Communities! The Pros and cons

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Firstly, what is a community; a community is a small group of people whose members reside in a specific locality and share a government, often they have similar cultural backgrounds and heritage. I believe that it is really fun being in a growing community with loving people who support you and your ideas. As well as help people grow. Of course, not everything is perfect there are some pros and cons of being in a community.

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I think that one positive aspect of being in a community is the provided support. Even with a small community and because most times the members of the community have the same values and ideals, this can allow people to express their ideas freely, with no worry or fear that someone with be against what they think. This is a conclusive facet because with the support and       acceptance of new ideas that can help the development of ones community and can create a greater impact. Moreover, if support is provided then it can lead to less tension between members and healthier relationships within the group.

Another positive attribute of the being in a community is the impact. I slightly touch upon this subject but community always have big impacts on others’ lives. Because of the close relationship and the connections between members it would seem easier to get along in order to create projects and/or organization that can benefits small groups of people. For instance, now there are many communities that create organizations that help with nature (ex- Go Green). Furthermore, it is not just one person who impacts other, it is a whole group of people and together it creates a greater impact with more ideas.

A final pro of being in a community is building relationships. Communities are usually pretty small, so it is easy to meet to people. Communities allow others to create new relationships based on common interest and commonly, the community members have the same ideologies and passion, therefore, is it almost guaranteed that the friendship with blossom.

 


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Living/ being in a community is great, but there are also exceptions. One con of being in a community is being the real you. Although this is quite contradictive to my previous point. In many circumstances people feel as though, they have to change themselves or how them act in order to fit in with the community they are in.

A final con of being in a community is competition. This mainly happens in the field of sports communities, but also elsewhere. Everyone wants to be at the top and want to be acknowledged. I noticed multiple time in communities, that if you are surpassing someone they will try to surpass you, get the acknowledgement and be seen.

 

 

 

 

How to improve my school?

I really love the school that I am in, but there are a couple of things that I would change and many students bring up these points in conversations like this. Firstly, we have a small little “restaurant” in our school called “Shady Shack” they sell a wide variety of food; some are healthy but others not so much. In our school in general Physical Education is taking fairly seriously and we want to be a good, fit, healthy school. However, it is quite contradictive looking at the prices of Shady Shack. For instance, a chicken salad is 3500 FCFA- this is about 5 USD, but in Senegal this is fairly expensive for a salad and for us kids. But in comparison a less healthy, oily food like a grilled cheese sandwich which only cost 1000 FCFA. The difference is wild. If staff, educators and parents constantly push us to eat healthy and leave off the junk food why not reduce the prices of the healthier foods to a more affordable price. If this were the case I feel as though more people would buy salads or other healthy foods.

Another thing that I would improve are the sanitary conditions. This is quite straight forward. Yes, we live in a developing country, however, many students believe that there is no effort being put fourth for the bathrooms. The water pressure in our school is really low in some areas (some bathrooms) and after using the restrooms many people do not or can not flush, which leaves very bad odors and that can also led to sickness.

To conclude, overall, my school is really great and I love the environment these are just little things that not just I, but also fellow classmates would want to see change.

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Week 6-Commenting.

This week and last I have done quite a lot of commenting. One thing that I really enjoy about it is that it allows you to open up the conversation and connect with people outside of the your country and find people with similar interests. I also enjoy that the commenting is a very open space, like a no judgement zone and people give a lot of helpful feedback. I do not find anything annoying about commenting I just feel as those if you have a lot of comments I find it a bit challenging to know when to reply or when to just approve the message. I have found some really interesting posts to comment on, especially the creative posts (Free write (Week 5)) that we had the opportunity to write about. I feel like those were worth commenting on because they truly show creativity. My posts are getting a lot of quality comments like compliments but also feedback about my stories.

Comment starters:

  1. I love the way you…
  2. This connects to the time…
  3. This makes me wonder about…
  4. *questions*
  5. Your writing is amazing…

Comment Examples

  1. I liked the way you described the setting, it really brought a picture to my head and creates imagery.
  2. This is very relatable because it is something that happens to many people around the world.
  3. This makes me think of the time I went to Mexico, the same thing happened to me.
  4. Wow! How did you feel afterwards?
  5. Your writing is great, I love the detail that you included.

Game 2- #16stubc Flipboard magazine

Today I visited three very interesting websites. I visited Jennifer, Jagga and Anisha’s wonderful posts. All the blog posts were really different but they can all connect to the audience in one way or another. For instance, Jennifer’s post talked about summer and how fun travelling is. Her amazing writing skills and imagery made it seem like a was in a plane or as as if I wanted to travel. We are barely half way through the school year and her post made me want to go back to  the summer days. Jagga’s post was also like a dream that many people with talents and skills experience. She talked about her singing performance for school and all of her emotion and feelings throughout the process. I feel as though many people can relate, whether you are a dancer and an athlete when it comes down to public performances or games you always feel nervous, but in the end the feeling of success is great and she clearly touched on a relatable subject. Likewise, Anisha talked about a topic that is familiar to nearly everyone, junk food. Her controversial topic was an opening to see different perspectives and ideas. Just as she did with her post, those commenting also left their input on the topic. All three of these posts were well developed and it was a good reading.

