other than the actors will be the Backstage Managers (I am one of them) and possibly the makeup or costume people during specific scenes. Unlike last years Les Miserable we will have one set and no set changes this year which is a relief. I am excited but also nervous since the other Backstage managers are 9th graders which means that they have not worked with the backstage before. On top of that I am worries that either they will be too “bossy” and commanding or that they won’t get any respect but they seem like very sensible people so I have a good feeling about the play.

Destiny Sponsors

I'm really happy that Rotary in Sweden has decided to sponsor us with about 100.000 Kes for furniture. They decided not to only sponsor the building of classrooms, which is so good, because we don't have any more space to build class rooms. Now we can build desks, blackboards and buy chairs, and that is really needed. The money will be transferred to my family's Swedish account, and then we will withdraw it from our Kenyan account to avoid exchange fees etc. Now we just have to wait for the money to show up. Then we can give Dixon a check. We also got a monthly sponsor who is paying about 5000 a month for teachers salaries. This means that the teachers might stay longer in school and not leave as they find a better teaching position

Open mic

We had an open mic. to the seniors who are leaving which was very emotional for all of us. There were many tears that were shed. One of our club leaders did a song which she couldn’t finish because she cried to hard. When we went up we first performed our song "Stars" or "Goodbye" (we still haven’t decided on the name) and then "Me and the Rhythm" which is a great song to end to just because it is so upbeat and fun. They liked it so much that they wanted and encore. It was a lot of fun to see everyone dancing and having fun even though we were saying goodbye to everyone.

Crossfit Competition

This Friday we had a competition and the box where I was planning to compete in but I had a bad day and I really didn’t feel like I could push myself as much as I wanted to so I decided to watch. My coach gave me the job of doing the scoring which was fun but very hectic. It was fun to watch all my friends compete. Sadly not all the people who were planning to compete could make it due to the rains but those who came late stayed and cheered on the athletes.  I'm planning to attend the crossfit coaching level 1 certification classes when I am am in Scotland studying over the summer. I'm not sure there will be a class close where I will be staying but I really hope I will be able to pull it off!

Composers Concert

We had our competition not to long ago and I was so nervous about it. It went well even though we had a misprint on our posters saying that we were charging even though it was free.  It went quite well even though there weren’t that many people there. We threw in some new acts in on the go because our performance was quite short. I am happy that we managed to pull our performance together even though we were all stressed. I still feel we could have done better if we would have started cramming sooner.

Weightlifting Competition

I am incredibly proud of many of my crossfit friends. Especially my weightlifting coach Winnie. Winnie was the person who introduced me to weightlifting and is one of the reasons why I have progressed so well.  She has been working really hard lately for a competition she is taking part. This competition determines who goes to Cameroon to compete further and get a spot in the 2016 summer Olympics. I really felt that I have to support her, so with a small group of crossfiters we traveled to Kitengela to watch her when she got first place and is officially going to Cameroon. Afterwards we all meet up to celebrate with a big dinner. Sadly this means that I won’t see her for the next month when she is training with the Kenyan Olympic coach.

Composers Club (pre-performance)

In composers club we have been having a lot of issues lately because not everyone in the club are fully committed. We are going to have multiple performances soon and i am very nervous. We barely remember any of our early songs and since some people have quit we need to reassign the parts and even rewrite some parts. One of the other members and I have written a song but we have to figure out the harmony, beats, chords etc. while we are also trying to learn all the old and new songs. Now also since so many people have quit we have less people for each part which also makes them harder to sing. I am very nervous and stressed and I really do hope that we manage to pull our performance together. I also hope that I manage to not get stage fright and lose my voice half way through the song like I have in the past. This is very scary.

OPEN DONE

The Open has been done for a while now and I am  happy to say that I qualified 16th in Africa and the Middle East and 537th in the world. I loved the open not because of the hard workouts (the sucked) but for the atmosphere during the open. On Fridays it became an event to come and support the athletes even though they were not competing themselves. It was also fun to get to be an official judge and people taking me seriously even though I am much younger. Even though I couldn't do a lot of the movement I still progressed a lot over the 5 weeks. I also became a lot closer to a lot of my coaches and my fellow athletes which is always nice. The last week was during the spring break when my family and I went to Rome. Rome was beautiful but I was slightly dreading the 16.5 workout. I went and visited a box in rome called Appia Crossfit who were very nice and happy that I chose their box to do the workout. Even though they were very nice I sill missed a lot of the people at the box and that was partially because that was the workout was one of the worst I have ever done.

