While writing this I am currently sitting at JFK and marveling at the huge amount of white people passing by me and how I am no longer special or different, but instead how I blend in incredibly well. I have traveled about 25 hours so far and should be home in another 5. Crazy how long it takes to get from Kenya to Cazenovia… but it almost seems like too little time since I feel like I am traveling to another planet. As much as I subscribe to the idea that people are people everywhere (since that’s one of the major lessons I have learned), life seems to be so different here… maybe cultural difference, maybe because it’s my home and I feel the most comfortable.
All I know is that I’m back and while it seems completely unreal that I am actually here, somehow now my two years of life and work and Kenya seems so distant. I don’t know how that happens so quickly, but it does. The last few weeks in Kenya were very bittersweet. While I was so excited to be going home, to see friends and family and eat good food and take hot showers, I was devastated to be leaving behind this life and this place that I fell in love with. My job, my friends, my boyfriend and my life for the last two years have been in Kisumu. Then suddenly (well not too suddenly), I had to say goodbye to it. And not “goodbye I’ll be back soon”, but my “life is moving on and I don’t know when I will see you all or come back to Kenya” goodbye. It was horrible. Saying goodbye to my staff, who are absolutely amazing people who I spent all day every day with….The good thing is that they are so good at what they do, I know that work will continue as I left it without a hitch. Leaving KYFA was a huge deal. It was my first real job and with all honesty, most likely the best job I will ever have. How many people can say they honestly feel like the work they do, the getting up every day and going to the office work, actually helps people… that children and local people derive enjoyment from my work… that people’s lives have significantly changed for the better because of an organization.... I am so lucky to have been put in a position to be able to affect such change. I worked hard and I’m proud of the work I’ve done, but more than proud I am encouraged… I’m not saying that everyone has the potential to change the world or save the world or whatever, but that people (Americans at least) are given a chance to be here, to exist, and what we chose to do with that existence is our own choice and no one has the right to judge other people’s choices. We are damn lucky to have been born in a place where we have choices, where we are able to make decisions for ourselves. Much of the rest of the world is not so fortunate to be born into a society of free will and of choices.
I can’t even really conceptualize what I want to say right now or wrap up my two years of life experience into a blog post. All I know is what I have personally learned: people are people, they love, laugh, cry, live and die in whatever corner of the world they exist. With our world becoming more interconnected, I honestly hope everyone is given a chance sometime in their life to visit a place that is unlike where they are from. Maybe then our world will become an even more wonderful place than it is now!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
World Cup 2010... This time for Africa!!
Ok… here is a detailed overview of my World Cup South Africa 2010 experience. This is for my own memory as well as for other people to hear about what I did…
I flew from Nairobi to Johannesburg on Sunday (June 20th) afternoon. I had a few hours in the Joburg airport and got on a place to Port Elizabeth. On my plane there were probably 50 Chilean fans because Chile was playing the following day. The pilot even acknowledged them and wished them good luck and the whole plane erupted into a Chilean cheer. Welcome to World Cup, right!?!
I arrived in Port Elizabeth that night and Daniel’s friend Kim picked me up and we went to her friend’s place where I stayed. I was immediately blown away because their apartment was super nice. We watched the night match on their huge TV.
Monday morning they all went to work and I went for a run in the neighborhood. It basically looks like California. Palm trees all over, manicured lawns. All really nice houses, apartments and condos. The roads are all perfect and there is lots of security everywhere, like spiked fences and security guards all over. I walked down to the water, which was like 15 minutes away and went to Mcdonalds for lunch. It was the best food ever. After living in Kenya for almost 2 years, chocolate milkshakes are heaven!
There were tons of Chile and Swiss fans there because the game was that day. Kim picked me up in afternoon and we headed over to the match. The PE stadium, Nelson Mandela bay Stadium is brand new and seats 42,000. Game was actually not super exciting, but I was just in awe the whole time because I was AT WORLD CUP! There were lots of Chilean fans which made for a great atmosphere. Tuesday, Daniel finally arrived in the afternoon and we went to fan park to watch matches. In every big city, FIFA/Coca Cola sets up fan parks with huge screens and big open places where people can go to watch all matches. The one in PE was in their local cricket stadium and the screen was huge and was one of the ones used at winter Olympics and they flew it in from Vancouver. We watched the South Africa match there when they beat France which was awesome and everyone was dressed up and going crazy. We went to dinner at KFC, which was absolutely delicious and not like it is in the US… or maybe I have been away from good fast food too long.
