“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - LAO TZU

I have a large backpack of my own gear and a massive duffel stuffed to the brim with pens, pencils, goalkeeper gloves and jerseys, plus shorts and socks all courtesy of the 2009 Dynasty Goalkeeping students!  I only wish I could lug more over to donate.  Let the adventure begin!  Out of my comfort zone, far from the land of plenty, and into Africa I go!

Actually the next stop is Washington DC, then Rome, then Addis Ababa, and finally Dar Es Salaam, TANZANIA!  A few good books, my snacks (I never leave home without my snacks!) and an iPod will hopefully get me through the next 24+ hours of flying.  Going there actually probably won’t be that bad however as there is always anticipation that gets you through.  And after months of pre-trip planning I have plenty of anticipation and excitement stored up.

Once I arrive in Dar my first ‘challenge’ will be linking up with fellow volunteer Brian Suskiewicz, whom I have never met.  Doubt he will have any problem finding the white girl with blonde hair.  I will stick out like a sore thumb.  We will spend a night in Dar recovering and the following day we plan to fly to Kigoma where will start volunteering on the 30^th.  We will be running sessions with teachers in the morning and then in the afternoons we will go to various schools around Kigoma to work with children.  I have been told that all of the teachers will speak English, so communication with them won’t be an issue.  The children on the other hand most likely won’t speak English, with the exception of a few words and phrases, so I have been studying some Swahili to learn a few words and numbers to help make communicating with them a bit easier.  I’m sure I will slaughter their language, but at a minimum it will make them laugh!  The bottom line is that if I just coach the way I do here; showing the activities with passion, energy, smiles, and laughter then the message will get across.  

In addition to our work in Kigoma we just found out that we will be traveling north to an area called Geita to work with teachers and children in that area as well.   Geita is close to Lake Victoria and is known for their gold mines.  While it will be Coaches Across Continents third year working in Kigoma, it will be our first in Geita, so we have no idea what to expect.  It is great that the local coordinator in Kigoma, Nico Pota, will be extending our reach in the short time we will be there.     

It is impossible to fathom what I will encounter, but everyone I have spoken with that has been to Africa has said the EXACT same thing, “It will change you and you will love it.”  So I am heading over ready to take in everything that this experience has to offer and eager to do what I can for the teachers and students of Kigoma. 

Recently I did an interview about my upcoming trip (keep an eye out for it on the UNC women’s soccer website next week http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-soccer/unc-w-soccer-body.html).  The reporter asked me, “What do you hope to accomplish?”.   Hmmm…I thought, good question.  It made me stop and reflect on the purpose of my trip, which I found to be a very valuable exercise so that I head out in a good frame of mind and a clear purpose. 

I am not so daft as to expect that I am going to change the lives of these children in 2 shorts weeks.  So why go at all then?  Well, first I think it is important to focus on the little things that can be accomplished in 2 weeks.  If I can help make a child smile, laugh, and bring joy and hope into their extremely difficult daily existence, then I will have succeeded.  If I can help show a teacher a new method of coaching from a positive, encouraging point of view versus a harsh, fear based, militaristic style, then I will have succeeded.  Those are things I am fully capable of achieving.

On a grander scale though, I hope to raise awareness and connect people here in the United States more intimately with the problems in Africa.  I will be the first to admit that I allow myself to become disconnected with the global community.  It is so easy to get caught up in our daily lives and sucked into our routine and the daily grind, the rat race of life, here in the U.S. that our circle of influence becomes very small.  We know that there are lots of problems in Africa….AIDS, malnutrition, poverty, political instability, genocide….but it is a continent away.  We feel we can’t do anything to help, and we are quite honestly happily disconnected from it and too busy with our own lives to do anything.  That has been me.  That is until I read an article in the UNC Alumni Review probably 5+ years ago.  The article was about Carolina For Kibera, an organization founded by UNC alumni, Rye Barcott.  It was such an impressive undertaking to me on many levels.  The article described the despicable, unsanitary, harsh conditions in the worst slum of Kenya and the soccer program CFK developed to help teach the youth in the community, bring hope and change, as well as the establishing a medical clinic and an educational center.  One of UNC’s former soccer players, Laura Winslow, was mentioned in the article for her involvement and volunteering in Kibera.  So that is how I first became ‘connected’ to some of the issues in Africa.  Over the years I have donated gear (balls, sports bras, cleats) and money to CFK to feel like (as most of us I think do) we are helping and ‘doing our part’.  Of course this is very valuable and critical to the sustainability of not-for-profit organizations, as certainly not everyone can volunteer their time.  In the back of my mind though, after reading about Laura’s experience, I thought it would be an amazing experience to travel over there to do the same thing.  A very tiny seed had been planted.  However, there was always something going on in my life (we ALL have things going on in our lives and always will) that made it unfeasible for me to even consider finding out what volunteering would even entail, let alone actually take steps towards committing towards it.  It simply was not a priority.

Fast forward a few years to 2007… I reconnected with CaC founder Nick Gates after his first trip through Africa.  He had just come back from a year long trip and was brainstorming the creation of Coaches Across Continents.  In speaking with him in person, seeing his photos, videos, and feeling the passion in his voice everything became tangible to me.  In the subsequent years I watched as fellow teammates of mine (Lorrie Fair, Cindy Parlow, and Anna Rodenbough) became involved with various organizations to volunteer in various countries around Africa.  Goalkeeper students of mine were volunteering in India and Africa.  Momentum was building inside of me to act.  The tiny seed that had been planted in me was starting grow.  Then once Nick got CaC off the ground it all became possible.  I was connected to a program and it was palpable.  Once that link was made I was compelled to help.  Instead of Africa being a world away and not my problem, an internal switch had been hit.  All of the reasons and excuses I previously had for not getting involved dissipated and were replaced with one thought, “how can I not act”.  It is such a small sliver of time, a blink of an eye; it is the LEAST I can do. 