Destiny money

As I mentioned before, we always try to support building and renovation projects for the school. This time, the problem is that there are no more rooms to buy in the area. We have been discussing moving the school to another place, but that is going to require a huge commitment and involve huge amounts of money. Our friend in Sweden has been working with the Rotary club, trying to make them agree with giving money for furnitures, schoolbooks, uniforms or teachers salaries. The teachers salaries is a big problem right now. Because the are not payed regularly, many of them leave the school. Dixon is always trying to give them "a little something", but he is hardly ever able to give them their whole salaries. To help raise some money for that would make it easier to have them stay in the school. To my big satisfaction, Rotary came through and sent us 24 000 Kes for the salaries. Dixon will be able to give the money to the teachers on Monday before they go on their term break. 

Crossfit Ball

On Saturday we had a huge crossfit event run by some of the athletes called the Crossfit Ball. It was hosted at the Radisson Blue and was very fancy and fun. We had delicious and healthy food, lottery, and an auction which was all very entertaining. It was a lot of fun to see all the people in more formal clothes rather than our normal training clothes. Many danced and even though it was formal we were quite a lot of fun. Even though there was quite a bit of alcohol (we were sponsored by a wine shop) everyone kept an eye to make sure I didn't drink since I was the only underage athlete there. At first the auction was like a normal auction until we started to auction of people. We got a lot of money for our head trainer Nathan to do 16.5 in a tutu. And a date with one of the athletes as well as other things. Lastly we had a lottery where I sold many tickets to help out. The owner of the box who was calling out the winners actually pulled me up to pull a number out of the hat and gave a small speech about me. All the money we raised was going to a girl who had done really well in her studies so that she can continue in school. We managed to raise more money than needed so we are saving that money for next year when we might be able to raise even more money. Everyone had fun even though it always took a few extra seconds to recognize everyone.

New Pads

Today I sew some new pads with some of the new fleece that my mom  bought. I love the pattern and I think they turned out really well considering that the fabric is not ideal. It has a really nice nordic feel to it which is reminding me a lot of home. It was also good that I could use some of the snap buttons I still had. I had a lot of whites, and I usually don't make the pads in  light color. I also had both flannel and dye, so I made the inside purple, which fits perfectly to the grey, white and purple colors on the fleece!

Open Week 2

I did the second work out which included toes to bar which are a gymnastics movement which I am not so good at. It also included double unders which I am better at but still not good at and lastly squat cleans. These were surprisingly hard but that is probably due to heavy weight. First time I messed up on my toe to bars which meant I didn't have a lot of time for my double unders or my squat cleans. Sadly the first time I did this workout I only got 49 reps which isn't even through the first round but the second time I did them today I got 79 reps which was a lot better. I also did the scaled/easier version just to see how I did and I finished the workout easily. Currently I am first in Africa and 69th in the World which is great but I'll have to wait and see where I stand when everyone has put in their scores.

This is a link to the workout:
http://games.crossfit.com/workouts/the-open/2016

This is a link the leaderboard: (my category is teenage girls 16-17 in Africa)
http://games.crossfit.com/leaderboard

The Open Week 1

I’m participating in “the open” crossfit competition. My results have gone between 1:st in all of Africa (even if crossfit is mainly practiced in South Africa) to number 23. I’m hoping to improve all my results before the competition is done. Many crossfitters in my box are also doing it, so now I help out as a judge. It’s mainly to count the repetitions and check that the  action is performed properly. The competition will continue for another 4 weeks and I’m hoping I’m going to continue to improve my results. I am also part of a team. Even though we could be participating online we are not. It is more of a fun thing that we are doing at our affiliate. It is a lot of fun to be there on Friday nights when most people do the workout and cheering on them or judging them even though they are not on my team. It adds also a bit of pressure to the competitors.

I.S.S.E.A.

So over the last three days I have had 3 students from HIS living with me (Nikiwe, Constanca, and Nanna). They were here to attend the I.S.S.E.A. Drama and Visual Arts. This year it was here in I.S.K. I was very nervous for the opening ceremony and the performance because I haven't acted in about a year. It wen't very well for us and for the other schools too. It was so interesting to see all the performances because all the schools interpreted the prompt "contrast" very differently. Then we split off into visual arts and drama and we started by doing a warm up and signing up for the workshops that we were talking part in on both Friday and Saturday. I signed up for storytelling, script writing and Afro Acro-Yoga.

Script writing was a lot of fun. It was a good way to get to know all the people in the workshop. We started by sharing something that nobody knew about us. I said that I had gotten a new PR in crossfit because some of my friends were in the class and knew all the other stuff about me .We were meant to produce a small piece that has one of our experiences as the opening and closing line. We did a very simple but I think a very powerful piece about one persons imagination is another experience.

Then after a lunch where I caught up with my friends from last years I.S.S.E.A., I went to my storytelling class. In this workshop we first had to break off into drummers/musicians, dancers, narrators, and lastly soloists. I first stood by the drummers but then there were no soloists and I noticed that one of my friends decided to be a soloists and he didn't want to be alone so I joined him. Even though I am not comfortable with singing especially solo I decided to since I.S.S.E.A. is the best place to step out of my comfort zone. It was a lot of fun but the Swahili words were difficult to pronounce and to sing.

