FINAL BLOG POST!!

When I started the project I was not entirely sure of what the point of it was going to be. I knew that I was combining many of my different interests, but I was not sure how I would feel at the end. After finishing though I realize my project did help me grow and learn things about myself. I realized my passion for learning about other cultures and eventually after college being able to continue this and help people in places like Kenya, and other unstable countries in that area.

In doing this project I hoped to make my organizational skills better and keep my time management in check before I head off to college. Time management has often been a problem for me, but it began to improve as I worked on my project. Although I did not do a good job at posting on the blog four times a week, I did stay on top of my work schedule. I learned as I went on in the project to focus on how much work I got done in a week instead of stressing out day by day. This way if I had a really busy day I did not worry about staying up late to work on my project, but another day when I had lots of free time I would pick up the work I had not finished for the week. I think this is a strategy I can implement in college and beyond to meet longer deadlines.

I had lots of success in getting myself interested in all the different aspects of my project. I thought that there would be at least one part of my project that I would hate doing, but I did not find this. The part of this that was a struggle though was realizing that everything that is interesting to me is not to everyone else, and trying to make the presentation appealing to other people. To do this I tried to cut back on the history aspect of my project and include more about modern Kenya and what is being done there. I also struggled in general with figuring out how I would present my information and whether a book or a powerpoint presentation would be more effective. I am still not entirely sure if I made the right decision, but I am happy with the information I chose to present. Narrowing it down in order to make it interesting was hard, but it is a skill that will be useful for the rest of my life.

I hope that this project continues for a long time in my life. I have set myself a $500 fundraising goal for the summer in order to raise money for my charity, and I hope it continues even after that. I learned in this project how to find good charities, learn about what they’re doing and what your money will go towards this and I will continue to donate money to places like One Village at a Time throughout my life. I also hope to use the knowledge I have gained to eventually be able to travel to Kenya or a similar country battling poverty and other issues and volunteer hopefully helping the deserving people. I thought before this project that this was something I wanted to do, but now this project has verified this.

 My favorite part of work this term was learning about what the charities were doing in Kenya and how much of an impact they have made. The flipside of this was the low part of the term and that was learning the hard truths of life for many in Kenya. It was very hard for me to read what kids struggle through on a daily basis, while I sat in my comfortable bed on my laptop. However, when I started to learn of all the good the charities there were doing I started to feel inspired instead of depressed.

 What I would tell the students for next year is to not rush into choosing their project topic, because it realy took me awhile, but I eventually came up with a project that suited me and that I enjoyed. My other advice would be to not stick to what they say they are doing at the beginning of the project. They should allow themselves to change the order of things if it works better or change what they’re doing for their final presentation if they think of a new and better idea.

The most important truth I have learned about my working process is that some parts of it are never going to come naturally to me. Things like getting work done on time and remembering to do certain things will always be hard for me, but is all about putting in the extra effort in order to have a better working process. The most important truth I have learned about myself is that I do not always have to be so sure of myself. Although picking a project and sticking with it was not a scary decision it was important for me to be able to make a decision that I was not sure was right. I really had no idea what I wanted to do for my project while other people seemed to be so sure of their ideas. This scared me at first and I thought I would hate my project, but it all turned out well in the end.

Sincerely,

Eliza 

A little late

I know this post is a little late, but I'm hoping I am forgiven. As you have seen posting on the blog has been a struggle for me, but as it gets very close to the projects being do I am still getting work done and making sure I do not leave too much work to do for the last minute. This afternoon I started putting together my information and typing up what I want to say about the first section of my project. After doing this I realized how much information I know about the topic. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, because I now have to figure out what information to cut out so my presentation is not as long. I know I have a lot a lot of work to do this week and that is why instead of posting for any longer on this blog I am going to get some sleep, as I know I am not going to get any real work done when I am so tired.

Getting Close to the End

Today in class I started to realize how little time I have left and that I need to finish things off. This Saturday I will have my bake sale so tonight when I get home from school I should start working on making some of the cookie doughs and then I will have a lot of baking left to do tomorrow afternoon and early Saturday morning. I also need to make a poster about the organization I am going to be donating too. As soon as I finish with my bake sale I will have a full week to put my presentation together using all the information I have gathered in the past month.

FINISHED MY BOOK!

Although I didn't have it on the schedule to finish my book for another week, I realized my time would be used much more effectively if I finished the book now. Last night I set aside an hour and a half and I just read without interruption. When I finished it felt good to know that my project was getting a lot closer to being finished and that I was making significant progress. Over the weekend I also printed off many different articles about problems in Kenya and what is being done to solve them. Now I have a ton of information to choose from when I start writing and putting together my presentation. I have Unbowed, Access to the Danger Zone, the various articles I read, and an encyclopedia source about Kenya. Now it is time for me to get focused and begin to organize my information and thoughts. It is really important for me to stay on task this week and remember to post on the blog. I realized recently that what I had on the schedule from the beginning changing is not a big deal as long as I am still getting work done. What I thought in the beginning was the right order things should be done did not turn out to be.

Ignoring the alarm.

