Time to Become a Real Adult - And Learn How to Cook!

The years are passing fairly quickly, and soon we'll all reach adulthood (hopefully)... Therefore, I've decided it's time for me to learn how to cook! Not just salads and sandwiches but REAL COOKING!

In December 2013 I've joined the French cooking club at our school in order to develop these new skills, work collaboratively with others (we usually worked in groups of 2) and also undertake new challenges.

I would like to share three of the best foods I've made:

Tuile Biscuits

The biscuits are really easy to make (you only need flour, sugar and eggs) and in order for them to be in a Pringles-like shape I placed them on a rolling pin while they were still fresh from the oven. My first trial didn't turn out crispy as the dough wasn't thin enough (according to the recipe) but the second ones turn out to be successful!

Chocolate Soufflé

This was a bit more difficult to make because it involved more ingredients and steps and the timing here was very crucial. In the end, my soufflé wasn't as moist as it should have been, but it turned out to be delicious while still hot.

Chicken Fricassee

Although this dish was the most difficult as I had to clean the chicken (which I never did before) and be sure to cook enough so it would be edible, it was the most tasty in my opinion! And the aroma from the various spices was amazing!

All in all, as a person that the only thing she ever did in kitchen was to wash the dishes and maybe peel garlic, I gained a considerable amount of cooking skills during this short period. I learned how to separate between the egg white and yolk of the egg, how to clean a chicken, how to melt chocolate on a bath of water and I also learned about a bit more about French traditions. As trivial as these skills may seem, they will help me a lot when I'll become independent and go to university and I'll have to cook for myself.

Little Light - Continuing From Where We Left

Following our previous activity at Little Light:

After we finished painting the entrance gate (before Christmas break), we were told that someone else will be in charge of painting the logo on it. However, we received an email from the supervisor and she told us that nobody has painted the logo and asked us to come and complete it. Short in time due to the short notice and the fact we finished mocks only this week, we went to buy the colored oil paints and brushes for the metal gate the day before our activity at Little Light. As usual our group split into two, where some were painting and the others were having classes with the children. 

The logo of the children's centre is fairly simple consisting of a shooting star and under it the name of the organization. At first we consulted the supervisor where should we place the logo and how big do they want it to be. They decided that the logo shouldn't be too large and only occupy a few squares of the gate. Then we outlined the placement of the star and the lines and used masking tape to achieve clean edges. As soon as that was done, we began painting into the lines. 

We encountered several challenges along the activity, few of them being, having to compromise with an army green color instead of the light green color of the original logo, trying our best to achieve clean, black contour lines and making sure no paint drips onto the gate.   

To get a better idea of what we did yesterday here's a video about our activity

Credit to Annastacia Nassuna

It was very heartwarming to see the children from the area get all excited and curious about what we were up to. They observed the whole procedure and sat next to us when we were resting. 
See you soon next week! :)

Model United Nations

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world" -Mahatma Gandhi

And if you wish to change the world then what is better than trying to resolve global issues and preventing wars through MUN? 

Model United Nations or MUN is an extra curricular activity for students that simulates the United Nations an their committees. Although being an International school, MUN commenced only last year and I've participated in the club for three school terms. I'm glad I've got the opportunity to participate in the club even though I wasn't able to go to the real conference (:'(). These are the skills I've gained just from participation:

• Researching - about current events and countries which I previously new little about
• Debating skills - expressing your opinion in a convincing manner or in other words cleverly arguing 
• Public speaking - I don't often get the opportunity to express my thoughts and opinions publicly and when I do I get very nervous, and this helped me become more confident in myself. 
• Building up confidence - as I wrote previously, it takes a lot of courage to speak in public and put up a confident front like a real UN delegate.  
• Learning new vocabulary - the UN is very specific about how papers have to written. The delegate refers to himself by the country's name and in third person and uses a variety of verbs that I personally never tackled before.
• Writing a position paper - it states the position of the country related to the issue and is basically a summary of the research. Here's an example that my peer and I wrote about the crisis in Syria: 
  Delegation:           Russia
  Commission:        Disarmament
  The Question of Chemical Weapons Trades
  Russia sees that it is necessary to create an agreement with the United States that the Syrian government surrenders all chemical weapons. However, Russia believes that the Assad regime is a mean of stability to the country and only agrees to stop the trade of chemical weapons, if no force is used against Syria. As defined in UN General Assembly, Syria shall submit their chemical weapons by middle of next year, established by the United States and Russia, under a contract, which:
  a.    States the full list of the chemical weapons held by Syria, and
  b.    Informs that all chemical sites must be emptied before the end of November; and
  c.     Establishes a guarantee of elimination of chemical weapons.
  Russia sustains an economic and diplomatic relationship with Syria since 1971, providing access to naval facilities, arm sales, military and intelligence cooperation. Russia hopes that the Syrian government will continue to deflect international pressure. Russia opposes critical resolution of the Syrian government and does not intend to involve the Russian military in the conflict. However, Russia believes the crisis in Syria should end by a peace conference between the United States and the Bashar-al-Assad government.
• Writing a resolution - the resolution collects all the issues that the committees have addressed and their proposed solutions. 
• Working together and respecting others' opinions - although MUN is about expressing opinions, you aren't allowed to speak unless you're given the permission and to interrupt when another delegate is speaking.

