The Actions of an Honorable Boy

‘I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.’ - Denis Waitley. People who live under a roof often complain about their lives. They don’t recognize the privileges and luxuries they have. Though, around the world, tens of millions of children live or work on the streets and the number keeps growing. In the year 2000, there were 246,011 children living on the streets in the Philippines. Kesz was one of these children. Kesz, a 13 year old boy, ran away from home and grew up in the dumpsites of the Philippines. He lived a dangerous life filled with no hope of being saved. He suffered through lots of pain, despite that, he finally did get saved and he knew he had to do something about the other children still living in the dumpsites. The children weren’t aware of the hazard of living on the streets. They were uneducated and living a terrible life. They had no hope of escaping. Kesz received the International Children’s Peace Prize, as his experience was a bad one so he wanted to help the other children by giving them hope about being saved and educating them about health.

As Kesz was lucky to be saved from the dumpsite, he wanted to give hope to other children. He made sure that they never stopped believing that they would eventually start living better. As a result of his success and power, he could help them. Fortunately, Kesz’s wish to be saved from the dumpsite was a success, therefore, he knew it was possible for anybody to eventually be saved. Kesz says, ‘I am young, but I have a firm purpose to help make things better for generations to come.’ (Street Children Have Rights Too! Page 3). For his seventh birthday, instead of receiving presents for himself, he chose to get presents for the children on the streets.  He couldn’t let the children lose hope so he made them feel happy. He was determined to keep their hopes high. Kesz suffered through pain and anger, but he still continued to make children happy. ‘Looking back, the fire that burned my skin and flesh is the same fire that started a flame in my soul.’ (Street Children Have Rights Too! Page 3). Kesz grew up in the dumpsites and he had gone through so much and through all of his experiences he’d probably lose hope on being saved, but it happened. He eventually did get saved by Mr. Harmin, ‘the father he looks up to’. As being saved was something unexpected for Kesz he knew that hope was important and that everybody that lived like the street children had to feel hope. The other children in the dumpsites go through the same thing as Kesz everyday. Kesz knows that since he was saved all the other children will eventually be saved. His success has given the other children hope. Not only does he help with giving them hope, he has also provided them with information on living healthier.

Kesz knew living in a dumpsite was unhealthy, so he had to provide these children with information on living a healthier life. He experienced many unhealthy situations, not knowing they were unhealthy.  ‘Allowing flies to feast on my open wounds was normal to me and my friends.’ (Street Children Have Rights Too! Page 3). Kesz wasn’t aware of how dangerous the dumpsites were, health-wise. Dumpsites were filled with flies, trash and germs everywhere. Nobody ever cleaned them. So once he found out, he needed to help the other children because they were oblivious to the fact that where they lived was dangerous. ‘This is why I started and continue to lead street children to better health by teaching, demonstrating and spreading basic hygiene practice.’ (Street Children Have Rights Too! Page 3) Kesz encountered many unhealthy experiences, not knowing they were harmful at the time, but he soon learned the effect they had and he wanted to inform children who would pass it on to other children still living in the dumpsites, before it was too late. Šƒ’‹‘‹‰‘—‹–›Š‹Ž†”‡Šƒ’‹‘‹‰‘—‹–›Š‹Ž†”‡

Kesz’s exposure to the outcomes of the dumpsites has brought him forward into guiding the children who live in the dumpsites. He’s instructed them into a healthier lifestyle and given them hope. As he continues to do that today, he represents an honorable 13 year old boy, deserving the prize he received. He’s even taken it further by getting children to teach other children about hygiene. With his help he has succeeded in having 10,000 children aware of the importance of hygiene, just in his area. Kesz has the qualities of an inspiration to children all over the world. He has achieved so much at an early age and has given hope to people around the world that it’s not too late to start making a change now.

What Makes Me

I am from Phineas and Ferb I am from Dora the Explorer and the screaming ‘Swiper no swiping!’ I am from Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries Big Time Rush and The Jonas Brothers I am from the dribbling in basketball and the serving in volleyball I am from the crowded city and the heavy traffic From the loud shouts and car honks and motorbikes riding in the middle of the lanes I am from the hot weather and the tropical rainforests. I am from Sharifah and Faiz The “Go take a shower!”s and “Go do your homework!”s I am from Abhi and Nadia, Micah and Caoimhe and Lily and Alexandra, Sol and Daisy The “Did you hear about him and her?”s and the “Please tell me, I won’t tell anybody”s I am from Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Tasting The Rainbow I am from Pizzas and Pastas Quesadillas and Tacos I am from Nasi Lemak and Roti I am from scholarships to Princeton and Duke

   I am from doctors

I am from engineers and Exxon Mobils. On my walls and in my desk drawers are the memories that build me up and make me who I am. The pictures that make me look back and now realize why I am who I am. The scribbles in my notebook that make me. All these things result in who I am today.

