The reason why I picked the same activity I had the last year is because I feel that Muay Thai and Boxing is one of the most ‘nourishing” activities that this school has. This sport is based on discipline and hard work. I feel that this activity helped me develop a different way of thinking and also to understand that many things related to the IB and the studies are based on hard work.

Also, I spent a good time with my friends that were joining different season in the activity. I could have a great time using my previous knowledge to help them performing different moves. We all spent a great time together and learning martial arts in this activity. Although I could not manage to attend many of the classes due to loads of work I had this year, the sessions I attended were meaningful and helped me release stress doing this amazing sport.

Many thanks to the teachers and all the knowledge they shared with me. Muay Thai is definitely one of the most important things I pick from this whole experience and I hope I will continue doing this for a long time in my life.

Once again I joined the Cuban salsa dance group to perform in the 2020 edition of Showcase. the show is soon to take place in the school and it is already being exciting. One of the best things that we could see in this activity is the commitment of those who stayed. Like the last year, many people joined at the beginning, however not many stayed until the end, maybe because of interest or maybe because they were not feeling confident enough or liked something else. this year we are way less than the year before but we have capable people and willing to do a great performance. the fact that I see people from the last year showcase in our team is what makes me feel proud of it. It shows how people are having a compromise with the teachers and the activity. I hope this year goes well and we have a great time on stage. I also hope that now that I am leaving, many new people join and keep this activity alive and performing well.

Being part of a Chess tournament in which I participated in a team representing the school was one of the most significant experiences I had in my time doing the IB in UWC. It was very impactful because only as a team we could reach our goal and end up in the first place in the tournament for our category. Even though we did not manage to win every single game, the four of us could manage to cheer each other up in order to have better results in our following games. The results in the tournament are clearly a product of working collaboratively and perseverance. At the end of the tournament, we had different scores that summed differently to our team final score and helped us score a gold medal. However, it did not make any difference between us and no feelings of being better. we celebrated our achievement together. I am very thankful with the school and the activities office because of giving me this opportunity and also because I had a great time playing chess with my team and discussing many things related to the game. It was very interesting.

As a group with a purpose, we went to Jakarta to leave traces of our commitment and our desires to help the kids getting a better future in education in the community in Jakarta. After our main purpose, we went to know more about the city and explore some zones in South Jakarta.

During the first two days, we spend our time learning about the place and the culture. We went to a national park called Taman Mini. This plays offer an exhibition of the culture and its mixture for many years in Indonesia. We could also appreciate the fauna of Indonesia in the same park. Visiting the museum we could also appreciate the architecture of the cultures and how it changes depending on the place and ethnicity.

After our time exploring the city of Jakarta, our first day received us. The first time in direct contact with the community of trash pickers shocked us a bit. We realise that the children were living in those conditions since they were born. In addition, we realise the situation fo their parents in that community and we could not blame them for their misfortune. When we were welcomed by the children and their teachers, the smile in their faces and their happiness while we were doing our activity together was more than enough to fill our minds with happiness and realise that our impact in their community was becoming true. We helped them in many ways, we taught them (even when most of us could not speak their language, we figured out how to do). After teaching and playing games with the children, and building carts to pick up trash using hammer and nails, we went to the XS Project main office to check what was going up there. We could see many products that the people from this community were working on. Honestly, that job is amazing and requires lots of patience and creativity.

Those days in Jakarta, doing amazing service are going to be really significant for my experience as a member of a community like UWC, this experience helped me to understand how hard is the situation for many and how to contribute to the change.