powerfulbeyondmeasure2018-blog

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This morning we woke up and went to breakfast with our sisters, we ate rolls an . After breakfast we had workshop with alumni Daraja women, Yvonne and Purity. We started out making our guidelines for the workshops we were going to be having and then had a small discussion on what our zones were like comfort, stretch and panic zone like when talking and sharing in the workshops how we’d be feeling while sharing. And Ms. Amber said the stretch zone is where we should be because that’s where we grow the most. A couple of the girls shared their stories as well. After a couple of the girls shared their stories Yvonne led us in an activity where we each got a name of someone in the group including the alumni and the adults and had to write a letter of what we’d want to tell them. I got Ms. Amber and told her how strong of a woman she is and that she’s an amazing person to look up to amping other things. After, Yvonne and Purity explained to us more about the WISH program that the Daraja girls take while their there, we paired up an defined what we thought each word of WISH was- Women’s Integrity Strength and Hope. Purity, then led us in an activity to teach us about teamwork, communication, having patience and encouraging one another to succeed. There were 2 activities where we were in two teams and we had eggs on a spoon and had to run to the other side of the basketball court come back an had it off to the next person, Heaven, Kennedy, Alma and I were on a team. After that the four of us stood at one basketball hoop and did a relay and then switched with the other team and then the adults got in on the activity. After we went into lunch before we went into town. - Anna

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PBM 2018 closing ceremony. “Stand in the light and be seen as you are.”

With gratitude and love to Holy Names and Marin City Change Makers, PBM/Daraja program staff, our Daraja sisters, friends, family and supporters

Jen and Whit 

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Thank you to our wonderful friends at Daraja and a HUGE thank you to Jen and Whitney for taking us on this magical journey -Robin

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Today we made presentations at a local high school. Teaching is hard!

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Powerful Beyond Measure on Social Media!

Hello, 

Don’t miss exciting news and photos from the P.B.M. girls this summer in Kenya at Daraja Academy!

Please follow Powerful Beyond Measure on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!  You can find the links below. 

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Passion into Action

We started today with giving back to Daraja. As guests it was our pleasure to help in the kitchen and weed in the greenhouse. As a group we toured areas of the campus we hadn’t yet seen. And then it was back to work! The girls spent the better part of the day reflecting on their interests and passions in order to determine the focus for their community action projects. After a lot of reflection and brainstorming, each girl presented their idea for the project they will begin upon their return to Marin. What an amazing group of girls! The projects promise to be thoughtful, generous and meaningful. The ideas covered a wide swath of needs they see in their communities. I know these young women are determined to better our world. Watch out! They are Powerful Beyond Measure!!

Robin

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Powerful Beyond Measure with Rosemary a strong leader and change maker.

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My Promise

I promise to be your strength

Whenever you fall weak

I promise to be your voice

Whenever you can’t find the words

I promise to be your light

Whenever you seem dark

I promise to be your friend

Whenever you don’t have any

I promise to be your shoulder

Whenever you need to cry

I promise to be your heaven

Whenever you fall hard

And last but not least I promise to love you

Whenever you can’t love yourself

By: Simba .A. Walker (Lashanti)

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07/22/18

Mambo, gina langu ni Julisa 👋🏼 (Hello my name is Julisa) my stay here at Daraja Academy has been awesome. At the beginning I was really homesick because I was missing my family but I have gotten much more comfortable here and I am happy to call this place my home. I am learning Swahili and it’s awesome because my family is teaching me and I love showing off my new skills with the new people I continue to meet everyday. Today was a very good day, this morning I had a blast at the Christian church during spiritual time, the dances were awesome and I wish I could sing along but my Swahili has still not fully developed. Besides that we went to watch a soccer game to support one of the local teams and it was very interesting (fun fact: soccer in swhaili is football just like in Spanish). Before the soccer game I was hanging out with Dayanna and her sister Winnie, in one of the classrooms and it was great because I got to know her a lot more and she is so lovely. Dinner was pretty good with y family, each day we are getting closer and I am starting to get sad about leaving. Overall today was amazing and I loved every aspect about it. I love Kenya and can’t wait to continue my swhaili lessons with my very rembow (beautiful) mother, Jasphine! Ps; I am teaching some of the girls Spanish and I love how much I am able to teach my sisters here at Daraja and the knowledge I get in return!

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Baboon hike at sunrise

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Arriving at Twala women’s collective

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Yanaiya and Maggie!

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PBM Sunday Morning Rhythms: Dayanna and Julisa enjoy laundry day with help from their Daraja sisters! 

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Hey there it’s your girl Maggie, it’s been longer than a week since we’ve been away from home and honestly I’m enjoying it (I’m sorry sista sista ) but anyway on Saturday the 21st of July we did so many exciting things. I’ll start off with our bus ride to the market. I enjoyed every second of it from me and Dayanna bumping our heads from sitting in the back to inhaling dust because of the dirt roads don’t worry PBM families we’re perfectly FINE. Honestly I had so much fun at the market, we seen everything from colorful cros to beautiful unique fabrics to gigantic avocados to a goat. The prices there were so cheap your girl was shooketh. After the market we went to Simama it’s an orphanage, and omg I can tell you what an eye opening experience. Something I want to tell you guys is that I’m just amazed on how happy these children are, coming from very difficult backgrounds I never expected them to be so HAPPY. The girls from Marin all came together and raised money in different ways and we donated all together over 40,000 shillings which is going towards the children school uniforms. I wanted to thank everyone who supported us with our bake sales, or sponsored us I truly appreciate it. Okay so after that went to grab lunch at the “karibut tree trout” and I can speak for most of the girls that this lunch was hands down the best fooooooooooood we’ve had this whole week. My mouth is drewling again just think about it. After lunch we hit the mall that had a really big market inside where most of the girls stocked up on the famous Nutella. My blog is getting a little toooo long but anyways we came back to school and had entertainment time with our sisters where we got to learn some pretty cool dance moves.

-MAGGIE ANDRADE

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Growth

As us young women go through each day here in Kenya, we're able to see eachother grow both emotionally and mentally every second. Although we all go through the hardships and battles of life, we've learned different strategies of coping and correcting them, and also we've learned that we're not alone in any way while here together. So far our Powerful Beyond Measures trip has shown me a large amount of love, power, sincerity, and completeness. As I would love to share with you all my greatfulness for each experience that we've/ I've had since getting here, the words do not even exist for the quantity of it. This is most definitely a life changing 2 weeks for each of us, and we're so excited to come home, when it's time, and make our families proud.

- Yanaiya Sa'Aadat