Where else can a week last a lifetime?

Yoooow wassup wassup wassup😄
Okay lakini wacha nikue serious. I have no clue how one is supposed to reply to wassup. Imma tell you the roof or sky. Ata wharido😂

Anyways, how are you doing? Are y’all satanizing?…Like I got so used to saying that I forgot the correct word is sanitizing😂. A caution…there is a picture of a snake in this blog. It’s just a slide, though I was a little shook and had to gather courage to download it and get over the fear. And if you are like me, then you appreciate a heads up so that you don’t drop your phone. Yes…kuna watu like me who are terrified even by just pictures.

Today I want to share something about my school life that I’m sure many ACE students treasure.

Convention!!!!! (My title is the motto)

Sasa hizi ni vitu gani huyu anasema?😂

Lemme do a summary first.
A.C.E. – Accelerated Christian Education. A system that was originally formed for missionaries so that their children wouldn’t have to keep changing systems as they moved from country to country. It was eventually put up in a school setting and is sometimes referred to home schooling as that is how it first made its way onto the news here in Kenya. I won’t go into detail of how things are done cause then we’ll just be for a looong time.
Student Convention…a competition that brings 12-19 yr olds together for a week to compete in platform events, music, sports, academics, art, photography and needle & thread. There are three conventions per year. The East Africa Student Convention (E.A.S.C.) is held in either a school or campus in July. All Africa (A.A.S.C.) is held in South Africa in September. It was previously held in December. Then International (I.S.C.) is held in the States until recently when they decided that the venue would change to Asia. Not so sure if they’ll keep changing the location. This one is held in May. So you’d attend the local one and get nominated to All Africa, then to International. But nowadays you are nominated directly to International.
Rally – a gathering during the Convention, where there is singing, command performances, listening to the speaker of the day, announcements and awards.
Command performance – a student who did very well during their performance gets to perform in front of everyone
Sponsor – the person who is in charge of students from a school
24/7 squad – older students or alumni of A.C.E. who help the judges, get things in order, do the praise and worship during rallies and a few other things.
Passport – a small book that you have to carry along with you. It contains your details, pledges, summary of devotions for Tuesday to Friday, a map (are you lost babygirl?😏…sorry just had to throw that in there😂), a list of your events and the time for each and a few pages for autographs.

And please it may not have been as fun as drama festivals and the other competitions that 8-4-4 students experienced, but can we really compare when we haven’t had a taste of both? I didn’t choose this system. Most times I was happy I went through it…sometimes I wasn’t. But when it comes to pushing it down someone’s throat (sometimes even just telling them) that you had a better experience just because they did something different that their parents chose, etc., please keep the comments to yourself cause it’s not nice. Plus am I supposed to get a time machine and change the past?🤷

Enough of that already. I feel like nishaongea sanaa😂

It was 2013. I was going to attend my first Convention. Yaani Convention was just the dream. Compete, meet new people from other countries. I was too excited. This one was held in Green Gardens, Thogoto. Baridi nayo🥶. I remember one time we were going for breakfast and you could barely see a few feet ahead of you. Then the dining was on 4th floor. The que sometimes was all the way up which worked well cause you’d go up slowly, making new friends and getting autographs. The coordinator joked and said that we wouldn’t leave that place with any added weight cause you’d have burned those calories by the time you got downstairs.
Since this was my first convention, I only did five events, one being doing a solo. That is when I knew stage fright is real😂. Then I was jealous of another girl who had also done a Counted Cross Stitch entry🤦. I got first place though and excited me couldn’t wait to go to All Africa. Unfortunately, the nominations were canceled so that E.A.S.C. would be in line with the All Africa. It had been that if you got nominated this year, you’d go next year and they wanted to do away with that.

I didn’t give up though. 2014 I went back, better prepared. We were in Daystar, Athi River campus. The way that place is big; you’d get to the field, discover you had forgotten something in your room and just feel like crying or decide to do without it. This time I even played chess, against a cute guy😅. I lost obviously😂, but in my defense, according to him, he had won against a computer. Again more stage fright because I love singing, but in front of people is a major issue. No way did I place in that category. I did, however, in other events. Second place in Cross stitch earned me a nomination.

I remember crying the day I heard that. So December 5th, 2014 found me on a plane, on my way to South Africa, for 2 weeks that I will never forget (ama wanasemanga aje?😂). But lemme just say ain’t no food like food at home. Yes, it’s awesome to try out new things and I loved how they cooked potatoes (waru girl for life💪), but sausages, no thank you. With cheese-like oil oozing out of them when you cut them, I prefer Kenyan sausages anyday anytime. Apart from getting lost, even with a map,knowing a criminal was on the loose and he had been spotted around, and the beauty of the place, it was pretty much the same compared to the East African one. And before I forget, what is Convention without at least one crush😅. But I remember this one guy, he was on our team from Kenya, and one day he was talking about seeing the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He told her that, but missy walked out on him. No thank you, no nothing. And me I was just there wishing he could just give me half that attention aone😂😂.
Convention ended and we were off to Durban for the tour. They called it that, but it’s more fun than touring aki. My highlight was the day we went to uShaka Marine World.