On Saturday I did Afro Acro-Yoga which was basically just partner gymnastics. It was a lot of fun even though I am not a flyer. Instead I am a base which means that I carry people instead and that is nice and quite nice that I am able to do it in the first place. The teacher did the last movement with me and I got to be the flyer for a while.

Saturday we also got to spend a lot of time with our ensemble to work on our final pieces. We decided to go quite funny or light hearted which was a nice contrast to the more serious ones from the other groups. Ours was the story of a couple who was on their first date where we also switched to the other scene which was the same couple but older. I played a  tomboy which was quite easy since I am one myself but my character was pretending to be a girly girl for the boy. The boy was quite a sensitive guy who was pretending to be macho for the girl. Behind us we has our subconscious who were saying what we really think. I thought it was really funny but it was also extremely embarrassing for me too so I was blushing throughout the entire performance. I had to try to act sexy which I don't really know how that went and he impressed me with his muscles and then I hit hime in the head with my hair. I also did the entire performance in heels.

A lot of the other performances were dealing with more serious contrasts such as one which was focusing on the contrast on action and reason and also with generations while also dealing with serious discrimination against homosexuals. The third one was a version of a story telling where it was about a guy who lost his job and had to get a new job and ended up running a race and doing a good deed which got him the reward of the race and a new job. I don't remember what the contrast was about. Another one was dealing with the contrast between human and animals in captivity and held against their will and ended with a dance number where we all joined in and bowed.

Later that night we all went and looked at all of the amazing art works which were made over only 3 days which were amazing. Then we ended the night by saying goodbye to all our friend who were leaving which was very emotional and painful. I really do miss the people and the activities but now I am so exited for next years I.S.S.E.A. which will be even more fun. I am also happy knowing that I have friends who I have only spend up to 3 days with who will last for a lifetime.

Rotary and Destiny

Rotary has decided to sponsor Destiny school with another 100.000 Kes. This is great news, but the problem is that what we need most is desks, chairs, black boards and cub boards. Last time we received money only for renovating and/or building, so I hope they will agree to help with what we need this time. It’s actually quite shocking how much a little room costs in the slums, and how few there are to buy. We usually pay around 60.000 for a room, and then we need money for renovations. The rooms have corrugated iron walls (if you buy one with brick walls it’s over 100.000) and no flooring. We sometimes change the inner walls, if we have the adjacent room and always have to make cement floors. It is also good to have bigger rooms, so a whole class can fit. The rooms we buy are about 15 square meters. Often we have to open up some windows, so it will be brighter in the room, and sometimes we get electricity. When it rains it is always flooding in the rooms, so that is why the cement floor are important. Once we had a room in a slope and it was useless when it was wet and raining. You could not even put a desk there. We cemented the floor in different levels and it became really nice.

I also have to put a presentation together for Rotary with images “before and after” and this is harder than it seems. It is hard to capture the progress in images because everything looks quite bad (both before and after). I’m hoping that my family friend in Sweden, who is presenting it for Rotary can make a good presentation from what I sent her!

Bad news from destiny

I got some bad news from Destiny School. There is a little part of the school that is a vocational school for older children. They learn how to sew and have machines and sewing supplies in their little shop. They mainly make school uniforms. Last week, the shop were broken into by some local thugs and they stole a few machines and supplies. Just a few days after the break in, another gang came to take the rest of the sewing machines. The police managed to take one of the thugs and put him in jail, so now we have to hope that we can get some of the stolen goods back. I’m not “holding my breath”, but at least there is a little chance. Sadly there is nothing more we can do than wait and see.

Pad materials

It is really a challenge to get the materials for the pads! I used to buy fleece blankets from Nakumatt, but they don’t carry the ones I need anymore. My mom went to the other side of town today, and bought a big blanket (for a lot of money) that I can use. I need the regular type fleece and not the fancy really soft one. The “older type” is more moisture resistant and not as warm as the really soft one, and it is not so easy to find anymore. Everyone seems to prefer the soft fleece that is really hard to work with and not as efficient than the regular fleece. I’m hoping I can make a lot of pads from the big blanket mom got. 

The importance of pads again.

Often I come across articles and youtube videos stressing the importance of pads for school girls. Of course I know about this, but it is always good to read something that confirms my pad project. I feel humble and grateful that I have this, really important project as one of my CAS projects!