We went back to Fanpark for Argentina v Greece. After the game there was a Fatboy Slim concert at the Fanpark. On Wednesday we walked down to beach to a restaurant to meet an American couple Daniel had met in the airport before the England v. Slovenia match. The English fans at the match were crazy and drunk, but the whole match we were freaking out about US v Algeria which was going ona t the same time. The England match ended and after about 5 minutes the guy in front of us got a text message that the US had won and we were soooo excited! After the match, we went to the Yacht Club with Kim and had delicious seafood and sushi then watched Germany v Ghana and had springbok shots (famous in SA – Amarula and peppermint liquer). Thursday we spent all day trying to get USA v Ghana tickets because we now we realized it was a possibility and we had to go! In the afternoon we went to a bar, ate burgers and watched Italy v Slovakia. That night we went to dinner with Kim and some of her colleagues and ate fancy seafood and had lots of delicious local wine. That night we experienced night life in PE…. Friday was Mcdonalds for lunch and Kim dropped us at bus station at 5pm to head to Johannesburg.
The 15 hour ride became a 17 hour bus ride which was absolutely FREEZING. I seriously felt like we were sitting on top of the bus. Longest ride ever! We arrived at the transit center in downtown Joburg. We arranged to take a bus with other fans to Rustenburg for the US game. We arrived at the game with lots of crazy US fans. Despite seeing so much red, white and blue most neutral people were cheering for Ghana so the crowd was definitely a Ghana majority. It was sad that the US lost, but I was definitely still supporting Ghana. That night it took us 6 hours to get back to Joburg, which should have taken 2. We arrived at 4:30am and had to take a sketchy cab with a talkative know-it-all American and arrived at Daniel’s friend’s place at 5am. I was absolutely exhausted.
The next day we drove all around looking for a rental car, but can’t find one and decide to take taxi (15 passenger van) to Durban the next morning. That afternoon, in the train station, we watched Germany v England half outside a bar and half in a convenience store. England was totally embarrassed. We get on train to Soccer City for the Argentina v Mexico game. Walking off that train and seeing the stadium was unreal. Sweetest stadium ever. It looks like a spaceship all lit up and everything. There were crazy Argentinians throwing toilet paper onto field. It was amazing to see Messi play. The game was exciting and Argentina looked awesome. We rode back to with Daniel’s friend and slept at his place.
He picked us up the next morning at 6am. We went back to the train station AGAIN and couldn’t get a taxi so we ended up renting a car and driving to Durban. The road was phenomenal and the tolls were super expensive. We arrived 3:15 for 4pm match at Daniel’s friend’s Anne’s mom place haha. Anne’s mom was clutch and got us to stadium on time. Netherlands v. Slovakia!! Moses Mabida Stadium in Durban was AWESOME. It is brand new and had marble floors all around the outside. The game was fun, but not really amazing. There were many weirdly dressed Dutch fans. It was super windy after the match and we walked down along the seafront. Dinner was at an Indian place. We went back to Anne’s mom’s house for Brazil v. Chile and sleeping. Up at 7 for an early morning drive back to the airport. We dropped the car and flew to Cape Town.