Mimi lazima nirudi huko because weeeeuh🥵. So first there were dolphins. I thought we’d be able to swim with them, but just watching the show was enough for me. Then we watched a seal show. Honestly, it was better than the dolphin show cause all the dolphins did was jump through hoops, jump backwards, etc., but with the seals, it was a whole acted show.

• 

Next, we went to the Ship. It stands on land and has tanks inside it with marine animals, including sharks. There was even a hammerhead shark(s). I don’t remember how many.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Sometimes I wonder if I’d get the courage to enter that ship again; I’m not a fan of sharks. You know how a present you is scared of things a younger you had no problem with? It’s the same with snakes. When I was nine, I went on a school trip to the museum in Nairobi and even saw snakes, and an anaconda, that I wrote a report on. There’s even this section where they kept small snakes with only a short wall around it. I heard they have now fenced it properly cause the snakes would come up the wall and we were just standing there. But a present me is so scared of snakes, I’d probably drop my phone cause I have seen a snake on my timeline. Again I digressed😂. From there, we went to the water slides. One ended with the mouth of a snake and I definitely wasn’t going there.

• 

• 

• 

• 

So we decided to try one that slid you into a bowl with a hole in the middle that you would jump from and end up in a pool.

• 

• 

(The picture on the right shows the slide from below) My friends went first and it looked pretty easy. I got into the slide and I was not expecting what was waiting for me. To begin with, I didn’t know that the water would push me with so much force. Then came a corner that I knew for certain would hurt me, but I slid so smoothly past it😅. Then came the horror. Sliding into the bowl, I let my legs hang as I tried to see how big the pool was. I couldn’t. But guess who slid into the bowl. The guy I had a crush on!!! So I gained courage and dropped into the pool. Heeeee! I never knew memory can fail you until I hit the water. My mind was blank on what I should do and I started to panic. Obviously not good cause now I was sinking and trying to get a hold of the water🤦😂. And yet again, guess who came to my rescue, my crush. If this isn’t the fairy tales, I don’t know what is😂. And my smitten self bought him ice cream. I don’t know if that was his cue to get all playful and friendly with me, but I wasn’t prepared for it. The next day, Mr. Rescue man bit into my lunch, then he licked my ice cream. This is my crush, right? Si I should be happy he’s this free with me? But noooo!!! I put on a sort of annoyed face, handed him the ice cream and went to buy another one. One guy thought if he licked it, I’d do what I’d done with my crush, but I wasn’t having those jokes✋. I gave him one look and he backed off. Two days later, we were back home.

August 2016 found me on the road to another Convention in Kabarak University. This one wasn’t really my favorite due to the fact that I had been working on getting a direct nomination to the International, but I didn’t achieve my goal. That,however, didn’t stop me from having fun with my friends. And for the first time in the history of me going for Convention, I didn’t have a crush on anyone😂. My two friends had crushes and I kinda felt left out, but the joy of teasing them and seeing them blush real hard was satisfactory. We came back home, proud of ourselves. Then just imagine, my classmate told me that apparently a cute guy had inquired about me, but he told him to keep off. Miss detective here finally found him and we even dated like after a night of talking till 3am😂. Didn’t work out well though cause of the distance.

Then came 2018 where I got to be a 24/7. Being the introvert I am and the fact that I didn’t know the rest of the squad made it a bit uncomfortable for me. We eventually became friends, but you can’t really fit into a group of people who have known each other for years. The experience was pretty good. You are sort of an errands person most of the time. No complains though, I was happy. There were hectic days, especially receiving the entries and arranging them, and there were relaxing times like the time I got to spend my afternoon with the horses and hence the pictures of horses on my IG. And well the food St. Andrews, Turi served was delicious. I had a crush…agaaainnn. You should have seen how I would strategically put myself in his path😂. I even did a lap on sports day just to show him that I was athletic…which I wasn’t🚮 ( like us girls…what is usually the problem🤷😂). But surprisingly he was also crushing on me. Alesson I learned the hard way though, is sometimes a crush should be just that. We are humans and liking another person is totally okay. But sometimes trying to take it to the next level destroys what would have been a beautiful friendship.

And that just about summarizes what Convention has been for me. Btw when I was going for my first Convention, I didn’t know what Counted Cross-stitch was. Someone told me not to do it cause it’s something that old women do. I almost gave in, but my mum encouraged me and I am happy to say that I got a medal in that event for every Convention I attended. I have even done business and will definitely revive that passion soon. Along with the friendships I made, the lessons I learned, it has been a beautiful journey.

This year, the E.A.S.C. is being done virtually. My mum was pretty excited cause it for sure cuts down on cost so everyone can attend without struggle and also the juniors (age 8-11) are participating. For myself, I really pray it goes back to normal. Convention is meeting new people, having stage fright and overcoming it (wengine wetu failed😂), trying out new events and discovering you are actually good, going around to see the amazing entries and seeing what you can try out next time, cheering your friends in the field, sitting in a rally and turning around, only to notice that your crush is sitting behind you and he smiles at you (that was my first Convention btw😂…on the last day, we stared at each other, but no one was confident enough to approach the other💔), walking up the stairs to the stage to receive your medal, screaming your lungs out cause your friends placed and so much more. Before I talk too much again, that’s all for now.

Until next time,
Adiós😊