Jogging

I recently made jogging a part of my weekly health care routine. I just got a treadmill that I use regularly as well as running weekly in Karura forest with my Tae Kwondo coach. Currently I can run 9 km/hour for 20 minutes, but I want to imrove so I can run for 30 minutes.

Cross-fit

I just started Cross Fit to improve my strength and stamina. It is very demanding but I enjoy it. The classes are in Gigiri and there is a group of people encouraging each other. Being a Martial Arts student, this is new to me but so far a good experience. It is also difficult, because it's challenging no matter how strong you are you can modify to make it more difficult and heavier.

Crossfit is extremely tough. I've been doing it for three weeks now, and often I have a big problem even walking after I'm done. I feel that it is improving my stamina and some classes are more fun than others because it is very versatile. Many of the exercises you have to learn before you can perform them with weights. That is very important and a lot of fun. If you don't perform the exercises correctly, you might hurt yourself. The people I'm doing it with is really nice and it is like a "cross-fit community". I prefer to do heavy lifting over a lot of repetitions, and leg wod's are horrible but you need them. I try to do three classes a week and I want to compete one day.

Busy summer

This summer has been very busy. I spent 8 weeks in a wellness camp in Austin Texas. I also learned to surf in Corpus Christi, before I went to Sweden to visit with friends and family. The summer passed fast, and I it was all focused on action. I did have time to visit the Photographic museum in Stockholm. They had an exhibition by Nick Brant, a photographer based in Kenya that takes amazing photos of wildlife.

Pads for the candidates

After making reusable sanitary pads for the students for over a year, I realised that the candidates who are doing the National Exams in December are going to need them even more when they go to boarding school. I understand that only a few of them will go to secondary school, but even the ones that will start working are going to need a kit with washable pads. I know that they borrow from each other and even their caregivers use them, so It would be nice to give all of them a kit of 10 pads each. They are going to need a total of 170 pads, and I will start making them now, so I can give them to the girls when they graduate. I'm also planning to make a small drawstring bag that they can keep them in. I don't think I'll have time to make them all myself, so I asked my mother to help me out. She has already bought the material, so now we better start the cutting and sewing!

Planning for Destiny School

Working with Destiny is something I constantly do. Right now, we have lots of clothes and toys that people who left Kenya gave to us to give to the school. I'm planning to meet the headmaster soon to discuss the near future for the school. A friend in Sweden has started a collaboration with the local Rotary club. I sent them lots of images and information and they agreed to help us fund a few projects. The biggest problem in the school is now that they are not able to pay the teachers. This is really a big problem and teachers are leaving the school. They depend on volunteers and that makes the students days very unpredictable. We have said that we are only supporting long term investments, because if we leave, the school would be dependent on us. Now we are discussing if we should change that approach and sponsor some teachers salaries. This is a big problem, and very conflicting because if there are no teachers, there will be no school. We still haven't decided what to do but I'm considering starting a fund raiser for teachers salaries. If someone agrees, we can say that the money doesn't come from us, but from another party, and it is only short term.

Recognition for my CAS work

I'm so proud and happy that ISK recognised the hard work I'm doing! Today I got this diploma. It tells me that hard work really pays off. I'm also thinking that for me, CAS is really not that hard. I enjoy my projects and feel good when I can help people. I have to admit that we have a really good setup. The school I work with in the slums has been a part of my whole family life for a long time and the need is endless. To learn that it is a big problem to have your period inspired me to make pads and to do all of my training is a joy. It makes me happy to be able to help and to learn that all you do makes a big difference. It boosts my confidence and make me to feel good about myself, and the hard work is absolutely not a chore. It makes me feel that even I can make a difference and it is totally worth it!

Finding PUL

I'm so excited! My mom managed to find a place were you can buy PUL. That is a plastic fabric that I came across while researching how to make washable pads and diapers. From what I learned, when talking to the girls in Mathare that uses my pads, some of them bleed through the pads. I guess if their flow is heavy enough, it is hard to find pads that will work for a whole day (and most of them only have two pads each). I've tried to google on what would be a good solution to this problem and PUL sounds like the material that you need. I'm also thinking it'll be good for the diapers. I have no experience on how much a baby pees, but it feels safer to have some plastic in the diapers.
I started to make both diapers and pads with a plastic cover and hopes it will work better for the users. The only thing that annoyed me is that I made so many without! The price for the PUL is also very reasonable. About 280 Kes per meter!
Now I have quite a lot of material. Destiny need new pads, because about 20 new girls are enrolled (the pads being one of the reasons). I will make all of them with a PUL layer! I'm also happy that I have the new KAM buttons that I ordered - I got way to many, about 700 so now I'll keep sewing until I'm out!