I think most Americans, (actually most humans) want to help — whatever the cause may be, here locally or a continent away in Africa.  It is our nature as human beings to help, yet somehow we still flounder.  I believe that laying the groundwork and being given the platform to become involved is the critical link to action.  Once shown how we can help and given a path, everyone is eager to participate.  All we need is direction.  

So what do I hope to accomplish?  I want to raise awareness to get more people like myself involved.  Had it not been for Nick and CaC I would not have had the platform on which to act.  He provided the impetus to get me rolling and for that I am grateful.  Getting people SPECIFICALLY connected to an issue and a program is a big part.  So while I certainly hope to make an impact on the teachers, coaches, and children I interact with during the short time I am in Tanzania, I am realistic.  My time there is limited and there is only so much that can be accomplished in a short time.  The challenges are great and the issues many.  The more lasting effect I hope to have is drawing more people into the circle and encouraging more people to act.  Getting more people to flip the switch like I have is my hope.  That is what Nick and many others provided for me, so if I can pay that forward then I will feel as if I have made a difference.

Lastly, it is not too late to donate to this great cause.  I am just short of hitting my pre-trip fundraising goal of $6600.  If you haven’t already donated perhaps you will consider jumping on board at this time to help me reach my target?  Every bit helps, so THANKS!  You can pay with a check or even easier through the secure First Giving website www.firstgiving.com/tracynoonan with a credit card.  Also, as mentioned in my previous blog entry, a private foundation has committed to matching all donations that end in the amount of ‘27’ up to the amount of $27,000!  So by donating with an amount that ends in $27 ($27, $127, $1027, etc) your money will count twice!  How cool is that!?!?  To find out more about the CaC Matching Donation Program go to: http://sportingcommunities.edwardswan.com/?p=2267

Remember your investment CHANGES LIVES!

Tracy

July 20th, 2010: 

Ciaran joined our Business Advisory Board on July 1st, 2010 and brings with him a wealth of experience both in soccer coaching and in the world of soccer business.

Ciaran began his career as a summer coach with PLAY SOCCER New England in 1996 and joined full time in 1998.  By 1999 he was the National Director for Coaching.

In 2001, Ciaran chose to build his own successful business when he started www.xlsoccertours.com, an organization that provides top level soccer tours to the UK, Spain, Sweden, Itally, Holland and Brasil.  In 2008, XL Soccer Tours became an official partner to Coaches across Continents and assisted with the first Hat-Trick Initiative in Kigoma, Tanzania.

“I’m excited to be part of this unique challenge to use soccer for social development.  Coaches across Continents is providing a program that is changing lives in communities around the world and I’m looking forward to working with the Boards to build a sustainable foundation for future business development.”

Ciaran will also be putting on his coaching gear on the fields in Africa in 2011.

//

July 2nd, 2010

Coaches across Continents have accepted a unique challenge in partnering with Straight Talk, which works with adolescents in the community to talk about issues like HIV/AIDS, early pregnancy and marriage, and sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation is a big problem in Busia, since it is a border town and has a very transient population. Many women and girls in Busia are sex workers – some by choice and some by force. The head of Straight Talk in the region is an amazing young man named Bashir, who has basically committed his life to the welfare of the young people in Busia.

The broad objective of STF is to contribute to the improved mental, social and physical development of Ugandan adolescents (10-19) and young adults (20-24). The programme also aims to keep its audience safe from HIV/STD infection and early pregnancy and to manage challenging circumstances such as conflict and deprivation.

More specifically, Straight Talk Foundation aims, through its communications projects, to increase the understanding of adolescence, sexuality and reproductive health, and to promote the adoption of safer sex practices. The foundation also aims at helping adolescents acquire the necessary life skills and grasp of child and human rights to make the passage through adolescence safely.

Coaches Anna, Grace, JB and Rich are using the partnership and soccer to work with teenagers and teachers in 16 schools in the region to reinforce the Straight Talk messages.  All four coaches  have worked hard to adapt to the needs of Busia, a town with a high percentage of sex workers, HIV and teen pregnancy.

Each day our program works with 2 schools and over the course of the 8 weeks, each school receives 5 new sessions that deal with issues like health and wellness, female empowerment, HIV, conflict resolution and fun. This is the first time that the schools in Busia have used sport for social development and the District Education Officer sent a letter to all local schools requesting that they all take part.  There has been a fantastic response from headmasters and teachers to ensure the success of this new program and often our coaches work with 150 children while another 200 watch and learn from the sidelines.

“Most governments, countries and communities do not understand how sport for social development should be part of all educational programs.  The Straight Talk program have embraced the power of football for change and thousands of children in their program are now having fun while they learn.  It is certainly a challenging program for our coaches as they work with thousands of children but this type of outreach will have a sustainable impact on a community desperate for behavioural change in their young people”  Coach Anna.

Check out stories from our coaches in Uganda at our Coaches Blogs

May 24th, 2010.

Exciting News!

Coaches across Continents receives challenge grant of $27,000

Help us meet this challenge! Coaches across Continents (CaC) recently received a challenge grant from a private foundation. The foundation will match any contribution dollar per dollar; basically doubling your contribution!

