Marie Atkins Center

This month's visit was just awesome. Especially after what had happened last month, when everyone had circled around my father. This month was a lot more under control, everyone was sitting down, even if it meant sitting down on the floor. This whole morning was just really touching, seeing everyone there, trying to be on their best behaviour, just to get a small plate of food, one, maybe two cups of tea, and a box juice. Though I had returned to Mr Big Jo, and Mr Chin, I still felt a sense of achievement shaking hands with a lot of the people there.
Not to mention, seeing how much the foundation had improved, I felt really proud to say that I was working there, helping out. I think I'm also getting the grove of things a lot better, growing more vocal, growing faster with how I give people the drinks. Hearing the 'thank you' at the end of the day really makes it all worth it.
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The Bernard Cridland Memorial Shoot

Today, my parents and I went to volunteer our help at the Jamaica Skeet Club for the Bernard Cridland Memorial Shoot. While I wasn't shooting, I was assigned as a referee to one of the teams. While I had helped at the Shoot last year, my dad was doing most of the work. This time, I was working alone with one of the groups, keeping score of the teams. While I made a few mistakes scoring, the group was more than patient with me, correcting and helping me as we went along. Even though we would joke around on occasion, once we reached the shooting stations, all joking was put aside and all focus was on gun safety and handling. All in all, it was a fun experience, especially since nobody was hurt as we progressed to the end.

-Peter
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Marie Atkins Center

After braving through Hurricane Sandy, I started back up my self-initiated project, by helping to feed the homeless at the Marie Atkins Center. As usual, I woke up early, and made my way to the homeless shelter with my dad and a few of his friends. Unlike usual, however, the crowds were a lot more rowdy than usual. Even with added muscle, the crowds swarmed around me and my dad, begging for one of the boxes of juice. We normally run out of boxes, so its not uncommon that people fight for one of the seats by where we start handing out the boxes, but having swarms of people surround my dad to the point where he refuses to give out any more boxes is something that has never happened before. I don't know whether this was as a result of the hurricane, or if it was as a result of there being more new people at the breakfast feeding, but it certainly shocked me.
Another thing that shocked me, but in a good way, was the fact that while working, I was no longer 'Big Jo', the brand of the juices we give out, or 'Mr. Chin', but 'Peter.' This realization that I've been working long enough for people to know my name, and call me by it was something that really took made me notice how much of a difference I've made in these people's lives. I'm no longer a brand of juice, or a typical Chinese man to them. I'm Peter, and that really made me feel like I've impacted these people more than I thought I have before.

-Peter
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Digicel 5K Runathon

So, today, my dad had taken me to a 5km run, in which I was asked if I wanted to take part in. Already being there, I said sure, considering I didn't have much else to do, and it seemed like it could be interesting. After the first few kilometers, I had started feeling exhausted, and my eyes strayed to several shortcuts. However, I kept on keeping on, and just repeated to myself that a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins. Keeping this in mind, I felt inspired to finish all 5km, whether it was by running, walking, or crawling over the finish line.
After 45 minutes, and hundreds of negative thoughts, I finally finished the race, and felt great about it. Finishing it, I thought to myself that the motivation of keeping up with my dad really paid off, and made me feel less tired that I was while running the race. All in all, it was a really great experiment, but I doubt that I would be up for another one for a very long time from now.

Peter
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Beach Clean Up 2012

Today, we went out to the Palisadas strip, to help clean up the beach. Like last year, I was assigned as a group leader, but this year my group consisted of five boys who I've never met before. At first, there was a bit of confusion in the group, but we started getting along, getting more work done than we had thought we were going to get done. This was because we were one of the last groups to set out, but my team was thorough, going through everywhere, examining everything. We actually got the "prize" garbage, taking in a giant mass of ropes, and binders. While two of the group members went back to headquarters with the mass, the rest of us kept scouring the beach before returning, feeling proud of what we've done.
This while activity showed us just how much our actions can impact a beach, a place of recreation, and a habitat for animals. When we walked along, it really wasn't somewhere where I would want to spend a Sunday afternoon, much less live, with all the trash scattered around. Not to mention it really showed me how important teamwork is, because I know that one person alone wouldn't have been able to carry the mass of ropes. In addition to this, it showed us just how important perseverance is, because we could have just turned back, and given up on trying to clean the beach.

Peter
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Leadership Workshop

Back in late May, we were required to participate in a leadership workshop to become better people. The workshop had put us in groups, making us better leaders by showing us that leadership is more than just doing what you think is best. We were shown how leadership is listening to everyone, trying to work better with everyone. They showed us how to overcome external difficulties, through some of the exercises we did. It wasn't just sitting down in a room, listening to people talk, either. They had us moving around, doing exercises to let us experience just how essential leadership, and teamwork are to get things done.

Cancer Society's Relay for Life

This past Saturday, the Cancer Society held their Relay for Life, an event made to raise awareness and money for cancer patients, as well as to commemorate the survivors and victimes of cancer. In order to give my help to the cause, I had showed up the morning of the event to help shovel sand into plastic bags, put the bags into paper bags, and organize them so that they would fit under the tent. I was fortunate enough to not be stuck doing one monotonous task for the whole time that I was there, and moved around from shoveling sand, putting the bags into the bigger bags, and organizing the bags. This whole thing really made me aware of just how many people cancer was affecting, and how teamwork helps the job go by more quickly, as we had eventually made a production line of people working together to get the job done.

