CAS Essay

Over the IB years, I’ve taken part in uncountable CAS activities and have also had experiences that I’ll value in coming years. Such experiences have shaped me and made me into who I am today. Before getting involved with CAS, my life was solely composed of social events, school, and sport. CAS changed this. Faced with the incredible – at the beginning, that’s what it felt like – duty of completing 150 CAS hours, I didn’t immediately dive in. But after getting the idea, I jumped into the world of helping people and slowly discovered more about the world and myself. I can now say that it’s been a fantastic experience.

I started out joining sports teams. I knew I’d get action hours, and so focused the majority of IB’s first semester on playing two sports. It’s true that first semester was tiring; that I wanted to give up a few times, but I stuck with playing on both the varsity volleyball team (with practice 4 times a week) and the varsity football team (with practice also 4 times a week). There weren’t many games for the volleyball team (except ISSEA), but in football we had a season consisting of two games per week. With schoolwork on top of it, that semester was hectic. But I have to say that I still enjoyed it a lot. I like sports, and have a lot of fun when I play them. Sports have a way of allowing me to reduce my stress-level to a point where I no longer feel like everything is caving in on me. On top of this, playing sports also allowed me to get fitter than I had been anytime previously. I also started out year two with the same idea: playing two sports, with the inclusion of a bit more creativity and service hours as well. But things didn’t work out so well. I didn’t realize how hard the first semester of senior year would be. So early in the season, I decided to drop out of football, continuing only with volleyball. With fewer games, it was much easier for me to maintain my academic progress – however I could still take part in ISSEA, which meant a lot to me.

I didn’t start as well with my creativity hours. I was already a creative person with sound and vocal production talents, but could never figure a way where I could combine the two in a CAS project. Unfortunately I never found one, and had a hard time during my first year keeping up with creativity. But about ¾ through the second semester, someone mentioned the importance of being able to cook to me. This got me thinking: I have never been a good cook, but my mom has always been very good. I managed to put two-and-two together to create a project where I had cooking lessons from my mom. Not only was I learning skills that would be useful in coming years, but I was also able to bond with my mom. At first, I didn’t enjoy cooking and had to rely on my mom for direction. But a month after cooking weekly, I got the hang of it and have become better! I now cook weekly for my family.

I neglected service activities until halfway through the second semester, mainly because I had a lot going on. I regret this now, as it left me lots to do in my second year. But even then I never had a long-term service project. I didn’t join any of the school clubs as I had seen their work the previous semester, and honestly they weren’t doing much. Instead, I decided to set up a project with a small business in Kibera. I was able to help them improve their marketing schemes, as well as to develop some of their investment plans for the long run. But after a while, I realized I had done everything I could with them – halfway through the third semester I stopped working with them. I learnt a lot though – this helped me consistently since I’ve known them – and I think they learnt a lot as well. But since then I have only done small activities, which have benefitted numerous people, but not in the long run. Nonetheless I learnt much and am thankful for the opportunity to be able to take part in such a venture.

CAS has been a great experience. I’ve developed into a well-rounded person with my attitude to the world. It has also allowed me to get outside my comfort zone, as many of the activities in which I participated were not what I would have normally done. Over the last two years, I’ve realized that there’s more in me, and through CAS I’ve developed further as an individual.

Senior Trip

For our school senior trip, we went to Watamu on the Kenyan coast. I was part of the service strand, as i was very interested in helping out as much as i could in whatever way i could. It turns out that there was actually quite a lot to do. On the first day, i helped out in an attempt to clean up the beach as much as we could. Basically, we all got a big plastic bag, some plastic gloves and then we walked up and down the beach in groups looking for any sort of non-biodegradable items that may have somehow found their way onto the beach (usually through littering, though there was the occasional item that had washed up from the sea). We did our best, and took about 3 hours to get the beach looking almost brand new again (joke). To be honest, that felt very good, as i felt like i was helping out the entire local environment. Not only would the animals around the area be saved from death by choking, or some sort of poisoning, but also the beach looked much much much nicer when we were done. There was no longer any eyesores that took away from the pleasure of just chilling on the beach.
We also got the opportunity to help out at a local turtle watch. They actually had two turtles that they were taking care of which we were able to help out. Firstly, we helped clean their little enclosures, as they got pretty dirty. We also learnt the best way to clean and maintain a healthy turtle, as well as their environment. This was very interesting as i had never really even ever been that close to a turtle, let alone taken care of it - it was much easier than i thought it would be. Still challenging, but they are not picky animals, and when treated with care they seem to accept anything that comes their way (I never knew this).