When we arrived, it was pouring rain and we got to the house where we were staying (a friend of a friend’s place of course) and no one was even answering the door. Then we meet Sam, the girl we were staying with, who knew nothing about Cape Town despite living there for 3 years. To get around we decided to rent car. We stayed in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town and hit up a local place, Jake’s, for Japan v. Paraguay. Mike the waiter is awesome. We had to leave before the penalties in that match in order to get to the stadium for the night match in Cape Town. We parked at the nearby train station and rode to downtown. With a match ticket, the trains are free that night. We arrived downtown and walked 2 km to Greenpoint Stadium with a ton of other fans. Spain v Portugal!!! Tons of talent on the field, namely the ENTIRE Spanish team and Ronaldo, but we didn’t see greatness. We were next to the main Spanish cheering section. There were tons of crazy Spanish fans and even one with a bass drum. That was the last match we attended… but we were ready for some relaxing, touristy stuff and watching quarterfinals on TV. Wednesday we had delicious Ethiopian food for lunch, saw the waterfront and mall, and took Sam out to dinner. Thursday we met up with the American friends we met in PE for lunch at V&A fan area at the waterfront. We then were supposed to go on the Robben Island tour in the afternoon. We waited in line and they announced a 15 minute delay, then cancelled the tour, then said it was back on a few minutes later. After 20 more minutes it was cancelled for sure. We got a refund and rebooked. Friday morning we headed up to Table Mountain. Took the 3 minute cable car to the top and we spend about an hour walking around/taking picture at the top. It was UNREAL. That afternoon we headed to downtown Cape Town and sat at a café for lunch and shopped at the African market there. We watched Brazil v Netherlands at the Fan Park downtown with some cool British guys. What an exciting upset!!! We headed to restaurant over near the stadium to watch the night match. We had great food and watched the Ghana match with really cool South Africans. I was more upset about that loss than the US loss by far. Saturday morning we checked out a local café that was recommended to us for breakfast. Then we finally did the Robben Island tour. It was pretty surreal to see the place where Mandela and so many other prominent South African leaders were in jail for decades…. Not just years. We arrived back to the waterfront to watch Germany v Argentina with so many people! We watched the second half through a window at a bar because the whole area was so crowded. That night we had Thai food for dinner and watched Spain v Paraguay. There was so much drama with the penalties, but it was a great game to watch.
Sunday morning we made the quick drive to Stellenbosch, the famous wine town in South Africa. They happened to be having a wine festival that day!! We met a cool American guy right in the beginning and hung with him the whole day. For the festival you paid and got 5 vouchers to be used at any of the like 100 wineries around there. There were shuttles running the entire day going to all the different places so you could just get on and off wherever. We went to a vertical tasting at de Trafford (same wine from different years). By the way I know nothing about wine, but I learned a TON in one day. We continued from there to Waterford Estate for a super fancy wine and chocolate tasting!! After that we went to Dornier Estate for more tasting, a beautiful view and delicious bread. The town of Stellenbosch is also really cute and we had dinner at an amazing Lebanese restaurant.
The next day from there, we continued towards PE on the Garden Route, a popular drive through the mountains and along the coast of South Africa. We drove the R62 route through the mountains and stopped for lunch in a small town called Montagu. We continued along and made the famous stop at Ronnies Sex Shop which was hyped up to us by a lot of South Africans, but wasn’t quite as crazy as we thought. It is a roadside bar where female travelers leave their bras and underwear hanging in the bar. Kinda funny, but basically reminded us of rural Texas. We arrived at the Backpackers Paradise in Oudtshoorn where we were staying the night. We walked around the town, which was very Afrikaans and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. For a huge pizza, salad and ostrich steaks (delicious!) and two bottles of wine for both of us we paid like $20… amazing! The next morning we had to check out the famous ostrich farms of Oudtshoorn. So we had a tour at one of the farms and got to see different kinds of ostriches. We even got to sit on them and watch them race. We could have ridden them if we wanted, but those things are crazy and totally creepy so we opted out of the riding part. After all, that town is supposedly the ostrich capital of the world… who knew!
We started the second half of our Garden Route drive and headed from the mountains back down to the coast. We stopped in the famous Knysna for their Oyster Festival but it was super cold and windy and not a good festival day. Despite this, we had a great seafood lunch on the water. The rest of the drive was pretty, but not super exciting. We got to PE to watch the first semi-final match, Holland v. Uruguay and hung out at our friend’s house and watched it on the big screen TV. The next day we did some more exploring in PE because we had our own car and met up with Daniel’s friends again to watch the other semi-final, Germany v. Spain. We watched it at an amphi-theater on a HUGE HD screen. It was great! Thursday I did my last bit of shopping and said all of my goodbyes and got on a plane in the evening to Johannesburg then flew back to Nairobi that night and to Kisumu in the morning.
Overall, I was absolutely blown away by South Africa. I expected it to be nice and all, but it is totally first world. You might as well be in the US or Europe. It is my favorite place I have ever visited and I would recommend everyone to go there. It is naturally beautiful as well as culturally diverse. The cities are cosmopolitan and the people are amazingly nice. Everyone was so hospitable and welcoming. It was extremely clean, the bathrooms were great (very different than Kenya), the roads were perfect and best of all I felt super safe everywhere we were.