Peter
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Sporting activities

Tae Kwon Do

After about five years of not doing this martial art, I had decided to restart my participation in it. Before I had stopped, I was a red belt, a rank before black belt, and I had wanted to get my black belt before I graduated from the IB program. This past term, I had to reteach myself everything from the beginning with the help of my teachers. According to one of them, practicing a martial arts is similar to riding a bike. You never truly forget how to do it, and I had learned that when I reached back to where I was when I had stopped within a month of starting back. This really does amplify the idea of always doing your best, and to never give up, and I can't say that I'll ever regret starting it back up.

Peter
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Sporting Activities

This term, I delved further into my training, learning moves we could use in and out of the ring. We also learned how we could use the moves we did in forms in self defense, rather than for the sake of show. While, I'll admit, my reflexes need work, and while I can formulate a technique in my head, I'm learning to perfect the skill of putting that technique into practice. I have had days where I've thought about not going, because of how difficult and frustrating it was becoming, but I forced myself to keep on pushing myself, moving closer and closer to the black belt that I'm aspiring for.

Mona Rehab Facility

Hello everyone!

After reaching the Mona Rehabilitation Facility, we were greeted by the warm smiling faces of the children and faculty at the Facility which made the cold rain appear to be nonexistent. Due to a class, a group of friends and I had arrived about half an hour late, and had missed a few races, but we made up for it by jumping straight in, helping by playing Bingo, and horseshoes with them, while offering drinks, patties and sandwiches to the children there. After the rain cleared up, we went back outside to run some more races with the kids in wheelchairs, losing most of them, while some of us quickly got a hang of the wheelchairs, and were able to keep up with some of the people who have been in wheelchairs for a long time.
This was really a fun and enriching activity, and being in one of the wheelchairs, it really made me look up to the guys there, seeing how it feels to not have full mobility, and how hard it is to use a wheelchair. Not to mention, it made me truly value my health, physical and mental, even though most of the people there were physically handicapped, instead of mentally handicapped.

Peter
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Marie Atkins Center

After we had missed two previous visits to the center, as a result of transportation reasons, we finally returned to the smiling faces of the people in the Marie Atkins Center Community. We were greeted with some of the familiar faces, as well as some new ones, all of which were happy and grateful to see us. We had realized that we had an increase in people at the center, most of which were "visitors," people who didn't live at the center. Normally, we would carry up two boxes of juice, 40 cartons in each box, but now we would need to increase that number, to another box of juice to satisfy the increase in people there. Also, we would need to increase the amount of money donated to the center to increase the amount of food cooked by about twenty percent.

This really shows how the economy is affecting everyone, as there are people who are dressed in suits, or polo shirts, who look like they left with the clothes on their back, or a small set of clothes to wear with them. This amplified the idea that you could lose everything you ever worked for in an instant, and the whole global problem of financial dilemma, showing how many people are just thrown on the street, having to fend for themselves because they can't get a job in this day and age.

On top of which, I had come to the center with joint pain, and a cold, so this was a lot harder than it usually would be for me to focus on the people there, and lend a hand as quickly as possible. But when I got there, and started working, it seemed as if the pain and tiredness had just disappeared in an instant, letting me work at my usual efficient rate, while thinking about who got what, and who was a resident and should get juice, and who was a visitor, and was of a lesser priority.

Peter
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Non-Sporting Activities Term 2

Model United Nations
This term, we had to work more seriously on preparing for the Model United Nations conference, so we had created a final team to work on creating the greatest possible speech, and presentation of our speech. Also, we had planned to create several fundraising activities in order to raise money and awareness of several issues of global importance, like cancer and abuse. We had also discussed issues like genocide, and watched Hotel Rwanda to understand it a bit better. In addition to that, we had gone to another training session last minute, because we were told about it a day before the training session. We also had to leave a bit early because we didn't want to miss much of school, but I think we did pretty well and got some more positive criticism out of it.

Investment Club
We had quite a bit of problems this term, because of Superbowl, and trying to figure out which investments to make for the Olympics. This was particularly difficult because our portfolio manager had seemed to just stop caring, and we had to suspend him as portfolio manager after missing a record high in the market, and replace him with another person in the club who is as educated as the other manager is, but had cared more about the wellbeing of our portfolio and the club. Also, we had to train some new guys as to how to work in the stock market, and read the information given.

Marie Atkins Center

Hey everyone,
Its a new term, a new year, and I'm full of ideas with how to work on my self initiated project at the Marie Atkins Homeless Shelter.
I had gone back to the shelter for my usual monthly visit, and I had picked up on certain things that I hadn't noticed before, that I could have bettered with the use of a fund raiser. (Info on that closer to the actual date.) The shelter was short on cups, plates, and ran out of juice quickly. Also, it could have used a paint job, and new roofing.
Other than that, the experience hadn't changed, the people in the shelter are more comfortable with us now, and we're more comfortable with them. It really is a scary thing getting to come here, see how a simple change in a person's life can completely destroy their whole livelihood, and force them to live in poverty. It really forces you to appreciate the littlest things that you have.

Peter
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