The idea Nikki gave me of setting an alarm seemed like a good one until I decided to dismiss the alarm, because I was busy doing something else. I now have a better idea that I'll set aside time during one of my free blocks everyday to post in the blog. This is also a good time for me to get anything done that I didn't have time to do during class or did not get to, since I often forget at night. I am getting a little behind on my reading so my goal is to try and catch up today during the beginning of class and during f block. Hopefully if Eric decides to come to class today I can ask him a couple questions about his experiences in Kenya. I also want to send an email to the girl I met at the college either today or tomorrow.

Oops

Well I haven't been posting in a while, but I still have not been getting behind on my goals. I have stayed up to date on my reading deadlines and have finished my research on the history of Kenya. I also have made many plans for this weekend in order to keep going on my project. This weekend I'm going to watch Access to the Danger Zone which is a documentary showing the dangers faced in certain countries. Although it took me a while to find and it does not focus the entire time on Kenya I think it will be something good to add to my research. I am also going to an African restaurant on Friday to get a cultural experience. I have decided that penny wars will not work for my fundraiser so I am going to have a bake sale in front of a grocery store in Littleton next weekend where I have had success in the past raising money for other things. This will combine with the money raised from George KJ and Robbie's lottery and any additional ideas I think of. Next week I hope to start talking to people I know who have been to Kenya know that I have enough of my own background information. I need to be more careful of reminding myself to write on the blog, because I remember to work on my project, but always forget to post on the blog afterward.

Fundraising idea

Last week someone suggested that I try and do a class cup kind of competition in order to fundraise for the organization. I think doing penny wars would be a good way to raise money. I still need to talk to some people to see if this idea could actually work. I also started to think about my midterm presentation and what I would be putting in it. I think that I will use a powerpoint to show the information that I have gotten so far and what I am learning about Kenya and the problems. Next week I will not be in class for two days so I need to keep myself focused so I do not get behind schedule

Distracted

Today without having class I found myself distracted and did not get much work done. My mind was focused on many other things and I did not make progress. When I checked the blog tonight I was very happy to see peoples comments. Both of the ones I got today were very helpful, and I am going to use both of them in thinking about what I will do tomorrow. Tomorrow during class I hope to get some reading done and finalize my idea for the fundraiser. I will first try KJ's idea of listening to music in order to focus, and if that does not work I can try working somewhere quieter with less distractions.

Yesterday

Yesterday in class I first helped Nikki with her interview. It was interesting to see how other people's projects are going and be able to help them out. Then after I sat down to finish reading the articles I found over the weekend. I found it harder to focus with everyone else around me, and found that I was not making much progress. At home though, when I was searching around the foundation's website I was making a lot more progress. It got me very excited to raise money for the foundation, after learning how little money could go so far to help a village. Today in class I want to look at a couple more things on the website and then start to plan what I am going to do to raise money.

Sunday

Today I finished the reading that I had set for myself. It is surprising me how long it is taking me to get through the reading. So much goes on in each chapter and in only two chapters Wangari is now thirteen years old and heading away to boarding school. I am impressed so far about all that she accomplishes as a young girl, both to help her mom and in school. I now know for the future that I will have to set aside more time to do my reading than usual. I also found some articles about Kenya that I want to read in class tomorrow, as well as after school starting to do research of the charity I chose.

Samosas

While I have been away I have been reading the memoir on the long car rides. At first it was hard to get into, but now that I am about forty pages into it, it is starting to get more interesting. I still have the rest of the chapter to finish to reach my deadline for the weekend. Tomorrow I also hope to find a couple more articles to read, and then on Monday look at some information in the reference books. Today after I saw an Indonesian restaurant I thought it would be an interesting idea to try and find a restaurant that served Kenyan food in the area. I found a restaurant in Waltham called Karibu that offers East African food. As part of my cultural experience I think it would be an interesting idea for me to go and try the food there. I will even do my best not to be freaked out by the idea of eating everything with my hands as is done, but I can not promise that I will not make a complete fool of myself.

Getting Started

Today during class I started researching about Kenya for my project. I wanted to have a good base of knowledge about Kenya and its history before focusing on other parts of my project. I found a couple websites that I read in class and am now starting to understand more about the country. I was shocked by some of the horrifying facts about the conditions the people live in there, but this made me more excited about raising money for these people. Tomorrow I will not be in class, so for the rest of the weekend I plan to continue to research about Kenya and start reading my book, so I reach my deadline of getting to page 53 by the end of the weekend.

Finalizing the Project

Today I finalized my project and began writing my project proposal. I originally had a lot of separate ideas and could not figure out what to do. I figured out today how I could incorporate two of my ideas together to make a project that I was really interested in. I wanted to both fundraise for a charity and incorporate my passion for travel. I decided to put them together to study the problems in Kenya and then raise money for a charity there that is helping these people. I spent time today figuring out how I would use all three aspects of the project reading, writing, listening, thinking, speaking, and organization. I picked an organization, One Village at a Time, that I want to raise money for, and picked a book to read, Unbowed by Wangari Maathai. I found the proposal easy to write once I knew exactly what I was going to do. Tonight I still have to organize my calendar to create deadlines to follow for the next two months.