World Cup was phenomenal and I can’t wait to do it again in Brazil in 2014!!!
I flew from Nairobi to Johannesburg on Sunday (June 20th) afternoon. I had a few hours in the Joburg airport and got on a place to Port Elizabeth. On my plane there were probably 50 Chilean fans because Chile was playing the following day. The pilot even acknowledged them and wished them good luck and the whole plane erupted into a Chilean cheer. Welcome to World Cup, right!?!
I arrived in Port Elizabeth that night and Daniel’s friend Kim picked me up and we went to her friend’s place where I stayed. I was immediately blown away because their apartment was super nice. We watched the night match on their huge TV.
Monday morning they all went to work and I went for a run in the neighborhood. It basically looks like California. Palm trees all over, manicured lawns. All really nice houses, apartments and condos. The roads are all perfect and there is lots of security everywhere, like spiked fences and security guards all over. I walked down to the water, which was like 15 minutes away and went to Mcdonalds for lunch. It was the best food ever. After living in Kenya for almost 2 years, chocolate milkshakes are heaven!
There were tons of Chile and Swiss fans there because the game was that day. Kim picked me up in afternoon and we headed over to the match. The PE stadium, Nelson Mandela bay Stadium is brand new and seats 42,000. Game was actually not super exciting, but I was just in awe the whole time because I was AT WORLD CUP! There were lots of Chilean fans which made for a great atmosphere. Tuesday, Daniel finally arrived in the afternoon and we went to fan park to watch matches. In every big city, FIFA/Coca Cola sets up fan parks with huge screens and big open places where people can go to watch all matches. The one in PE was in their local cricket stadium and the screen was huge and was one of the ones used at winter Olympics and they flew it in from Vancouver. We watched the South Africa match there when they beat France which was awesome and everyone was dressed up and going crazy. We went to dinner at KFC, which was absolutely delicious and not like it is in the US… or maybe I have been away from good fast food too long.
We went back to Fanpark for Argentina v Greece. After the game there was a Fatboy Slim concert at the Fanpark. On Wednesday we walked down to beach to a restaurant to meet an American couple Daniel had met in the airport before the England v. Slovenia match. The English fans at the match were crazy and drunk, but the whole match we were freaking out about US v Algeria which was going ona t the same time. The England match ended and after about 5 minutes the guy in front of us got a text message that the US had won and we were soooo excited! After the match, we went to the Yacht Club with Kim and had delicious seafood and sushi then watched Germany v Ghana and had springbok shots (famous in SA – Amarula and peppermint liquer). Thursday we spent all day trying to get USA v Ghana tickets because we now we realized it was a possibility and we had to go! In the afternoon we went to a bar, ate burgers and watched Italy v Slovakia. That night we went to dinner with Kim and some of her colleagues and ate fancy seafood and had lots of delicious local wine. That night we experienced night life in PE…. Friday was Mcdonalds for lunch and Kim dropped us at bus station at 5pm to head to Johannesburg.
The 15 hour ride became a 17 hour bus ride which was absolutely FREEZING. I seriously felt like we were sitting on top of the bus. Longest ride ever! We arrived at the transit center in downtown Joburg. We arranged to take a bus with other fans to Rustenburg for the US game. We arrived at the game with lots of crazy US fans. Despite seeing so much red, white and blue most neutral people were cheering for Ghana so the crowd was definitely a Ghana majority. It was sad that the US lost, but I was definitely still supporting Ghana. That night it took us 6 hours to get back to Joburg, which should have taken 2. We arrived at 4:30am and had to take a sketchy cab with a talkative know-it-all American and arrived at Daniel’s friend’s place at 5am. I was absolutely exhausted.
The next day we drove all around looking for a rental car, but can’t find one and decide to take taxi (15 passenger van) to Durban the next morning. That afternoon, in the train station, we watched Germany v England half outside a bar and half in a convenience store. England was totally embarrassed. We get on train to Soccer City for the Argentina v Mexico game. Walking off that train and seeing the stadium was unreal. Sweetest stadium ever. It looks like a spaceship all lit up and everything. There were crazy Argentinians throwing toilet paper onto field. It was amazing to see Messi play. The game was exciting and Argentina looked awesome. We rode back to with Daniel’s friend and slept at his place.
