CAS Long Term: CBOB- S

At this point, it has been about a year since I helped start our school's chapter of Children Beyond Our Borders. Last year was pretty frustrating trying to motivate everyone to actually put plans in to action. However, it was a valuable learning experience, and this year as president of the club I am hoping to be much more efficient. By the end of summer, I had already planned the first three meetings of the year and selected possible fundraising options (3 hours). Our first three meetings- the only ones we've had up to this point- have been a great success (3 hours). We have 48 club members, an elected executive board, a t-shirt designed, and plan on having our first big fundraising event in less than 2 weeks.

Being involved with this club has taught me that persistence pays off... eventually what you hope would happen will happen if you work hard enough at it. I also know that it is important to be dynamic and active, mostly to maintain interest of club members, but also to be as effective as possible. We have a cause to support, and the worst thing would be to not fulfill our responsibilities doing so. This year we want to send 9 kids through a year of mentoring in Medellin, Cali or Bogota, so we need to raise $1500. It's completely viable, and everyone seems excited enough already.

4th of July pies- C

I have been enjoying baking since the beginning of my CAS projects, and I decided it was time to switch to a new kind of baked good. I have memories of my grandmother and I making pies for past summers and other holidays, but this time I was on my own! The crust was the most challenging part, and since I made 5 double-crust pies, it was a strenuous (no sarcasm there), frustrating, and rewarding experience (4 hours). Since the recipe for the crust is only flour, frozen butter, and a little water, one can imagine how difficult it is for the crust to even stay together, much less spread to fit a 9x9 inch pan. Additionally, the cleanup was very time consuming because of the flour all over the counters, the melting butter on the pastry cloth, and the spilled egg that I used for glazing... plus all the dishes! Despite the tediousness, the three blueberry and two peach-ginger pies were delicious and proved a huge hit at the party I went to. I plan on making more pies for my friend Nick's birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas later this year.

Nicaragua- C, A, S

My trip to Nicaragua with a few classmates was the most successful of all of the CAS projects that I've completed! It really impacted the way we all see our lives, and was not always the most fun, but certainly the best over all. I had the role of organizer, translator when necessary, and at times babysitter... Needless to say it was a little stressful. But through everything, I learned about leadership- a good leader doesn't do things for others, but empowers them to do things for themselves. Ironically, that was paralleled to the message that the San Lucas Foundation wanted us to learn. Their job is to give Nicaraguan communities tools and opportunities to better their situation or condition, not provide a temporary 'band-aid' solution like handing out money to anyone that says they need it. I will take every moment, good or bad, from this trip with me in the future, and I feel as though all of my co-travellers will as well.

Our activity hours were as follows:


JUNE 11
soccer, mango picking and ping pong with my cousins and kids from the neighborhood (3 hours, A)
buying 1,100 plants from a local nursery to reforest the area of the Banco de Tierra that was burned by fire (3 hours, S)


JUNE 12
Iglesia de Renovacion Nazarena- Nicaraguan Protestant church experience
ping pong with the neighbors (1 hour, A)
hiking Volcan Masaya- Crater Santiago trail (4 hours, A)



JUNE 13
planting seedlings in the Banco de Tierra at La Conquista-  (10 hours, S)


JUNE 14
planting seedlings again, as well as taking care of the 2 team members that got sick (10 hours, S)


JUNE 15
planting seedlings (5 hours, S)
translating meeting with Banco de Tierra members and service brigade from Kansas in La Conquista (5 hours, C)
pizza dinner with San Lucas Foundation members and service brigade

JUNE 16
sports with at-risk youth in La Conquista community park (10 hours, A)


JUNE 17
6 hours La Casa activities with kids- board games, sports etc. (6 hours, S)
visit to Masaya's historical artisan market plaza


JUNE 18
learning how to play ultimate frisbee at Playa Maderas, San Juan del Sur beach (2 hours, A)

JUNE 19
church and 'relaxation'- also known as greeting my 50 relatives that stopped by the house we were staying in to celebrate my Tia Nora and Abuelita's birthdays, which fall on the same day


JUNE 20
ferry to the Isla de Ometepe from San Jorge and seasickness on the only lake in the world with freshwater sharks
hiking on the Isla de Ometepe- Punta Jesus Maria, Charco Verde, Ojo de Agua (4 hours, A)


JUNE 21
hike to see petroglyphs (2 hours, A)
ferry back to the 'mainland'


JUNE 22
Youth and the Environment celebration at La Casa in La Conquista (4 hours, S)
reading to youth at Biblioteca Semilla, Jinotepe and pastries at Anke's House (3 hours, C)
futbol at the court with new friends from church (1 hour, A)


JUNE 23
walking around Grenada, getting a flat tire, last-minute goodbyes to the San Lucas Foundation and family members

Carved Watermelon- C

For the French Club picnic, I decided to try to make a snack that was refreshing and healthy, since I knew a lot of the other food would be junk food and it would be very hot outside. The first search result for 'creative fruit salad' was a carved watermelon, which was perfect since we had just bought three! I added other fruits to make it brighter, and used a mini scoop to take out the watermelon meat. I decided to make it pretty simple because I was afraid of messing up, but I added some decoration around the outside as well. The end result was an adorable dish to take to the picnic and a bunch of leftover watermelon which I used to make 'agua de sandia,' a typical Nicaraguan drink, for later (1 hour). I love the idea and I'll probably use this in the future as a healthy and energizing contribution!

Zumba- A

Since mid-April, I've been to three more zumba classes (3 hours). However, I've tried two different teachers, which all have completely different styles! One of them, Logan, is the one I'm most used to, but it's been good to switch it up and try new songs. By now I have a group of 5 people that I meet regularly. We all enjoy it because the hour flies by so quickly despite the hard work!

Biking Hawthorne Trail- A

My friends Alex and Ellie have talked to me about biking for CAS hours many times in the past few weeks, and we finally got together to bike to Hawthorne Trail on one of our days off from school. I hadn't ridden a bike since biking home from work last summer, so it was a bit of a painful reminder that I need to work on my quad muscles. We went from my house to the second overlook on Paynes Prairie and back, which was about 10 miles total. We also walked around a little bit on a horse trail that we found, but went back to the bikes after a banana spider almost scared me to death (total of 3 hours). It was short, but on a hot day seemed like plenty of exercise. We were even lucky enough to see wild horses from the overlook view, which was unfortunately also spotted with cars from I-75 and Highway 441.

One of the few things I like about Florida

Cooking and music- C

My friends and I thought it would be a good idea to continue the international food activity that we did at the beginning of the year. This time, though, we loosely followed a Mexican cookbook to make delicious fresh salsa and vegetarian refried beans, and then made up the rest of the ingredients to put in to tortillas (2 hours). The food turned out great, despite the long time it took to make! We even fed four of our senior friends as a reward for finishing their IB history test, and they thought it was delicious.

We decided to dance to latin music while cooking

Our delicious ingredients, including grilled chicken for Alex and vegetable protein for Ellie and me

After eating, Alex taught a mini-lesson on the guitar. We learned how to play the first chords of one of my favorite songs, Smoke on Water by Deep Purple, and the basic base line for rhythm and blues (1 hour). I used to play the guitar, but that was about 10 years ago, and this activity reminded me of how difficult it is! I don't believe Alex when he says that it's one of the easiest instruments, but he certainly makes it sound that way. He also played a Spanish Lullaby which was amazing, and if I had more time, I would certainly try to learn that song... but for now I'll stick with re-learning the piano, flute or drums.