Your investment in CaC changes lives.

• $127 buys a ball, pencil, shirt, and other program supplies for a child to participate in the program for three years.
• $527 enables a local teacher to participate in CaC’s train-the-trainer program where they learn skills to create a sustainable year-round program in their community.
• $1,027 supports a whole team of kids in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia or Haiti.
• $2,527 supports a CaC volunteer coach to work in Africa.
• $5,027 starts a new partnership between a local African NGO and CaC (we have a long waiting list).
• $10,027 becomes a founding investor in CaC and effect change throughout the world.
• $27,027 runs a full Hat-trick initiative for one year.
• Other sized contributions are always welcomed and appreciated. All donations ending in ‘27′ will be added to the matching gift program

YES! I want to be part of the solution.

Please contribute on-line at www.coachesacrosscontinents.com or send your check to:

Coaches across Continents

24 St. Martins Drive, Unit 10

Marlborough, MA 01752

For more information please contact Nick Gates or Deb Glazer at nickgates@coachesacrosscontinents.com or deb_glazer@yahoo.com

Coaches across Continents partners with existing programs in developing communities to train teachers/coaches on how to effectively use football (soccer) as a tool to educate children on Health and Wellness/HIV-AIDS, Female Empowerment and Conflict Resolution. The partnerships result in the development of a new generation of community leaders, both teachers and children, who are able to respectfully examine local traditions and make informed choices about their futures. CaC doesn’t teach local teachers how to coach soccer, we teach them how to coach about life!

“We have attended other football training programs in Kenya but they do not address the real needs of our communities, they only teach professional football. Coaches across Continents is unique because it helps communities to grow.”

-Festus Juma, Oyugis, Kenya

In 2010 CaC will more than triple in size and serve over 90,000 children in some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities. We will leverage 16,800+ hours (equaling $386,000+) of volunteer time (coaches, medical students, professional footballers, etc…. who will travel to the countries to teach CaC’s curriculum and work in communities), and create sustainable programs that change kids’ lives.

Join our $27K challenge today!

May 23rd, 2010.

During one of our sessions with Kisumu Youth Football Association (KYFA), Nick took half an hour at the beginning of day 2 to play with some of the street children who were at the field. There are more than 8,000 children living on the streets of Kisumu and many are substance abusers, particularly using glue.

On the field, Nick decided that he wanted to play football with two young boys aged 11 and 13. Both had a glue bottle in their mouths and were playing 1 v 1 with rolled up plastic bags as a ball and sticks in the ground for goals.

Over the course of the next 30 minutes he introduced a real football and soon had 8 street kids playing. Coaches across Continents learned about life on the street, about daily beatings from older boys and about the skills for street survival………….and we learned that street children know about Wayne Rooney, John Terry and other top players, that they think that Ivory Coast will win the World Cup and that they think that Nick is a terrible penalty taker!

One of the many great things about the Kisumu Youth Football Association is that they have more than 80 street children as part of their program playing on teams in their league.

“It was a truly unique half an hour for me on the football field. For the first few minutes the street kids thought that I was going to hit them and throw them off the field because they suffer so much daily abuse from adults. But pretty soon they were playing and talking and laughing. What was absolutely amazing was that they played with the glue bottles stuck in their mouths all the time…only taking them out to say something to me or to laugh at me if they saved my penalties.” Nick Gates, Coaches across Continents.

KYFA has previously made a big investment in coach education for football with the Dutch national program but this is their first initiative for using football for social development. Over the first four days the local Kisumu coaches have worked for 20 hours on the field and already are demonstrating a very high level for using these new coaching techniques.

4:30 am – Awoken by a ridiculous donkey who makes the mother of all “hee-haws” every morning to let the world know that he has, once again, made it through the night. This morning my brain somehow incorporated the first half of his hee-haw into my dream…but the second half resulted in full consciousness. Then I went back to sleep.

5 am – Re-awoken by the first rooster crow of the morning by our resident hotel rooster.

5:30 am – Re-awoken by the rooster again.

6 am – Rooster.

6:30 am – Again.

7 am – You guessed it.

7:30 am – Finally got up.

7:50 am – Went downstairs for breakfast with Graham, Andy, and Nick in Andy’s room. Breakfast this morning consisted of savory Wheetabix with sugar and delicious long-lasting milk. Our other favorite breakfast items include salt and vinegar crisps (potato chips), Fudge chocolate bars, corn/cardboard flakes with sweet bananas, fried dough from a vendor just up the road, and glucose biscuits (cookies).

8-8:30 am – Got ready to go to the morning session. Brushed my teeth, got dressed, lathered on the sunscreen, made the bed, put the mosquito net up, and locked up important stuff in my bags. And played a couple games of F1 Race on my phone because I am addicted.

8:35 am – Left for the morning session. Flagged down a matatu with Graham outside the hotel and got really excited when, for once, there were actually open seats.

8:45 am – Arrived at the field at Kotieno primary school. Waited for the SEP coaches to arrive. Watched them either get there late or arrive on time and take 934902384 minutes to change into their soccer gear, as usual.

9:30 am – Started the morning session, which was supposed to start at 9. (We never start on time despite the fact that Nick and Andy have reprimanded the coaches a couple times for being late. Complete waste of energy.)