He picked us up the next morning at 6am. We went back to the train station AGAIN and couldn’t get a taxi so we ended up renting a car and driving to Durban. The road was phenomenal and the tolls were super expensive. We arrived 3:15 for 4pm match at Daniel’s friend’s Anne’s mom place haha. Anne’s mom was clutch and got us to stadium on time. Netherlands v. Slovakia!! Moses Mabida Stadium in Durban was AWESOME. It is brand new and had marble floors all around the outside. The game was fun, but not really amazing. There were many weirdly dressed Dutch fans. It was super windy after the match and we walked down along the seafront. Dinner was at an Indian place. We went back to Anne’s mom’s house for Brazil v. Chile and sleeping. Up at 7 for an early morning drive back to the airport. We dropped the car and flew to Cape Town.
When we arrived, it was pouring rain and we got to the house where we were staying (a friend of a friend’s place of course) and no one was even answering the door. Then we meet Sam, the girl we were staying with, who knew nothing about Cape Town despite living there for 3 years. To get around we decided to rent car. We stayed in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town and hit up a local place, Jake’s, for Japan v. Paraguay. Mike the waiter is awesome. We had to leave before the penalties in that match in order to get to the stadium for the night match in Cape Town. We parked at the nearby train station and rode to downtown. With a match ticket, the trains are free that night. We arrived downtown and walked 2 km to Greenpoint Stadium with a ton of other fans. Spain v Portugal!!! Tons of talent on the field, namely the ENTIRE Spanish team and Ronaldo, but we didn’t see greatness. We were next to the main Spanish cheering section. There were tons of crazy Spanish fans and even one with a bass drum. That was the last match we attended… but we were ready for some relaxing, touristy stuff and watching quarterfinals on TV. Wednesday we had delicious Ethiopian food for lunch, saw the waterfront and mall, and took Sam out to dinner. Thursday we met up with the American friends we met in PE for lunch at V&A fan area at the waterfront. We then were supposed to go on the Robben Island tour in the afternoon. We waited in line and they announced a 15 minute delay, then cancelled the tour, then said it was back on a few minutes later. After 20 more minutes it was cancelled for sure. We got a refund and rebooked. Friday morning we headed up to Table Mountain. Took the 3 minute cable car to the top and we spend about an hour walking around/taking picture at the top. It was UNREAL. That afternoon we headed to downtown Cape Town and sat at a café for lunch and shopped at the African market there. We watched Brazil v Netherlands at the Fan Park downtown with some cool British guys. What an exciting upset!!! We headed to restaurant over near the stadium to watch the night match. We had great food and watched the Ghana match with really cool South Africans. I was more upset about that loss than the US loss by far. Saturday morning we checked out a local café that was recommended to us for breakfast. Then we finally did the Robben Island tour. It was pretty surreal to see the place where Mandela and so many other prominent South African leaders were in jail for decades…. Not just years. We arrived back to the waterfront to watch Germany v Argentina with so many people! We watched the second half through a window at a bar because the whole area was so crowded. That night we had Thai food for dinner and watched Spain v Paraguay. There was so much drama with the penalties, but it was a great game to watch.
Sunday morning we made the quick drive to Stellenbosch, the famous wine town in South Africa. They happened to be having a wine festival that day!! We met a cool American guy right in the beginning and hung with him the whole day. For the festival you paid and got 5 vouchers to be used at any of the like 100 wineries around there. There were shuttles running the entire day going to all the different places so you could just get on and off wherever. We went to a vertical tasting at de Trafford (same wine from different years). By the way I know nothing about wine, but I learned a TON in one day. We continued from there to Waterford Estate for a super fancy wine and chocolate tasting!! After that we went to Dornier Estate for more tasting, a beautiful view and delicious bread. The town of Stellenbosch is also really cute and we had dinner at an amazing Lebanese restaurant.
