Hi all!
I have posted all my pictures on Picasa, and they can be found here:
Enjoy!!
Friday, 23 September 2011
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
pictures!!
Here are just a few pics of the school supplies hand-over and re-visiting of the Library at the Riandira Primary School!
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| the "official" giving over of the supplies with the director of the Riandira Primary School |
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| the Library I helped to build back in 2007! |
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| Outside, after a tour with both the director of the school and James Kinyanjui |
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
the rest of the IGE
After the Youth Forum, we had a couple of days for "Strategic Planning" and "Life After Gold". These two days were pretty much slow days of unnecessary workshops. However, as the International Council were meeting, they could not have 84 delegates running around unattended!
Ultimately though, we had the evenings to look forward to: the Bush Dinner and Final Closing Ceremony Gala.
The Bush Dinner was an amazing affair, where we were greeted by more Masai singers and dancers, and even presented with a Masai Warrior blanket to keep us warm for the night! Cocktails were served, and the dinner was amazing, including ostrich meat! It was a beautifully planned evening, and not at all as one would expect a Bush dinner to be!! HRH even graced us with his presence on the dance floor!!
The final night, the gala dinner was a formal affair, and definitely a sentimental way to end the event! We had to say goodbye to Gilly and she will definitely be missed! This was also a night of members of the Fellowship, International Councils and Trustees to be present and mingle with us delegates. Definitely a night of schmoozing!
Leaving the Great Rift Valley, and saying goodbye to everyone departing on flights was a tearful affair. Who would've thought that you would feel like you're saying goodbye to family after just 2 1/2 short weeks? Overall, it was an amazing experience, and one that I can only wish for other Gold Award holders. My life has been forever changed.
pictures to come!
Julia
Ultimately though, we had the evenings to look forward to: the Bush Dinner and Final Closing Ceremony Gala.
The Bush Dinner was an amazing affair, where we were greeted by more Masai singers and dancers, and even presented with a Masai Warrior blanket to keep us warm for the night! Cocktails were served, and the dinner was amazing, including ostrich meat! It was a beautifully planned evening, and not at all as one would expect a Bush dinner to be!! HRH even graced us with his presence on the dance floor!!
The final night, the gala dinner was a formal affair, and definitely a sentimental way to end the event! We had to say goodbye to Gilly and she will definitely be missed! This was also a night of members of the Fellowship, International Councils and Trustees to be present and mingle with us delegates. Definitely a night of schmoozing!
Leaving the Great Rift Valley, and saying goodbye to everyone departing on flights was a tearful affair. Who would've thought that you would feel like you're saying goodbye to family after just 2 1/2 short weeks? Overall, it was an amazing experience, and one that I can only wish for other Gold Award holders. My life has been forever changed.
pictures to come!
Julia
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
update on the IGE!
Things have been moving quickly in the IGE ever since arriving at the Great Rift Valley lodge! Us delegates have been thrown into workshops and youth rep elections galore! We have been running around, and have learnt alot! Workshops included governance, communication, policy, training, research and fundraising.
We were then thrown into youth rep elections and were successful in getting our fellow Canadian delegate, Al-Karim Khimji elected to the International Council as a youth representative! Yay a seat for Canada! Since the elections, the delegation has been furiously working on putting
together workshops for the Youth Forum. I was apart of the workshop entitled: "Award Holder Associations - It's EEEasy for Each One to Reach One". I believe the workshop was an success in that we had amazing audience participation, and everyone who took the workshop thoroughly enjoyed out
content and the enthousiasm in which we delivered it!
Other activities that we have participated in, include the service projects, and a game drive! For the service project, I went with a group of other delegates to Empash Primary school, and there, we helped to re-concrete two classroom floors and repainted another two! We also planted olive trees and
had them named after each delegate, and the country with which we belong.
For our game drive, we left at 5 to see the big 5! Traveling to Lake Nakuru, we unfortunately were stuck in our massive greyhound buses and all of the wildebeasts and monkeys were inside the bus! Some people didn't seem to think that other people wanted to see outside the buys windows as well. I
did end up seeing a rhino though, so I have now seen 3 of the Big 5. I guess this just means that I will have to come back to Africa for a real/better/longer safari!
We were then thrown into youth rep elections and were successful in getting our fellow Canadian delegate, Al-Karim Khimji elected to the International Council as a youth representative! Yay a seat for Canada! Since the elections, the delegation has been furiously working on putting
together workshops for the Youth Forum. I was apart of the workshop entitled: "Award Holder Associations - It's EEEasy for Each One to Reach One". I believe the workshop was an success in that we had amazing audience participation, and everyone who took the workshop thoroughly enjoyed out
content and the enthousiasm in which we delivered it!
Other activities that we have participated in, include the service projects, and a game drive! For the service project, I went with a group of other delegates to Empash Primary school, and there, we helped to re-concrete two classroom floors and repainted another two! We also planted olive trees and
had them named after each delegate, and the country with which we belong.
For our game drive, we left at 5 to see the big 5! Traveling to Lake Nakuru, we unfortunately were stuck in our massive greyhound buses and all of the wildebeasts and monkeys were inside the bus! Some people didn't seem to think that other people wanted to see outside the buys windows as well. I
did end up seeing a rhino though, so I have now seen 3 of the Big 5. I guess this just means that I will have to come back to Africa for a real/better/longer safari!
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
the return to sagana!!!
It is now the first day of workshops at the IGE, and I have finally found time to sit down and catch everyone up on my progress!