9:45 am-12 pm – Morning session. In our sessions, we do lots of games from the curriculum that Nick has developed over the last 20 years, working as a coach in the U.S. and the U.K. At this point in the program, at least part of each session is spent giving the SEP coaches the opportunity to coach some of the games they have learned. Today was a bit specialized because we did an HIV/health and wellness day. So after doing the Circle of Friends (a CAC fixture) we learned from the SEP coaches about some of the HIV education they do through football. Then we taught them some more games they can use to educate their kids about HIV through fun soccer games. A problem that we come across a lot in Kenya is that a lot of the kids only get HIV education in a classroom environment or in lecture form, even when that education is coming from a football organization. So we try to give the coaches a way to engage the kids and actually use the game of soccer to teach about HIV.

12 pm – Headed off to visit some of the farms where SEP kids live and work. [Normally we go back to the hotel around 12 and rest until the afternoon session at 3 pm, but today was different, with the afternoon off.] It was a really eye-opening day because we got to see some of the development work that SEP does in the community through its agriculture program. Basically, SEP provides seeds to kids in their organization to plant crops on a plot of land on their families’ farms. Then the kids use the proceeds from whatever crops they sell to provide their own school fees. AWESOME. So we went to see several of the girls’ farms, met their families, had tea and food, and spent time in their homes. The tour of the farms went really smoothly except for the part where we all got split up and Andy ended up by himself hanging out with kids on some random farm. He’s just always making friends.

3 pm – Finally finished the tour after walking probably 5 miles through fields in the hot sun, so we were pretty exhausted. Got on a packed matatu back, in which none of us had a full seat and Andy apparently broke the wood slat that he was sitting on. Oops.

3:10 pm – Got back to the hotel, the Peacock Lodge, and immediately collapsed on the floor outside the rooms and started rehydrating. We had a pretty deep conversation about what we had just experienced. We had just heard stories of girls who work in the fields for 2-5 hours every day, on top of going to school and going to soccer practice and everything else. We saw houses where 5-10 people slept that were the size of my bedroom. It is incredible to see how little these people have in terms of material possessions but how much they have in terms of support from their families and the community. We spent time talking to many of the families, like Maureen’s. Maureen is sixteen years old and the oldest of six children. She helps her mom take care of the rest of her siblings since her dad died about ten years ago. She also helps work the family farm (including her own plot with the SEP seed), where they grow maize and beans. Maureen has one more year of secondary school to complete, and after that she says wants to become a soccer coach! We have an amazing opportunity to make a lasting impact on her life through our work with CAC – and the coolest part is that we are giving her the tools she needs to make an impact on the lives of the children she works with in the future. Maureen’s mom is an incredible lady who takes care of her family, works the farm, serves on the board of SEP, and is a health worker for Oyugis Integrated Project. We talked with Maureen’s mom about some of her struggles, like the rain coming in her house and worrying about where her children sleep. We told the family how amazing we think they are and how we take so much for granted growing up in the western world. I cannot express how inspiring it is to hear a widow living with her six children in a mud hut say that she is genuinely happy.

3:30 pm – Time for lunch! We had ramen noodles today – the chicken curry flavor is pure gold. I am not lying, Ramen noodles are a luxury for us here. When we were in our first hotel in Oyugis, La Mola, there was a restaurant, so we would always get chips, chicken, samosas, eggs, or omelets for lunch and dinner. Limited options, but definitely edible. Ever since we moved to Peacock Lodge (best decision of our lives – for only 500 shillings a night we have hot water, clean and sizable rooms, bright lights, and no cockroaches!), we have had to devise lunch and dinner plans every day. We have found a couple restaurants in Oyugis where we can eat dinner, but lunch is usually a bit of an adventure. Actually dinner is still an adventure too, since we usually have to wait at least an hour for the food and then generally get caught out in a storm. But back to lunch. During our time here we have found more and more food options at the Shivlings supermarket and at street vendors, including the following: PB and J, crisps, biscuits, sweet bananas, cereal, chips (french fries) from a vendor up the street, buttered bread, chocolate, pineapple, baked beans (we pay the chips lady to heat them up for us), boiled eggs, and ramen noodles. For a few days the only options were PB and J, crisps, biscuits, and chocolate – WELL-BALANCED DIET. But then we became more resourceful, bought an electric heating-coil and aluminum pot, and now the options are pretty much endless. Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it really has been life-changing. Oh and I almost forgot to say that we also have hot sauce – thank you Graham for making that invaluable purchase.

4-7 pm – Caught up with everything on the internet. There is a internet “cafe” (a place with computers and soda) next to our hotel that is run by the Oyugis Youth Football Organization, so we always head over there to use the internet at a price of 1 shilling per minute. When I say “always,” I mean when we have time and when the internet is working, which is definitely not always. The place isn’t open some days, and a lot of times the connection is awful. Today it was at average speed (aka 17 million times slower than anywhere in the U.S.) so I got to talk with some friends and family at home and got caught up with all my emails. The internet/power only cut off a couple of times…until the rain came in and it was all over. At that point, Graham, Nick, and I sprinted back to our hotel gate, only to be stranded in the lashing rain for two minutes while we waited for someone to open the gate. Actually, I don’t think we ever would have gotten in except for the fact that Andy was inside is room and happened to take his iPod headphones out long enough to hear us yelling his name. He then walked outside and motioned for the guy to let us in. Kenyans hate rain and this guy was clearly just going to let us drown before sacrificing himself to let us in. We were soaked to the bone when we finally got inside. Just another priceless memory from Africa.