We also got the rare chance to release the two turtles back into the wild, which was AMAZING! Just the feeling of helping them out on their last day was very nice, and them watching them go to restart their lives - a chance of a lifetime.

ISSEA volleyball

ISSEA is the big sports tournament that is hosted three times a year by one of the schools in east and southern africa. This year volleyball was hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa, and so i had a chance to join into that.

We had about a week after October break that we could use to get our fitness levels back up, and just finess the skills and tactics that we would be needing. Last week was actually probably the best week of practice that i have participated in this year, as we were all very motivated and excited to be going on the trip (as we also had high hopes of getting gold). But i guess it may also be a result of only having two practices instead of the normal four, as we had to leave the school after school on Wednesday to catch our flight. Unfortunately/Fortunately (depending on how you look at it) the flight turned out to be delayed. This did mean that we were able to bond as a team, and i found myself hanging out with people that i would normally never be hanging out with, which i think was a very good experience for me. It also helped us to all get to know each other more - but this was only the start!

We had a good couple days of fun, playing volleyball and socialising. There are seven schools that participate in ISSEA, which meant there was a wide background of students who we had a chance to meet and get to know. Despite going to ISSEA last year, i found that once again there was something new to learn with every person i met. Many people had their own opinions on many subjects, and i found myself in a few situations debating the political policies of various countries with other people who i found were taking similar IB subjects to me.

I learned a lot from my trip to SA, and i would be very happy if i had the possibility of doing something like this again. Unfortunately, this isn't possible, as i am leaving school in May, but i think the trip has inspired me to try new things so as to meet more people around the world who are also doing them. All in all, a very good sport competition!

Oh yeah, and we won gold ;)

Action - Volleyball

This week was the last week of school before October break. This didn't really change much, we still had practice three time in the week, and we still were working on the same sorts of things.

The only thing was that our coach was worried about our fitness levels on how they will be affected during the coming week (during holidays the majority of people don't do any exercise at all). Knowing this, he assigned us a little task. Well, okay it's actually quite a major task. He told us that everyday we must do 40 push ups and 40 sit ups. But that's not all, he also said that every other day at least we should do some form of exercise: running, biking, swimming (though he said preferably not swimming as it's not a weight-based sport).

So i will do that, and i will also bring a ball to the Kenyan coast (where i am going on holiday), so that me and my brother can practice a bit.

Creativity - Cooking lesson

This week i made chilli con carne, a speciality of my mom. I've had this dish countless times and i still love it, so i'm happy that at last i can learn how to make it.

I started off my heating some olive oil in a large saucepan that has a lid (mine is red), and fried two onions and two cloves of garlic (both of which i had already peeled; the onion i had sliced, while the garlic i had crushed). I had to wait until they were softened, which took timing, and my mom helped me notice when they were ready. Once done, i increased the heat a bit, and then added the beef mince (1kg), cooking it quickly until it browned. I had to make sure that all sides

were brown, which meant flipping it all once one

side had sufficiently browned. I also had to make sure there weren't any big chunks (and there were lots at first), meaning i had to cut it all up with a wooden spoon. Once it was all brown, i then added in 250ml of some nice red wine (i have no idea what type) and let it boil for a couple minutes. Then i stirred in some tinned tomatoes

(2x 400g), three tablespoons of tomato purée, three teaspoons of chilli flakes, a teaspoon of ground cumin, a teaspoon of ground coriander, a stick of cinnamon and some Worcestershire sauce, and then i crumbled in a stock cube. On top of this i added some salt and pepper and then mixed all together nicely. I then brought it to a simmer

(i actually had to drop the heat, as for some reason it was too high and bubbling away), covered it with the lid and let it cook for about an hour. I had to come back every ten minutes or so though, just to stir it around to thicken it up.

After it had all been cooked, i added in the kidney beans (2x 400g) and a large bunch of fresh coriander from my mom's herb garden. I then let this cook for another ten minutes, took it off the heat and seasoned it a bit more with salt and pepper. And voilà!

I served the chilli con carne with some rice (which i made in a rice cooker), some sour cream, and a nice salad which my mom wanted to make (she was bored).

