just a day in my life...

Saturday was quite an interesting day. In the morning, the team I am sponsoring from HOVIC had a friendly soccer match in town. It was a great match because the kids have these new uniforms that were donated to them and new cleats so they really look like a legitimate team. They kept telling me "People won't even know we are street kids when we play." A very proud moment for them... And they won the game 5-4 so I think we are off to a good start for the season.

In the afternoon, my friend and I went to Kakamega, which is a town about an hour north of Kisumu, for a soccer match. A few of my friends play for a team there called Western Stima who competes in the Premier League, which is the top league in Kenya. It was their last game of the season and they had to win in order to stay in the league and not be kicked out. The ride up there was in a matatu which are vans and the main for of transportation here. At one point I think there were 22 people in the car, which is made to seat 14. Later in the trip a woman got on who was carrying a live chicken... pretty typical in Kenya.

We got to the stadium in Kakamega and there were tons of people there to support the team, me being the only white person of thousands, obviously. During the second half we went and sat right behind the team bench and the one camera man from the local TV station came and filmed me for like 5 minutes. Everyone was staring at me the entire game. A mzungu (white person) at a football match in Western Kenya... apparently that was news worthy. Luckily, Western Stima scored in the first half and won the game 1-0. People went crazy at the end of the game and rushed the field. Everyone was chanting and cheering and dancing... slighlty different than celebrations in the US. Also during the game, people were yelling things at the ref like "You obvisouly didn't eat your ugali today," (ugali being a staple food in the Kenyan diet that is thought to give people strength, yet it is made from ONLY flour and water) and others were saying "You must have gone to see a witch doctor recently." These are pretty typical criticisms here that I don't think would be very effective in the US....

After the game, since we knew players on the team, we got to ride on the team bus through town. All the players were singing and clapping and waving signs that said Western Stima from the bus and we drove SLOWLY all through town. Now remember, they didn't win the league... they didn't even finish in the top 10 (out of 16). They finished third from last and just missed being relegated. Basically they were the winner of the losers and this was the celebration. Kinda funny.... We went to a restaurant and they had a team meeting and then a bunch of them and us rode on the bus back to Kisumu. During the hour and 15 minute ride back, the bus overheated twice, so the trip ended up taking almost 2 hours.

Needless to say it was a totally fun day and just really emphasized the fact that I am soooooo far away from home haha. I guess sometimes it's easy to forget when I'm here in Kisumu because i is much more of a city and there are some things I am used to, but once you leave the city it is a whole different world.... and I totally love it!