7:15 pm – Took a nice hot shower, except for the occasional wave of cold rain blown in through the open window in my bathroom. Why didn’t I just close the window? Oh, that’s because the pane of glass fell out of the frame a couple nights and crashed to the ground below. Cool. I really couldn’t care less about rain blowing in though, because the hot water is magnificent.

7:30 pm – Went downstairs to get dinner in Andy’s room a.k.a. the kitchen. We had a late lunch and we clearly weren’t going anywhere in the monsoon, so I had a lovely meal consisting of cornflakes with bananas and milk, a Fudge bar, and a couple glucose biscuits. We all hung out in the room for a while telling funny stories and laughing hysterically. Andy, Graham, and Nick are all hilarious – especially when you put them together. Life here is filled with laughter, which is exactly how I like it.

8:30 pm – Called it a night and headed up stairs to get ready for bed…it may seem early, but surprisingly, there isn’t much night life in Oyugis. I read for bit (Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Everything is the current pick), examined my sexy farmer’s tan in the mirror, listened to music, edited some pictures, and worked on this blog before tucking the mosquito net in and turning the lights off around 11:30. That’s much later than I normally go to bed here, so the early morning donkey wake up call should be fun!

If you would like to donate to the work that Coaches across Continents is doing in Africa, please click here. THANK YOU!

So, looking back at my last blog, life in western Kenya was proving somewhat challenging, in no small part due to the accommodation we found ourselves in, its resident wildlife and the totally alien context of our temporary home in Oyugis.  But four days on and our circumstances have taken a couple of steps for the better!  However, this is Africa, and one must treat good fortune with caution as, true to reputation, things are never quite as they seem…. more later on.

I am not here on a pleasure trip, so I guess the peculiarities of our day by day experiences are secondary matters anyway, however ‘memorable’ they will prove to be.  I am here to work with my friend’s fledgling charity ‘Coaches Across Continents’, or as we say in the business… “CaC” – hmmm, unlucky.  As I have set out before, the charity works with existing community development projects established across africa, and increasingly in other continents, to help enhance individuals’ life skills, improve health awareness and address gender inequalities amongst communities of severely under privileged children and young people.  The vehicle and hook for capturing the children’s attention is football.  I was aware of the passion for the game in africa, but nothing can prepare you for just how deep and widespread that is.  Men and boys particularly know everything about the Premier League…Their knowledge is amazing and enthusiasm astonishing given their remote location and severely limited access to TV and the internet.   Most of them are even well informed enough to recognise that Sunderland  are the greatest team to ever play the game. Honestly they do, yeah, honest.

This week we are working with Oyugis’s Social Empowerment Programme (SEP) and some young people from Nairobi’s ‘Moving Mountains’ project.  We seek to teach the older attendees the skills they need to coach children themselves in their own communities so the benefit is self sustaining.  We do this through interactive, practical field sessions only – no classrooms, no lectures, and absolutely loads of fun.  The days usually consist of a three hour coaching session in the mornings for all attendees, and then practical sessions for different age groups and girls and boys in the afternoons.  In the sweltering equatorial sun, that is a busy day!

I am very new to the work and have been learning on the job day by day.  At first it was tough, particularly having only a rudimentary understanding of the many games we use.  This feeling was exacerbated by watching the extreme professionalism, confidence and well-honed banter (often at my expense), of my team mates Anna, Nick and Andy who between them have many years footballing, teaching and coaching  experience at the highest levels in England and in the States.  The learning curve has been steepened by the attendees being mostly older than I expected, with our youngest probably of about 9 years of age, but our oldest around 24.  Most of the children and young people, including the girls have well developed footy skills – all the more surprising by the fact that most don’t have access to real footballs and the bomb-site condition of the playing field we use, although surprisingly picturesque.  Consequently the games we use are sometimes relatively complex and set real challenges for the kids which they really try hard to meet.

One of several core principles of CaC is teaching with fun, a smile and without fear of a good reprimand if – and when, it all goes pear-shaped (did someone mention fresh fruit?…..cruel, very cruel).  Consequently part of our role is to get the kids to relax and enjoy…. which they absolutely do, but at the same time ensure they are focused on the session, concentrate and endeavor to develop their personal and footy skills.  Nick says we measure the success of a session by the amount of noise (shouts, screams and laughter) raised on the field.  Well I reckon we must be doing something right then!.  It is great fun, and each day as we get to know the ‘kids’ better and they become familiar with the style and concept, that enjoyment builds.  I think, and hope I have contributed to that enjoyment and learning.  Seeing the kids turn up everyday, refusing to rest even when they are shattered and constantly trying to please us is so rewarding, particularly if we take a moment to remember just how tough their lives are beyond the pitch.  The girls particularly are great to work with and to gradually draw them out of their shells because in this society there are so often denied a voice and take a back-seat to the boys who usually get preferential treatment.  One anecdote demonstrating how their world is removed from ours relates to me asking a couple of the lads what all the vertical holes all across the pitch were.  ‘Snake nests’ they told me, without joking.  I made a fuss, they chuckled… they then told me it is worse in the woods around the town where they go and scavenge for firewood – “that’s were the cobras are” they say, “we have to be careful where we put our hands”.  They were still smiling! Amazing what they see as ‘normal’ chores.

More on the coaching in a later blog I expect.