Overall, as you can see, MUN was a very enriching experience that would definitely help me in University and later in life. I'm not losing hope and I'll try my best to experience or witness an MUN conference first-hand.

 

Lose Yourself in the Music. Find Yourself in Shape.

For those who don't know what Zumba is... Zumba is dance fitness and its choreography included hip-hop, salsa, mambo and other Latino dance movements. 

I've decided to try out Zumba because I'm not a big fan of team sports and the majority of the sports our school offers as a club involved a team. Also, it was a great opportunity to branch off the comfortable school's club environment and attend classes with older age groups. I split my Zumba learning into two; attending classes at Kabira Country Club and learning from a Zumba CD together with my friend. By splitting it up like that it allowed me balance my time with school work. I found it very challenging to follow the steps because the instructor didn't explained the movements step by step and I just tried to copy her as much as I could. As you can see in the video bellow, there wasn't much flexibility and flow in our dance movements. Although after some time and practice we managed to become more confident in our dancing abilities, we are far being perfect.

The goals of this activity was to learn a new skill and undertake new challenges. Apart from these obvious learning outcomes, we also planned and initiated activities. How? We planned a Zumba lesson for our fellow DP2 classmates during one of our CAS periods. Even though we planned, not everything went as we expected. First of all, we couldn't find our Zumba CD to help us choreograph the class and play Latino music. So we eventually resolved to mainstream music and learn the choreography to those songs from videos on the internet (our faithful rescuer). Moreover, for some students it was too difficult because we didn't have the time (40 min period) to go through the dances step by step, and they stopped half way. This situation was similar to our first Zumba lesson but the key here is to keep on going even if it seems as though you're not so good at it. I believe that in the end our lesson was successful because it was an enjoyable physical exercise that gave the students a short break from our usual school routine. 

The video presents our first lesson and the lesson with the DP2 students.

The reason I became a smurf...

Vlog entry about today's activity at Little Light

The gate before the paint

Here's a suitable song to today's painting! :)

The Hope Ward - Fun Run 2013

This is my second time participating in a fun run event of the same organization, The Hope Ward - a charity non-profit organization within International Hospital Kampala that provide free of charge health services for those who cannot afford it.

For more information about the ward please enter the following link: 
http://healthmarketinnovations.org/program/hope-ward-international-hospital-kampala

The fun run had two option, either to walk 5 km or run 10km. Last year I was a little bit intimidated by the number 10 and so I decided to do the 5 km walk instead. BUT NOT THIS TIME! Although I was not physically prepared to run 10 km without walking, I did manage to run for about half of the time it took me to complete the run (around 1h30min). I think I could've done better if I had trained properly before, but there were many other people who were as unfit as I was so it wasn't all discouraging. I'm very pleased that I accomplished the goal I set myself after last year's fun run in this run.

All ready?

A part of the yellow bunch

Before selfies

I realized that I truly love running. It's not the process that I like but the way you feel after a good run and the sense of accomplishment. When I finished the run, I understood that although I've only done something as small as running, I have contributed to a greater cause by participating and being a part of resolving a global issue. 

The learning outcomes targeted:

• Increase your awareness of your own strengths and areas for growth
• Engage with issues of global importance

Cross country season is starting! Let the running begin!

And here's a motivational quote for the next time you'll be running at 7 am: "The faster you'll finish, the faster you'll get to eat." -a hungry DP2 student.

"Man imposes his own limitations, don't set any" -Anthony Bailey

Once again, I'll be participating in The Hope Ward - Fun Run 2013 this Sunday! But this time I'll be running 10 km instead of walking 5 km. Am I prepared? Only tomorrow will decide. See you at sunrise! :-)