The next day from there, we continued towards PE on the Garden Route, a popular drive through the mountains and along the coast of South Africa. We drove the R62 route through the mountains and stopped for lunch in a small town called Montagu. We continued along and made the famous stop at Ronnies Sex Shop which was hyped up to us by a lot of South Africans, but wasn’t quite as crazy as we thought. It is a roadside bar where female travelers leave their bras and underwear hanging in the bar. Kinda funny, but basically reminded us of rural Texas. We arrived at the Backpackers Paradise in Oudtshoorn where we were staying the night. We walked around the town, which was very Afrikaans and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. For a huge pizza, salad and ostrich steaks (delicious!) and two bottles of wine for both of us we paid like $20… amazing! The next morning we had to check out the famous ostrich farms of Oudtshoorn. So we had a tour at one of the farms and got to see different kinds of ostriches. We even got to sit on them and watch them race. We could have ridden them if we wanted, but those things are crazy and totally creepy so we opted out of the riding part. After all, that town is supposedly the ostrich capital of the world… who knew!
We started the second half of our Garden Route drive and headed from the mountains back down to the coast. We stopped in the famous Knysna for their Oyster Festival but it was super cold and windy and not a good festival day. Despite this, we had a great seafood lunch on the water. The rest of the drive was pretty, but not super exciting. We got to PE to watch the first semi-final match, Holland v. Uruguay and hung out at our friend’s house and watched it on the big screen TV. The next day we did some more exploring in PE because we had our own car and met up with Daniel’s friends again to watch the other semi-final, Germany v. Spain. We watched it at an amphi-theater on a HUGE HD screen. It was great! Thursday I did my last bit of shopping and said all of my goodbyes and got on a plane in the evening to Johannesburg then flew back to Nairobi that night and to Kisumu in the morning.
Overall, I was absolutely blown away by South Africa. I expected it to be nice and all, but it is totally first world. You might as well be in the US or Europe. It is my favorite place I have ever visited and I would recommend everyone to go there. It is naturally beautiful as well as culturally diverse. The cities are cosmopolitan and the people are amazingly nice. Everyone was so hospitable and welcoming. It was extremely clean, the bathrooms were great (very different than Kenya), the roads were perfect and best of all I felt super safe everywhere we were.
World Cup was phenomenal and I can’t wait to do it again in Brazil in 2014!!!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Yes I am still in Kenya...
So many things have been happening the last few months. Work is going great. We have successfully started our leagues, eight of them, ranging from under 10 to under 18. We have 1500 kids playing competitive soccer in an organized league every weekend... SUCCESS! Also, my organization, KYFA, has been getting some national recognition. We have had some articles about us in the newspapers, radio shows and even a short television feature during prime time TV!! People are starting to ask about us and want to know what is going on with the local football teams. All the hard work and extreme stress is paying off! We are developing into a reputable, professional organization which is setting an example to the rest of the country that youth leagues can successfully be organized.
Kenya in general is good. The talk of the country is the upcoming vote on the proposed Constitution. The country has spent like the last million years developing a constitution (since theirs was developed by the British when they became independent). Now it is finalized and there will be a vote in August if they adopt it or not. This past weekend there was a rally in Nairobi for the "NO" campign, basically organized by religious leaders. Most people who are opposing the Constitution are doing it because of one clause about abortion. Abortion will still be illegal as it is now here, but the new constitution says that now it will be legal if the mother's life is in danger. The entire Christian community is outraged so they are basically the ones opposing it. Anyway, at the rally someone set off hand grenades and 5 people died and like 75 were severely injured. It was being held right in the main park in Nairobi and was really horrible and scary. Sometimes this country is insane. Otherwise politics do not affect us so much here in Kisumu because we are not in the capital.
THe whol country is pretty excited right now about World Cup, which I will be going to on Sunday. I'll be in SOuth Africa from the 20th of June - July 9th. I have tickets for 5 matches and hopefully I can get more when I am there. It is very cool to see a continent come together to support each other. It's a huge deal for Africa and people here are really proud of it, as they should be! It will be an amazing experience and I mean come on... how could I not go to the first World CUp to be held in Africa?!?!