So back to the other challenge, that of ‘getting by’ in a place which doesn’t even make it into the Lonely Planet guidebook (take a peek on Google Earth – Oyugis).  So we are getting a ‘little stressed’ with the first place we were staying.  Each day on the manic matatus we ride up to the fields, we passed a place which in comparison to our digs looked like the Hilton.  So while Nick and I were running a session, Anna and Andy check it out.  “It’s amazing, its available, and its cheaper then where we are!!!”  Deep deep joy (although Nick insisted we stayed one more night in the cells to avoid upsetting our host… deep, deep despair – particularly for Andy who narrowly defeated a monster flying cockroach only on a judges’ split decision at 3-26 am.). However, next day we move in to the ‘Peacock Lodge’. Without exaggeration the best building in Oyugis – although essentially a blockwork building with tin roof.  Just 8 rooms, but all bright, with real glass in real windows, hot showers, tiled floors. If you booked it for your summer hols, you may not be too impressed by the standard of the valet parking, infinity pool and and room-service (none of which have ever been dreamed of here), but I can’t tell you the happiness simple things can bring in times of stress.  What the brochure didn’t mention is it does not ‘do’ food, it is the meeting place of the African Society of Master Cockerels (Extra Early Division), abuts ‘fighting dog alley’ and has a neighbourhood donkey which can only be described as the loudest animal to ever feel the need to hold midnight chats with his brother – who we reckon must live somewhere near Coventry.  Honestly its is manic!

But it is a price worth paying.  And a good breakfast will help with the lack of sleep!.  Ah, yes, food.  I’m not recommending salt and vinegar crisps, fudge bars and custard cremes (stale) for ‘brecky’ for more than a few days, but needs must.  We’ll make up for it in the evenings, oh yes, yes we will.  Well guess what? … we ended up back in our first lodgings for more of the Spanish omlette and chips which had previously been the straw which broke the camel’s back before we moved!.  The proprietor was delighted that the 4 ‘Mzungu’ (white person) had returned to his wonderful establishment…he was beaming!.  Shall we say options for dining out are ‘limited’! Nick, who has travelled extensively in Africa has not been anywhere were it is as hard to source hot or fresh food.  What options there are are either deeply suspect, always closed or take a ridiculous amount of time to serve…. almost 2 hours on thursday night…and when it arrived it looked as it was already half eaten.  Laugh?!…. well no actually.  So today we have adapted and improvised… oh yes, Ray Mears has competition.  Noodles, pan, water heating element..(all bought together for less than a fiver)…. Equals best meal of the trip so far!  We have also discovered a sort of doughnut fried in tiny shacks by the road… we add jam and presto-hey, heart attack…I mean a tasty snack.  We may even boil an egg tomorrow!

This is all true but we have to laugh about it, despite the on-set of malnutrition and tell tale signs of scurvey.  This a relatively small town (although a big district population) and it is poor, no, it is extremely poor.  There isn’t going to be much choice is there?!  The irony is that the landscape is so green and the fields appear to be full of crops, but most is used as subsistence food supplies, with any remainder going as cash crop.  In any case being in town after dark (and it is so dark… hardly an electric light on anywhere, never mind streetlights) is not safe for us.  We are extremely conspicuous in a town with no other white people, and perceived by most as being wealthy.  And I suppose by comparison we are.  Most people here earn $1 a day!

It is rainy season the ‘angry month’, and most evenings we have seen spectacular thunderstorms and downpours.  Last night this triggered a biblical eruption of flying termites, squillions of ‘em.  And of course they flocked to light sources.  To our amusement and Nick’s dismay he had left on a light while we were out.  A conservative estimate puts it at around 5,000 in his room, all with big wings falling off as they landed.  Still you have to get your protein somewhere, waste not want not!!

Best wishes,

Graham

April 11th-14th

On Sunday, we had an afternoon session with some kids in a slum somewhere in Eastlands – can’t remember the name – and we headed over with Oti like we normally do. We walked forever back into the slum and said hello to numerous kids who came running out of their places to see the mzungus. The general trend is that in more residential areas of the slums, the kids get way more excited to see us, because they aren’t as used to seeing white people. It can also be a bit annoying though, when you are just trying to mind your own business and every kid and adult you pass says something to you. It’s also really creepy a lot of times when you walk by groups of men because they are clearly hitting on you. Ewww.

Anyways, as we were getting ready to start the session and waiting for kids/balls/cones to arrive, some visitors arrived!!!!! It was the Kickabout team, a group of people traveling overland from England to South Africa in an effort to raise awareness for local football-for-development organizations in Africa. For more on the Kickabout trip, please click here for the main blog, and here for more pictures and videos! The Kickabout team includes Lorrie Fair, a good friend and former UNC and USWNT player and Eli Sinkus, one of my best friends who practiced with our UNC team and went to school with me. The other two members of their team are Brian and Ashley, who are awesome! When the posse rolled up to the session, I was soooooooooo excited to see friends from home in a faraway place!!!! I almost started crying because I was so happy to see them! It’s really hard to explain what it means to share this experience with people who I have known for years and have similar backgrounds to me. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to go back to the US and make people “get” what this is really all about unless they come here…so everybody buy a plane ticket and get over here now! Just kidding – but if you want to, I will definitely support your decision.

We had a good session on Sunday with some kids and were ready to go back and get some dinner…until more kids showed up and we had to do another session. So that was a lot of fun. No matter how tired we are though, we have to bring our A game all the time because this may be the one shot we have to get the message across to each kid or coach that we work with. Andy and Nick have this thing where they talk about “Camp Nick” and “Camp Andy,” which basically means they muster up some strength from within, put on a happy face, and share their football knowledge no matter what the circumstances are. It’s really good for me to see that example and learn that I must always bring enthusiasm to practice so that the kids follow that example.

