Life...

Lots to report on. First thing...

My organization (read: me) hosted a soccer tournament for mentally challenged kids two weeks ago. It was awesome, but not without some ups and downs. So I had planned EVERYTHING to a t. There were 11 schools involved in the planning and over 160 kids were coming with about 30-40 teachers. I had organized to have all the kids bused into town for the day to play in the "stadium." This was NOT an easy task because most of the schools are a little ways out of town. So I had contacted some companies and institutes around to donate their time and products like bread, hard-boiled eggs and a DJ sound system. Coca Cola was to provide chairs, tents, sodas and water.

The morning of the event, when the Coca Cola equipment was to be delivered, the lady who I was in contact with informed me that the proposal had not been approved and she could not release any of the equipment or drinks. Now, I had spoken to her EVERY day that week and she had assured me everything was in place... And the worst part, she didn't even say sorry. I mean come on, who screws over mentally challenged kids who want to play soccer?!? I was so mad at Coca Cola and i had to scramble to go get everything so the event could go on. Despite horrible, dishonest, rude people who seem to be so frequent here, the event was AWESOME. All the kids got to play a lot. We made small, modified fields and had short games. The DJs played great loud music and the kids were dancing the whole time and smiling! They must have been so excited to tell their parents when they got home about the big day out at the stadium and playing football and dancing. Just to see all of them smile made every second of it worth it. We gave out some small prizes to all the teams and everyone went home happy. It was the first of many events to come for special needs kids in Kisumu.

I also went to conference two weekends ago in Nairobi for the Sport for Social Change Network (SSCN). It is coordinated by an organization called CARE (a huge NGO operating from Atlanta). The head coordinator for the network is Dr. Auma Obama, Barack's sister. So I spent the whole weekend with her and it was great. The conference was really interesting and quite productive. My organization is a part of this group of all people who work with sports and development from all over Kenya so I definitely learned a lot. I was also elected the overall committee for the whole network which is sweet!

So another recent highlight was last weekend. I met a girl recently who is living in Kenya and working for an organization which brings British medical students to Kenya for 2 week experiential learning programs. She coordinates the trips and there are about 30 students arriving and leaving every 2 weeks. The first group of students she had 2 weeks ago was here for a week and after the first week on of the got sick. Turns out it was swine flu and the Kenyan media and general public FREAKED out. The media runs everything here and people hang on their every word... it's kind of sad. So anyhow, one of the kids had swine flu and was treated and the whole group of 34 students had to be quarantined in their hotel for 6 days until they were essentially deported back to the UK. So my friend calls me on Saturday afternoon and asks if I would do her a wierd favor and come to the hotel and help them out as a decoy. So it sounds interesting and she asks me to bring a friend so my friend from home, Andrea, who was staying with me came along.

We get to the hotel and they fill us in on the plan. Basically, the hired 3 vans to look like the students were traveling in them. I sat in the front seat of the first, Andrea in the front seat of the second and a Kenyan guy in the front seat of the third. We drive out of the hotel and follow behind a police escort car as if we were driving to Nairobi overnight, as the students were supposed to do. So we would lead the press away from the hotel while the actual students would all get on a bus and head to Nairobi. They didn't want the faces of any of the students to be in the press because some of them were planning on traveling in Kenya after they got to Nairobi (which didn't end up happening because they were forced to leave). So we drive away from the hotel and flashbulbs are going off like whoa. Two press vehicles followed us for 30 minutes as we drove towards Nairobi. They were taking tons of pictures and cutting off our vehicle to get close. It was SO obvious there was no one else in the back of the vans, but apparently they were too stupid to notice. After 30 minutes, we stopped and got a ride back home with the police escort vehicle. The decoy mission worked and the students got to Nairobi without being bothered. Meanwhile, the next day mine and Andrea's pictures were in the paper and in the news as the swine flu students traveling back to Nairobi... it was pretty funny. The whole situation was so exciting and funny. We were glad to screw over the press because they are the worst here. Check out the article:

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/619190/-/ukfteu/-/index.html


Other than those things, life is pretty normal. Work is going well, I'm LOVING the hot showers at the gym, I still get called mzungu about 20 times a day on average, my Swahili is improving and I miss American food more than I can explain. So keep the updates coming on all of your lives.I love hearing from everyone at home!