Pads

Delivering to Okapi

On Friday evening I finally got to give the 400 pads I've made for Okapi Finance to support a project in Somalia. Gisele, the CEO and founder of Okapi, came to visit and we went for dinner together. She was very happy with the pads, and even brought a few when she visited an orphanage the next day. I kept the pads for almost a year, and finally Gisele got the opportunity to take them and send to Somalia. Gisele is a fantastic Congolese/Swedish lady who is an entrepreneur and very creative with an interesting back-ground. She wants 10% of her invoicing to go to different development projects and loves my idea of the pads. I'm very happy to be supported by such a lovely person and we had an absolutely amazing conversation and a very interesting evening. I hope she will want me to make more pads. She also payed for them, so I can get some money to buy new material and give some more money to Destiny school.

The shows

It is done. I am happy that it is over but kinda sad that we worked so hard and only had 3 shows. So the first night I was obviously super worried and nervous but then when I stood there by the curtains getting ready to open them everything went down hill or up hill depending on how you see it. We had a power cut and it was on and off continuously for about 20 minutes. Finally it seemed somewhat stable so that we started and we got through the first number and then the power went. After about 10 minutes we had a pep talk in the green room and we decided to do the entire show acapella and so we went infront of the curtains and all the Tosties (the crew nickname) went to the front row so that we could use the flashlights on our phones to light up the stage. The actors would sit infront of the curtains and stand up when it was their time to sing. This went well and halfway through the first act we had light. We decided to go back and start the play where we left of outside. We did the rest of the play great. And it was nice that we skipped over the songs with the most difficult set transitions. The other two nights were not as interesting but still went quite well.

More material

During the holidays, I had lots of opportunity to work on my pad project. One of our guests brought me lots of new material and was very supportive of the project. I also started to sew for the Vanessa Grant school and gave samples to the ladies involved in that project. They really appreciated them and want them for the school. I don't have a dead line, but are going to make a few here and there and give them as soon as I have a few. They also wanted me to go to the school and deliver them myself and that sounds like a good plan.

two days before

We are two days away from the performance. I am honestly very scared that I will mess it up and that the actors can't do something and that they will look unnatural. In both acting and backstage we always say that the audience doesn't know anything. This is meant that if you mess us don't show it because they will only know if you show them that something is wrong. Today we got our last set pieces which are two street lamps which I find hard to practice putting them on as late as we are and just a few days ago we got the gate which is so big and we are already crammed in on our side of the stage because we have the gate,the stairs, the barricade and the mats which barely fit backstage and we are supposed to be running around and turning the set pieces and on top of that we also have boxes, tables, and chairs that all need to be put on stage. I just hope that we can figure this out.

More money for the school

Yesterday I learned that we are going to get another 180 000 Kes from the Rotary Club in a suburb of Stockholm to our school project! It's really amazing! Dixon has given me a priority list, so I know what needs to be done. The problem is that all the items on the list are a bit too expensive. Rotary wants us to use the money for infrastructure and they are not to happy about buying furniture. Now when we have two new rooms I think that desks, chairs and a black board should be a priority, but I don't know how Rotary will feel about that. I guess that the whole group will have to meet and make two different plans, depending on what Rotary will allow us to do. If they won't let us do furniture, we'll have to raise money for that somehow.

Center drop

Today Joan (our stage manager), Meridith (our prop master), Ms.Bingham and I met at the auditorium durring lunch and we saw the amazing and huge set piece that Juma made for us. Now going up the stairs to the big set piece is nerve wrecking as it is but now Meridith and I are supposed to take it appart in the middle of a song. We have to go on top of the set piece and we have to pick up the center and lower it down with ropes. I am very nervous about this because apparently it is very dangerous to lower the center down because someone could get crushed underneath it. Also because it is such a fast transition I am worried that Meridith and I will start to rush and do it carelesslyand that someone may get hurt. Hopefully Meridith and I can practice enough so that we are confident while doing it.

Longer rehearsals, no set

Now we have started to rehearse everyday other than Wednesday which I am a bit annoyed by because I have so much less time for Crossfit or to myself. Also now we can't come to composers club on Fridays because of rehearsal. A lot of the time now both Joan (the stage manager) and I sit backstage and we don't do a lot since we don't have any set pieces. We also stand in for people who are absent which is quite awkward since we don't know the songs or the blocking. This is quite frustrating because on some days we are so busy and running around while others we sit and do nothing which becomes a bit to repetitive when we hear the same 30 songs over and over again.

cross fit

During the Christmas holiday, I was very ill for a few days. I even had to go to the hospital for a drip. I was not able to keep up with my Cross fit regiment and I had to focus to bet well. Now that I'm back, I have gotten my first toe to bar, which is a gymnastics movement that is really hard to perform. I've also done numerous new personal bests. I'm very close to doing a kipping pull up and a handstand. I feel when I'm not doing cross fit, I get in a really bad mood and become somewhat rude. It is interesting to realise how important physical fitness is to me. I've been considering competing in "the open" again, but I'm not decided yet.