And it tasted delicious!

Creativity - Cooking lesson

This week i decided to cook pasta once again, though slightly different. Last time i made pasta it was simple, with a tomato sauce (with a hint of garlic). This time, my mom told me that there is a different way of making pasta, by baking it. So i decided to try it. I would use a sauce of tomatoes and mozzarella, which would melt while baking, and become very, very nice.
First, i preheated the oven to 200*C; this saves time. While that was heating up, i began boiling a large pot of water. Also simultaneously i took a pan and added some olive oil, an onion that i had already sliced up, two cloves of garlic that i had already finely chopped and a red chilly that i had crumbled up. I let these slowly fry (key word = slowly!) for about 10 minutes or so on a low heat, basically until they were all softened up. Once they were done, i added the tinned plum tomatoes (3x 400g). I then brought it to a boil, turned down the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or so. I made sure to stir it every so often, just to get out the inconsistencies, and make it a nice smooth sauce. While it was simmering, i added some salt to the boiling water, and then put in the pasta (400g). It didn't need to be cooked completely until al dente (as it will still be cooked when baking), but i let it chill for a few minutes in the boiling water, just to make sure it was not completely hard. Once i judged it to be done (i used my mom's help a bit, as i didn't want to get it wrong), i drained the pasta and then mixed it with half of the tomato sauce and a bit of Parmesan cheese. As soon as it looked like it had been mixed together enough, i got a nicely sized baking tray, and sprayed a bit of olive oil (with the handy sprayer) onto the surfaces. I then scooped in all the pasta with the mixed in sauce and cheese. On top of this i put some more tomato sauce, a bit more grated Parmesan and a sliced up mozzarella ball, and repeated this until i had used everything i had (i had enough ingredients for three layers). On the very top i grated some more parmesan, to add a nice crust once baked. I then put this into the preheated oven for around 15 minutes (basically until it was golden and crisp, with a bit of bubbling going on.

Action - Volleyball

This week in volleyball we continued working on tactics (as we pretty much have the basic skills down), as well as our fitness levels (though mine isn't really changing). It's good to see the younger plays of the team pushing hard to improve as much as they can. It's also really good to see the older players helping out so much; being the leaders that they should be.

Apart from the practices that we had (monday morning, wednesday morning and thursday after school), we also had a tournament at the school against two Kenyan schools that focus on sports. This posed a bit of a challenge for us, as they were the first proper games that we have played. It was interesting to see how some players reacted. Some people became very nervous, and this lead to one of two consequences. Either that player became too nervous to play, and ended up making many mistakes, or they conquered the nervousness and ended up shining. And even so, there was another group of people who were not nervous at all (i was part of this group), as we were used to playing matches already from previous years.

We didn't do as well as i think we could have, as we played three games and only won one of them, though the two losses were very close. The first game we played was against a team of players where the smallest player was about 6'3''. We were intimidated, as our tallest player is about 6'3''. We are not the biggest team, though we make up for it with clever gameplay, and it became a bit of a challenge for us to not lose focus. Once the game began, however, it became clear quite quickly that we were the better team in terms of skills. They had a few players who could hit, and those were the ones we watched out for, but their setting and defense was definitely not up to scratch. Because of this, we had a chance to capitalise, and we did: we won the first set.

After this, it seemed to all go wrong. We started making mistakes that we really shouldn't have made, giving them many many more points than they actually won. Because of this, they ended up winning the game 3-2 in sets. And our coach wasn't happy, let me tell you.

Next, we had a break, as the two teams wanted to play each other, so we happily gave them that opportunity. Once they were done (the team that beat us having won again), we played the losers of that game. And we won easily with 3-0 in sets. We still gave the other team too many points because of our mistakes, but not enough to let them take the game from us.

Because there were only two teams, we wanted to play the good team again. It was a very tense game, as we were playing well, but they had started to play really well (hit after hit after hit after hit). Each set was very close, and when it came down to the last set, it was 2-2 in sets, and 25-24 where we were losing (games go up to 25, but you must win by two points). The final score ended up being 27-25, with us losing unfortunately, but we learnt much from the tournament. So we weren't too disappointed. 

I think the thing we learnt the most was that we really need to work on getting all the mistakes out of our game. If we had not made any mistakes, we would have easily won every game (we gave away about 14 points on average per game). Over the next couple of weeks, i think this is something that we are going to be working on.