My Black Messiah by Sonia Weitz

Of the three poems, the one that appealed to me the most was My Black Messiah by Sonia Weitz. For this poem to actually interest you, I think you would have to know the background information about Sonia and about everything that she has been through; such as surviving 5 concentration camps, being 1 of the 2 survivors in her 84-membered family and so on. After listening to her story about her experiences during the time of the Holocaust, I'm sure that being released and just set free would have been a huge deal for her!

I think in this poem she was just writing about how great it felt to finally be free! She wanted to express all the emotions she felt during this time. There were a few lines in the poem that made me think this. Such as 'And on we went our seperate ways.' She was talking about how the black Messiah had come and she had finally been released and her and the black Messiah were going their seperate ways and she could have gone anywhere she wanted to now. Another line in the poem was 'But there's a special bond we share.' I think she means a connection after everything she has experienced and that this could probably have been the best day of her life! And the last line was '...grown strong because we dare to live, to hope, to smile...' It has grown strong because now she is free and can live life to the fullest without having to worry about anything.

I was pretty clear with what this whole poem was about, but it did raise 1 or 2 questions for me. On the very first line when she says 'A black GI stood by the door', did she actually know what he was there for? She must have been really young at the time and not have known who this guy was, but did she have any clue at all? And another question I had was in the line that said 'He stared with eyes that didn't see', what did he mean by that? All I could think of was maybe he was ignorant and was aware of what was going on around him, but didn't do anything about it, but then why was he even there?

Being A Victim

'Some people say that what makes a person a victim is they have limited or NO options about how to act.'

In some cases, I do agree with this, but I also don't agree. I wouldn't agree because, for example, when somebody is being bullied, they do have lots of choices, but I think it's being under pressure that influences the choices people make. You could tell a teacher, but you're too scared to. You could stand up for yourself, but that's even scarier. Those are still options, though, but you just choose not to go with those options because you're afraid of what might happen. However, with the Jews it was different. After the government started not letting emigration, the Jews really didn't have any more choices. There was nothing else they could do to end what the Nazis were doing to them. They just had to put up with what was happening. So my choice goes more towards disagreeing with this statement.

The Eternal Jew

At my first glance at The Eternal Jew I immediately was confused. I had no idea what this image could possibly mean. That was my first glance, though. So after actually looking at it and observing all the little details, lots of it started to make more sense to me. Some general things that I noticed were that there were German words on it, which, as mentioned in the title, meant The Eternal Jew. Something a bit deeper into the image that I noticed was that he looked like he was holding coins. I thought this was because the Nazis wanted to show the people with 'German blood' that the Jews wanted to take all the money and that they just wanted to take over Germany. Another observation that I made was that the background was really bright and the Jew was wearing really dark clothing. This could maybe mean that the Jews didn't mean anything when they were in a background of Nazis.

I think this is supposed to be a poster created by the Nazi Party. And I think it was made when the Nazis had a lot more followers than they did in the beginning. The intended audience would probably be the people with 'German blood'. The Nazi Party wanted to show that the Jews were trying to take over Germany and take all the money. They wanted to show to the 'Pure Germans' that the Jews weren't good people and that they were greedy and taking everything they could. And that if the Jews ruled Germany, they would just take all the money and that Germany would be better if the Nazis were ruling.

Some misleading information would be that this Jew looked like he wasn't enjoying anything. I think the Nazi Party exaggerated this picture a bit because even though the Jews were living a tough life that nobody wanted to live in, it wasn't an extremely horrible one. It was only horrible because the Nazis made it horrible. The Nazi Party made it seem as if this person looked horrible because they were a Jew, but it was really because the Nazis were the ones giving the Jews a hard time.

All RIGHT :)

Have you ever really noticed how you take in the information your teacher is saying? How do you react? What exactly are you doing while your teacher is talking? I know it sounds silly, but it is actually really interesting. Who knew you would actually have a certain way of learning.

Last year, Mr. Whiting came into our class to give us a lesson on our learning profiles. When I heard that he was coming to teach us about that, my first reaction- this is going to be really pointless. He came in and talked about what we were going to do. I listened, while rocking in my chair and possibly fidgeting with a pen. It was nothing interesting- or was it? Mr. Whiting had given us some tasks to do. Tasks that we would never think actually effected the way we learned. They were really simple tasks such as, dropping a pen and noticing which hand you reacted with, leaning forward or backward and using one foot to stop yourself from falling. When you answered a phone, which ear did you put the phone to- right or left? Then, after we did that he asked us about our learning styles. Did we learn better by organizing and doing things in order? Or did we learn better from creativity and just looking at the big picture? If we were organized, it meant we were logic and we used our left side of the brain more. If we were creative, it meant we were gestalt and we used our right side of the brain more. I was all right, which led to me being a profile L.