After the double session, we washed up, had dinner at the hostel, and headed to a place called Tamasha to watch some soccer and have a couple drinks with the whole big group. It was a lot of fun to blow off some steam and get caught up with everyone. There were even some bets made on people dancing in front of the the whole place – although I just danced without anyone putting anything on the line (duh) so I didn’t make any money. Bummer. It was quite a sight to see though, a bunch of wazungu making fools of themselves.

We had the day off on Monday for the first time since I’ve starting working with CAC, which was definitely nice. I headed to Dormans, a coffee shop/restaurant/free wi-fi place, to meet up with Eli, take care of emails, and grab some lunch. Afterwards, we went on a wild goose chase to get him a new American Express card after his was stolen. [Quick story: his wallet fell out of his pocket in the cab or fell on the ground outside the cab, he lost everything, he called the cab driver who said he hadn't seen it, he later texted the cab driver to ask if he found if he could at least return the ID cards and such even without the money, and then Lorrie and Brian found a bunch of his stuff on the ground a hundred yards from the hostel the next morning. So basically the cab driver took his money and cards. What can he do about that? Nothing - we are in Kenya.] We took a matatu up to the Hilton, where the AMEX representative had told Eli he could get the card at 4pm. We got there around 4:15 and the lady at the desk said the office had moved to a building near the Integrity Centre. The Integrity Centre is the home of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission…as Eli said, they must basically fail at their job every day. So we took a matatu there, asked the guards if they knew where the office was, then finally found it a few hundred yards up the road inside the Middle East Bank Building, where, funnily enough, there was no indication of the AMEX office on the building. By that time it was probably 4:30 or 4:45. Well it turns out that the office was an AMEX partner office who hadn’t received any info on Eli’s card. After 30 minutes of confusion, the AMEX rep and the guy we were talking to finally got on the same page and the guy printed Eli and emergency card. Turns out it’s good for only a month, he can swipe it, he can’t withdraw cash with it, and he can’t use it at a bank to get money. So basically it’s worthless. SWEET.

Tuesday was a fun day, because we were able to visit a community center in Eastleigh and do a soccer clinic! The community center works to do HIV/AIDS prevention and has a Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) center, dressmaking, hairdressing, and computer classes to empower the youth, and has singing/drama groups, among other things. Here are a couple pictures from the center:

Lorrie and Nick straight chillin at the community center, in front of a cool painting that advertises the female empowerment program Binti Africa (Daughters of Africa).

An amazing singing group who were practicing (or maybe singing for us?) at the community center. Let me repeat: AMAZING.

The soccer clinic was at Oti’s old school and we had a fairly large group of kids, which was good. We did our goalkeeping session WOOT WOOT, which means I lead more of the drills and got to really share my incredible expertise about the best position in soccer. Here are a couple pictures from the soccer clinic:

Halima, one of the cutest kids ever. She never stopped smiling and kicked ass at all the drills despite being half the size of most of the kids in her group. I made her promise that she will be the next Marta and she agreed…LOOK OUT WORLD.

Me molding the minds of the next generation. How did they get so lucky?

P.S. If I can get the internet to work long enough tomorrow, I’m going to try to upload some picture albums so I can post the links and everyone can see ALL the pictures I’ve taken so far!!!!!

If you would like to make a tax-deductable donation to the work of CAC in Kenya and Uganda, please click here. Thank you for all donations – past, present, and future!

The second day was hell. I say that with lots of love, because we had a great time coaching and there were plenty of wonderful moments. But I’m not sure I’ve ever been so exhausted in my life. We got up around 7, left around 8:30, made the fabulous commute, and began our day working with some kids in Makongeni. The session was supposed to start around 9, but we didn’t get there until 9:30 or so, and it probably didn’t actually start until around 10 or 10:30. Although we were a bit annoyed that we had to wait so long for the session to start, the extra time provided us with a lot of smiles and laughs. We got to hang out with a bunch of the local kids, which included one kid who was missing his two front teeth and was wearing some overalls with Scooby Doo on the front. We naturally called him Scooby Doo and kept speaking in Scooby voices the rest of the day. There was another kid who everyone pushed forward to dance for us. He was probably four years old, yet he proceeded to tuck in his shirt in the front and thrust his hips forward in a ridiculous manner. Needless to say, we were dying laughing. Once we finally got started, the session went really well, and I did a lot more coaching since I knew the games that we were playing after the first day. After finishing the session with the kids, we headed over to Eastleigh to rest for a bit and grab some chips (fries, for all you Americans out there) before reapplying sunscreen and heading out to the field to do an afternoon session with the coaches. We finally finished around 4 o’clock and started the commute back. By this point we were all pretty tired after two long days and lots of standing, running, squatting, and jumping. For some reason (which we never really figured out), Oti and another VAP coach, Issac, decided we should just walk back from the city center to our hostel. Worst idea ever. As if the distance alone wouldn’t have been hard enough, the stretch from the city center to the hostel is almost all uphill. My legs were complete jello by the time we got back, and I was almost in tears. Moral of the story – it’s not all fun and games over here.

Once we made it to the third day, it got a bit easier. The schedules for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all the same – a morning session in Eastleigh with the coaches, back to the hostel for lunch and a bit of rest, and then an afternoon session somewhere in Eastlands. We coached a lot of hard-working kids on a lot of really crap fields. On Friday, we went to an area called Pumwani (or something like that…I know it starts with a P) and ran a session for kids on a severely sloped dirt field that had trenches running through it and was covered with rocks and glass. The glass part was of special note, since probably 25% of the girls that Emily and I were working with didn’t have on shoes. Nevertheless, we had a great session using piles of rocks to make cones and using the one ball we had for a total of 5 minutes. The kids had smiles on their faces and not a care in the world. Now that’s soccer.

