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!

After a Heavy night of rain on Sunday evening, Monday morning was close to been a wash out. However due to the flexibility of the residents of Lyme we were able to move fields and Lyme’s PLAYSOCCER camp began. For the rest of the week the weather was great and we were treated to great soccer.
In the mornings we had a great mix of ages and talent and the guys worked hard all week to ensure they learnt everything that Coach Mosquito and I were teaching, in order to demolish the parents on Friday, and of course they did! But during the week we had great competition as there were a couple sibling rivalries, with Alex and Jamie, as well as Jackson and Sam competing hard against each other. On Friday the big day came and everyone was excited, crazy hair day went down very well, and everyone turned up very enthusiastic about the Parents game and the healthy snack party. We had 2 games against the parents and a lot of goals were scored, for both teams. However there always has to be a winner, and this year……..of course the children won! Goal of the day was by ruby, who scored from around 20 yards, reminded me very much of Monday morning and learning the Ronaldo skills! Well done morning crew.
In the evening we had a good sized tots group, and enjoyed a fun filled week. There were a couple of shy starters but by the end of the week everybody was joining in and making a lot of noise. We also played a little game against the parents and they tore them apart.
Off the field we were treated to a couple of boat trips around the lake, an incredible meal at Stella’s with the Taylor’s and the Coyle’s, and on Friday we had a cook out at a remote cabin at the lake.
We would like to thank the town of Lyme and everyone who made the week go so well, a great time was had by all.
Coach Melon / Gorilla /Dan
Coach Mosquito / Banana / David

Falmouth Maine was host to another terrific PLAY SOCCER camp.  We had over 100 children each day for the whole week, they braved the extreme heat 6 hours a day and made the camp atmosphere amazing.  The new curriculum was a huge hit, and the African Nations Freestyle Cup went down great.  There were 10 coaches for the week and each one worked hard in making sure the kids came first and had the best time they could possibly have.  By the end of the week the children were asking if the same coaches were coming back next year and there was a real bond between the kids and the coaches.  All of the host families were amazing and were extremely welcoming, as was Matt Gilbert from Falmouth Recreation who helped organize the week of camp.  One of our campers named Amelia will be competing in the Junior Olympics the day after camp and we wish her good luck in the 800m.  PLAY SOCCER will be back in Falmouth in the Fall to continue with its successful kindergaden program.  Hopefully see you guys next year for an even bigger and better camp.

Coach Hollywood

On Sunday Steven and I found out that along with the camp in Falmouth we had to go to Yarmouth for an evening Mom & Me soccer camp, Steven didnt know what to expect as he had never done this type of thing before, but I knew it was a thing that he would really enjoy. Monday began with a blast and this continued throughout the week as the Moms and Tots were all really excited as it was there first soccer coaching experience, first of all we taught the kids the very basics of the game and most of them took to it like a duck to water with the odd one or two just running off to play in the net but this wasnt a major problem as we could already tell they had an eye for goal at an early age. Even though they were young we still taught them about different players and instead of using there tricks we got them to do various dances, which the tots really enjoyed and so did the moms by the looks of things. The week all together went really well with the moms helping out in every way they could, Steven took to the kids really well and was shocked at how good some of the tots actually were. The weather contributed to the week as the sun shone down each evening which kept the tots in high spirits. The host family was brilliant and you could tell they had hosted for many years, dinner was delicious every night and relaxing before the evening camp by the side of there pool was a massive bonus!

The week as a whole was great fun.

Thanks Yarmouth!!

This week went great in Middletown Connecticut. With lots of children attending there second week of PLAY SOCCER camps during the summer they were very egger to get involved and learn about the different players and skills!

The best day had to be the last day of camp, the Friday, all the children were looking forward to the parents game all week. Most parents came early and warmed up on the side lines! With three parents games taking the place the atmosphere was intense ! Could the children beat the parents? As the games started we could clearly see who had been practicing and learning new skills, and it definitely wasn’t the parents! The children put in lots of effort and beat the parents no problem! Well done kids!!!! Every child seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly and by the end of the week were asking for the same coaches to go back next time.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everybody at Middletown for there fantastic effort with the parents game.

I would also like to thank the host family for looking after all three coaches and making us feel welcome!

Thank you Middletown !!!!!!

Sian (coach mud!)

A great week for all camps, the Elite, World Freestyle and Soccer Tots. All the campers did very well and showed some excellent soccer skills, even with a few rainy days which meant we moved indoors the campers stayed enthusiastic which was excellent.

A great turn out for the parent’s game in all of the camps. I would like to say thank you to all the parents, campers and to Concord Rec Department for giving the PLAY SOCCER staff a great week at camp.

Liam, Jamie and I would like to thank the host families for looking after us these past two weeks; we have had a great time.

THANKS HOLLY.

This final week in Woodstock and Queeche has been a very good camp, even though we had some returning campers at Woodstock the curriculum still went down very well and the children seemed just as eager to learn about the soccer players and watch their videos as last time!! My best day at camp this week was Wednesday when we had our African Super Freestyle Scrimmage games. We had teams from Ghana, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Senegal, it was a very close contested tournament with some great Kits worn by the kids and also some very interesting facts about their country and even some flags and banners were made as well. The parents Vs kids game was probably one of the best ones I have taken part in, even with it raining the parents were very eager to still have a chance to see what their kids had learnt from the week and the kids ended up winning 4-3 in the dying minutes of the game!!!! Also one of the parents said that they enjoyed the parents game so much that a group of them had organized to get together once a week and do their own parents Vs kids game every week!!!

BEN

This week James and I headed off to Cornish in New Hampshire. We had a half day camp which ran from 9-12 and also an advanced camp in the evening. The week started very well with every camper coming in looking both ready and eager to learn lots of new tricks. Ronaldo day was again a massive success with kids trying to see who could master the Ronaldo chop and also the free kick, sadly none were as successful as the coaches.

The advanced camp was very good also with players concentrating on improving their passing and incorporating it into a game situations.
Tuesday and its Marta day although many of the kids assumed it had to be Mia Ham once we mentioned a female soccer player, the day was exciting with the campers enjoying their new found ability to problem solve. The advanced camp concentrated on dribbling and everyone enjoyed the chance to race against each other and to see who could dribble at speed, I think I was just the quickest!
Wednesday and it was time for all the budding goalkeepers to show off their skills, it was good fun watching some of the spectacular saves and also some that were very bizarre.

The advanced camp concentrated on shooting and also playing soccer in torrential rain. The rain made it all the more fun with the coaches being some of the biggest kids for the night. The campers shooting improved tremendously and the parents washing machines were put the test.
Thursday and it was time for the freestyle tournament, each soccer player wore their team colors and the games were very well played with tricks going on everywhere and every player working hard for their team.

Advanced camp, and it was time to work on positioning and all round attacking play, we saw some of the best soccer of the week and that was when they didn’t even have a ball, invisible soccer proved a big hit.
Friday arrived and sadly so did the English rain, we had to call off the morning session, but we offered the advanced and morning campers a 5-8pm session in the evening including the anticipated parents game. The last 3 hours of our week in Cornish were brilliant with every camper trying their hardest and having lots of fun, the parents game arrived and with a little help from the coaches the Cornish parents kept their undefeated streak going and look forward to next year.
A fantastic week at camp and a big thank you to all the kids and all the parents, Cornish we will most certainly miss you! MATT