Don't you find it frustrating when you're just moving around in your chair in class and your teacher gets mad at you? It happens to me all the time! It's nothing I can control and honestly, it helps me learn better. It's nothing I ever really realize, so how could it possibly distract me from my work? Although, I do understand that it might distract other people in my class and even my teacher which is why they would probably tell me to stop, but it does help me with my learning! If my teachers want me to do good in a class, then why don't they just let me rock in my chair? So I think my teachers should know that me and my chair get along REALLY well.

Since this is who I am then I think there are a few things that would help me as a learner. For example, placing me in a spot where I can learn and move at the same time, without distracting myself or others. Now, that doesn't mean putting me in a place like the gym to just move around all I want, but it could mean in a place (probably near the back of the class) where I can move around in my chair without anybody noticing. Not just anywhere at the back of the class, but probably somewhere where I can really focus and take in the information without anything getting in my way. Since my right ear and right eye are the dominant parts then possibly putting me at the right side of the class would make a huge difference in my learning.

According to the sheet of paper about profile Ls, lazy 8's are a big help. Last year (the first time I had ever heard about lazy 8's) I had no idea what they were so I searched them up. Even though I am a profile L learner I don't think I do lazy 8's very much, but I do like to doodle randomly on anything that I have. If you looked at my binder or just any sheets of paper I own, you would see drawings almost everywhere! It also says that drawing and writing with the non-dominant hand is a great help. I realize I actually do that a lot! Last year I tried writing with my left hand and my handwriting was honestly horrible! This year I tried it again and I did it a lot more and I realized my left-hand writing has gotten a lot better!

Last, but not least, a message to my teachers. Well as I said before, placing me in a spot in the class that is near the back on the right side would probably help me a lot! When I'm under stress, trust me, you don't want me in your class, but you obviously have no choice (muahaha.) Though, there are ways to tolerate me being under stress. Sometimes I need some quiet time alone to just process new ideas because when I have too much to think about I can get out of hand. If you give me just a little bit of time alone then I will be able to communicate easier and I'll be able to control myself more. On the other hand, if you just dump more and more information on me, I will get very stressed and very frustrated and I might blow up. As I said before, just give me 5 or 10 minutes of some quiet time alone to process all the information and I will be fine after that. Concluding my explanation on my learning profile, I'm really happy Mr. Whiting came into our class to teach us about these little things in life that we never really notice.

• I remember when I was about 4 and I saw my brother fall of his bike and I was really scared. He came into the house and his knee had blood all over it and I was really young so I got really scared.

• I remember when I was about 5 and my first tooth fell off after waiting so long for it to fall off. My mum came to pick me up from school and I had my first wiggly tooth so I kept playing with it and then it finally fell off.

• I remember when I was about 5 and I went to Egypt with my friends and my family. We stayed on a cruise and every morning we would stop somewhere and get down and just go around the place.

• I remember when I was about 4 and I got lost in a super market and I had no idea what to do. Me and my mum were just walking around the supermarket and I just wandered off and I had no idea where I was and I think I started crying, but I finally found her.

• I remember when I was about 3 or 4 and I had ballet class. After the class, my mum would always wait inside the building, but when I came out of the class she wasn’t there. The place was really small so I didn’t really know where else to look. So I asked my ballet teacher to help me. And I was crying so much. And they had no idea and they were asking everybody and it became really serious. Then, in the end, we figured out she was just waiting outside the whole time.

• I remember when I was 5 and it was my first day of school. I was new to the school and I had a ‘Dora The Explorer’ roller bag and apparently it wasn’t ‘cool’ to have a Dora bag so some of the guys started laughing at me. I came home really sad and immediately asked my mum if I could use a different bag.

• I remember when I was about 3 or 4 and I had my first birthday party at Build-A-Bear workshop. I lived in Houston, Texas. I loved going to Build-A-Bear Workshop and we decided to have my birthday party there. It was really fun.

• I remember when I was 6 and we went on a holiday in Bangkok. I brought my favourite teddy bear with me and since I was really small, my brother and sister loved to annoy me. So my parents went out so it was only me, my brother and my sister in the hotel. My brother and sister took my teddy bear and hung it in the shower and started the water. I started crying so much, but my teddy bear was okay.

• I remember when I was about 6 or 7 and we went on holiday and we stopped in Paris. It was only for a day so we didn't have much time, but of course we went to the Eiffel Tower. There was an ice cream booth under the Eiffel Tower. It was really fun.

• I remember when I was 4 and we went to Disney World in Florida. I saw my best friend at the airport and we were both going to Disney World. It was a lot of fun because I was really small so everything seemed so cool and the rides were really fun.