Upon arrival into Kenya, from saturday to monday, we stayed at Savage Wilderness Camp in Sagana and as an entire delegation participated in outdoor activities which included hiking, cycling, rock climbing and white water rafting! Many scraps and bruises have been collected, yet our war wounds are a testament to the great amount of fun that we have been having!!!
On the sunday, at lunch time, between the hiking and water rafting, I was able to escape away with James Kinyanjui to visit the Riandira Primary School at the top of the road! At last! There to greet us was the Director of the school, and welcomed me back to the school with huge smiles! I was able to give him the school supplies and display for him what 24kg of supplies look like! I explained that everyone back at home felt compassion for my cause and everyone was generous with their donations. That my friends and family from Canada are generous and great people who all care about the future of the students of Africa. We then posed for a photo shoot with the IGE media, and I got in some good shots of my own (pictures to come soon). After the photo shoot, we moved to the library itself, and I was given the opportunity to see how the library has stood the test of time.
They have stenciled the letters "LIBRARY" on the door, and have it locked up during the weekends and evenings for security. It looks even better than ever!!! The chalk board is pristine without any cracks, and books are all piled neatly and in order. The tables and chairs were pushed to one side, as they were in the midst of renovating another room of the school, and getting ready for the new school year, but it was easy to imagine the beauty of the place and students fully taking advantage of the room! You can fully see the amount of care and pride that the school has for the library and I am extremely proud to have been able to contribute to the education of these primary school students.
Yesterday was the official launch of the IGE, with the President of Kenya gracing us with his presence with a lovely ceremony which included traditional dancing from the Kenyatta University and other local schools. We are being treated with great respect at our conference location at the Great Rift Valley lodge, and our accommodations are beyond amazing.
I have just completed my first workshop on online e-learning/training, and am about to attend the next one on Policy.
Pictures of the school to come!!! Stay tuned!
With love from Kenya,
Julia
Upon arrival into Kenya, from saturday to monday, we stayed at Savage Wilderness Camp in Sagana and as an entire delegation participated in outdoor activities which included hiking, cycling, rock climbing and white water rafting! Many scraps and bruises have been collected, yet our war wounds are a testament to the great amount of fun that we have been having!!!
On the sunday, at lunch time, between the hiking and water rafting, I was able to escape away with James Kinyanjui to visit the Riandira Primary School at the top of the road! At last! There to greet us was the Director of the school, and welcomed me back to the school with huge smiles! I was able to give him the school supplies and display for him what 24kg of supplies look like! I explained that everyone back at home felt compassion for my cause and everyone was generous with their donations. That my friends and family from Canada are generous and great people who all care about the future of the students of Africa. We then posed for a photo shoot with the IGE media, and I got in some good shots of my own (pictures to come soon). After the photo shoot, we moved to the library itself, and I was given the opportunity to see how the library has stood the test of time.
They have stenciled the letters "LIBRARY" on the door, and have it locked up during the weekends and evenings for security. It looks even better than ever!!! The chalk board is pristine without any cracks, and books are all piled neatly and in order. The tables and chairs were pushed to one side, as they were in the midst of renovating another room of the school, and getting ready for the new school year, but it was easy to imagine the beauty of the place and students fully taking advantage of the room! You can fully see the amount of care and pride that the school has for the library and I am extremely proud to have been able to contribute to the education of these primary school students.
Yesterday was the official launch of the IGE, with the President of Kenya gracing us with his presence with a lovely ceremony which included traditional dancing from the Kenyatta University and other local schools. We are being treated with great respect at our conference location at the Great Rift Valley lodge, and our accommodations are beyond amazing.
I have just completed my first workshop on online e-learning/training, and am about to attend the next one on Policy.
Pictures of the school to come!!! Stay tuned!
With love from Kenya,
Julia
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
getting ready for the IGE
On my last hectic last two days in Toronto, I was asked to write a little something on my preparations for the IGE to be posted on the International Award's blog. A lot of preparation and research has gone into this trip aside from the school supplies collection, and as sat and reflected, I realized that my entire summer has been devoted to this adventure. I cannot express just how excited I am to be 2 plane rides away from the IGE!
I thought I'd share with you what I wrote for the International Award's blog, and it can be found here: http://intaward.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/getting-ready-for-ige-2011/
Thanks for all the well wishes! My flight will be boarding in one hour! I'll write once i'm in Nairobi!
I thought I'd share with you what I wrote for the International Award's blog, and it can be found here: http://intaward.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/getting-ready-for-ige-2011/
Thanks for all the well wishes! My flight will be boarding in one hour! I'll write once i'm in Nairobi!
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
I'm leaving on a jet plane.. for the 2011 IGE!
Hi everyone!
It's finally here!!! No more days left to count! I'm leaving on a jet plane tomorrow night!
Thank you everyone for your heartfelt generosity, encouragement and overall sense of community. You have all helped me to collect enough school supplies to push my luggage limit over the edge!
I will be travelling with one duffel bag full to the maximum limit of 23 kg (50 lbs) and more in my 2nd piece of personal luggage/carry on!
So to count my final tally...
Stickers: 4 pack
Calculators: 4
Notebooks: 8
Rulers: 12
Pencil sharpeners: 19 (5 classroom size)
Pens: 47
Erasers: 73
Sidewalk chalk: 96
Eraser tops: 180
Pencil crayons: 432
Classroom chalk: 816
Pencils: 1,066
give or take a package of pencils!
Thank you all again for your amazing support!
I will be blogging about my adventures at the IGE 2011, Kenya, in this space as well, so stay tuned!
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