Possessed Photography

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It was winter day, cold, gloomy, the sky was a faint grey, the clouds were invisible and the atmosphere was dull. Everyday repeating my routine; get up, shower, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, work and repeat. But today seemed different, something was off, I thought that I was sick in the inside, but i felt good in the outside. I was a photographer for a realistic fiction author, his themes always revolved around death and paranormal activity. My job was to find locations that can be turn into scary settings for his story line. Today, decided to go to an abandoned park during the day of course to not encounter any paranormal things. I just took random pictures that would fit the story line of the book. When I was at home later in the evening I looked back at the six pictures they are looked pretty normal, except for one. It came out all white with a black shadow. It was weird but I did not think anything of it, maybe my camera was just glitching.

The next day I had to take more pictures but I just decided to stay in my apartment and take picture of my guest bedroom. No one ever sleep there, I almost never have guests. The space was pretty small. The bed lied against the left side wall with a beside table and a small alarm clock and the blinds were right behind the bed. It’s not the best guest room but that is all I had. I decided to just take pictures of the bed and the blinds. SNAP! SNAP! After just two pictures the lights started flickering, it was a bit odd because the other lights in the living room were not. Again, I thought nothing of it, maybe the light bulb needed to be changed. I turned off the lights and used the flash to take the last four pictures. It did look better. As I walked out of the room the lights turned on again. At that point I was beyond frightened because I knew that I turned them off. I ran out of the room as soon as possible and slammed the door behind me.

After the shock, I proceeded by looking at the pictures that I took. Some of them looked great, others, not so much. But when I across the last picture, I was shook. I examined the photograph about six times and I was shocked every time. There was another black shadow. But this time the background was not white. The background showed the room I was in but, it seemed more dull, and dark. Just above the bed there was a black ghostly figure it was a girl with long black hair covering her pale beat up face. With a short dress ripped apart. Slouching. Drooping. I was beyond scared at that point. I needed to rest my head, so I slept on it.

When I went to bed, I was frighting, I locked to door of my room just in case and kept one light on. The night went on pretty smoothly, until, 6 AM hit. The alarm went off. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! It was so loud i could not even hear myself think. After a couple of moments, I realized that the alarm was not coming from my room but, from “the other room”. I was terrified, but, I would not sleep with that noise. I grabbed the baseball bat and headed to the room. I walked it and I saw nothing, a was relieved, but still the chills ran up my spine and back down again. I turned to every corner of the room swinging the bat in the air. Nothing. I headed to the bedside table to hit the snooze button of the alarm. Just as my fingertips skimmed against the button, a felt an aggressive pull on the bat. As soon as I knew it it was gone. Shaking, I slowly turn around and the figure lay before me with the bat in the air. Swinging.

Try to finish the story in you dare! I can’t think of an ending- Thanks.

Mr Eugene (Guest posts)- Activity 2

I live in Dakar, Senegal and there are a lot of beautiful and interactive places to go to. One of my favorites is Accrobaobab. This is a ‘sports’ environment located about 65 km south from the capital (Dakar), the activities include zip lining and tree climbing; this is available to young adults as well as children starting at age of 7. If one decides to go in a large group this can be a great team building activity.  The baobab tree can grow as high as 100 feet tall, which makes the zip lining even more entertaining. Another place that I love visiting  in my home country is Saly. Although most tourist know this site, it is an amazing relaxing place for a vacation stay. Saly is a region in Dakar where many hotels are located; it kind of seems like an island because most to all of the housings are located near the ocean (Atlantic). A lot of hotels that I’ve been to are really interesting, it allows one to have a glimpse and learn about the Senegalese culture. At night they put on shows, like singing Senegalese songs, or a Senegalese fashion show, so, this lets tourist learn about the traditions of the country. Finally, Saint- Louis is also another interesting site. This city is know as the historical place of the country. Many houses there are ‘conversed’ from the colonial times. The city is also known for its jazz music ‘brought’ by the the American soldiers also during colonialism. Finally, Saint Louis also has a major fish port. Most of the fishing takes place in this city. Saint- Louis is a great site to learn about the Senegalese history and how it turned out to be like it is today. These are just a few sites that I love in Senegal!

 Accrobaobab

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "saly au sénégal"  Saly- General Plan

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "saly au sénégal"  Saly- Resort

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "saint louis du senegal" Saint Louis