On Saturday we had a “friendly” with the VAP coaches and CAC coaches. My team got killed, but I did score a goal in the 90^thminute and saved face. Dook may have won some championship recently, but I scored in a pickup game in a Kenyan slum. GO HEEEEEEEEEELS. I also rolled my right ankle while jogging around with no one else even near me, so now both my ankles hurt, awesome! It was a lot of fun to just play around with the coaches after a hard week of training, though, especially since I hadn’t been able to really play in a week and a half. It was a great end to a great week!!!!!

I have to go for now but the next post will come in the next couple days! And I will try to upload some pictures despite the frustratingly slow internet!

Anna

If you would like to make a tax-deductable donation to CAC’s work in Kenya and Uganda, please click here.

I’m gonna break this up into a couple posts so it doesn’t look like such a daunting read…so here is a little introduction to Coaches Across Continents and our work in the Eastlands area of Nairobi, as well as a recap of the first day!

After being in Nairobi for about 3 weeks and working with Carolina for Kibera in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, I started working with CAC last Monday. I got back from Tsavo with my homestay family on Sunday evening and was wiped out, so I decided to meet the other coaches at the hostel the next morning for our first day. Well that worked out terribly, as my phone had AM and PM switched, so my alarm didn’t go off, I woke up at 6:40 (PM, according to my phone), had some bread for breakfast, and was late getting to the hostel. We were supposed to leave around 7 but I don’t think I even got there until 7:15 or so. After quick introductions, we headed off with our new friend Oti, who was taking us to the field in Eastlands. Oti works for Vijana Amani Pamoja (VAP), the first of our partner programs in Kenya. VAP is a football-based initiative that works to educate participating children about HIV/AIDS. They work in the Eastlands part of Nairobi, in several slum areas. For the most part, we have been working with VAP coaches and other local coaches in Eastleigh, which is a pretty large and somewhat dangerous area. (We have felt completely safe, though, with our friends at VAP looking out for us every step of the way.) While Eastleigh is a slum, it’s a lot different from what I’m used to in Kibera. There are wider roads, concrete housing buildings, and much less mud. In addition to working with the coaches in Eastleigh, we have also worked with children at different community centers and schools around Eastlands.

Working with CAC has been a LOT of fun but has also been physically and mentally exhausting at times. Luckily, all the coaches I have worked with so far are great. Nick Gates is the founder of CAC and traveled all over the world observing soccer in the streets before developing this organization. He grew up in England and played youth club and international soccer there before going to Harvard, and has also been involved with club management and coaching at all levels in both England and the U.S. He is an awesome coach and is hilarious, on and off the field. Oh and he is stunningly attractive. One of his good friends, Andy Old, is the other “lead” coach for this program in Eastlands. Andy is also from England and also went to school at Harvard, after a couple years playing professionally in England. He is about to finish med school at University at Vermont and will soon begin his residency in orthopedic surgery at Drexel. He and Nick go way back and are joking constantly, so it is fun to just observe them interacting. Andy is devilishly good-looking as well. The third coach I’m working with is Emily Baker, who is spending a week coaching with us here in Nairobi. She is currently towards the end of her two-year Peace Corps term in Kibwezi, a town about four hours southeast of Nairobi (really close to Tsavo, actually). Emily went to Hahvad as well, so basically I’m the idiot of the group…oh well. She is only with us for the next few days, but it is great having her around for now. She is alarmingly beautiful too.

Basically what we do is go in and do sessions with coaches, to teach them how to use football for development, and then also do sessions with local kids (which many of the coaches have been coming to watch.) Sounds easy enough right? Well let’s get back to that first day. After leaving the hostel, we walked down to the bus stage and waited for the #46. Turns out the bus we took that first day was outfitted with a big screen TV, several smaller TVs and was unimaginably loud, like many buses here are. That sensory overload combined with my shocking start to the day was a little bit to much to bear and I came very close to throwing up on the ride into town. I was literally opening my bag to throw up inside when we reached the city center and got off the bus. Thank God. Then we had to catch another matatu from the city center into Eastlands. That one wasn’t quite as loud, and thankfully I wasn’t feeling sick anymore so the ride was downright enjoyable…well maybe just semi-enjoyable. For our first day, we ran a session for the coaches for about 4 or 5 hours. But we actually were at the field for over six hours, since nothing ever starts on time here. After the session (which went amazingly and was the start of a beautiful week with VAP), we made the hour commute back to our hostel. The hostel we are staying at is called the Nairobi International Youth Hostel, and is located a couple kilometers northwest of the city center. It’s pretty nice, with hot showers and bunk beds, and has an affordable restaurant and cyber “café.” Most importantly for our needs, it’s relatively cheap and very safe! Unfortunately, there aren’t any places in Eastlands that can boast of that same combination, which is why we just have to suck it up and deal with the commute every day. So anyways, the first day was really long and hard, especially since I was seeing the coaching methods of CAC for the first time so I had to pick it all up as we went. I also got incredibly sunburnt (along with the rest of the CAC coaches) because it was not very sunny and we therefore forgot to lather up with the sunscreen. Stupid decision, which we have been paying for since! When we got back to the hostel, I had to head to my homestay to get a few things before returning back later that night and heading straight to sleep in preparation for day 2…