Kenya in general is good. The talk of the country is the upcoming vote on the proposed Constitution. The country has spent like the last million years developing a constitution (since theirs was developed by the British when they became independent). Now it is finalized and there will be a vote in August if they adopt it or not. This past weekend there was a rally in Nairobi for the "NO" campign, basically organized by religious leaders. Most people who are opposing the Constitution are doing it because of one clause about abortion. Abortion will still be illegal as it is now here, but the new constitution says that now it will be legal if the mother's life is in danger. The entire Christian community is outraged so they are basically the ones opposing it. Anyway, at the rally someone set off hand grenades and 5 people died and like 75 were severely injured. It was being held right in the main park in Nairobi and was really horrible and scary. Sometimes this country is insane. Otherwise politics do not affect us so much here in Kisumu because we are not in the capital.
THe whol country is pretty excited right now about World Cup, which I will be going to on Sunday. I'll be in SOuth Africa from the 20th of June - July 9th. I have tickets for 5 matches and hopefully I can get more when I am there. It is very cool to see a continent come together to support each other. It's a huge deal for Africa and people here are really proud of it, as they should be! It will be an amazing experience and I mean come on... how could I not go to the first World CUp to be held in Africa?!?!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Mbita
Last weekend I traveled to Mbita, which is a town on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in Kenya. To get there, we drove to the northern shore of the lake and took a 40 minute ferry across to Mbita. I went for the weekend to visit an American friend of mine, who works at a school there and has also started a girls soccer team. His team is comprised from girls all around that area and is sort of a "premier club" from that place. Their aim is to get young girls (11-14) and involve them in soccer as much as possible to keep them focused and in school and not pregnant. The district they are coming from has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in all of Kenya at around 40%. The entire generation from age 30-50 ish has literally been wiped out. The biggest source of income there is fishing, so what happens is traveling fishermen come and stay there for a few weeks at a time. They go out for fish and come back to the shore to "sell" the fish to women. This really means the fish are exchanged for money and sex and there you have the insanely fast spread of HIV and other diseases. Then about 60% of the current population is under the age of 18, or some crazy number like that. Almost all kids are total or partial orphans and most are living with extended family members or grandparents. There are so many issues there that are related to poverty and HIV. The life of a girl there is horrible. They are made to do domestic work all day and they are lucky if they are even able to attend primary school. Many are pregnant by the age of 14 or 15 and are married soon after that. Their future is bleak, to put it nicely.
So anyway, my friend has started this club to promote healthy activities for girls and to empower them to lead them away from this life they are seemingly doomed for. They came to Kisumu to participate in one of our tournaments last year, so that is how I know them. They had asked Ted to coach them for the weekend, since they get together one weekend out of every month for a sort of mini camp to train. So Ted and I went to coach and see the team. We got there Friday afternoon and has a short session in the evening. The girls are all so great. They all are between the ages of 12 and 17 and all except 4 are total or partial orphans. When they come to the camps once a month, they are sort of able to escape their oppressive lives and have fun and play football for the whole weekend. And they all LOVE football!
There is another American woman who helps out with the team, so her and I stayed with the girls at a cabin type place at night. It was so fun to spend time with them and talk to them. They are encouraged to speak English and Swahili when they are at the camp, instead of the preferable mother tongue which is called Dholuo. During the weekend, we did a football session from 8-12 Saturday and Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon they had an academic session for a few hours and we played a little more soccer in the evening. Sunday afternoon they all travelled back home. So basically the whole weekend, besides playing soccer and emphasizing that, there was a lot of emphasis on academics and also religion because my friends there are missionaries. We had 5 pieces of white bread and butter for breakfast and lunch every day (also a hard boiled egg for lunch). Then beans and rice for dinner... pretty typical Kenyan diet, so I was definitely excited to come back home and eat vegetables and meat haha.
I had a great weekend because fist of all, I was able to coach a little bit, which I never am able to do. It really made me want to be a part of an individual team. I mean, I love what I am doing with KYFA and I know that I am able to make a difference, but it is on such a big scale that is hard to see the results. When working with an individual team, you are able to make a real impact on individual lives and build those personal relationships. I really hope to be able to do this at some point. Also, I had not traveled in Nyanza Province, which is basically the area in Kenya surrounding Lake Victoria, so it was cool to experience a more rural setting. Plus the town is RIGHT on the lake which is really cool. I did not swim because it is sort of a swim at your own risk thing. There are a boat load of diseases you can get from the water and I just didn't feel like risking it. The locals swim all the time, but they are also getting the diseases all the time. Also, there are hippos so you can't swim at night, but during the day is not a problem.
This week I am back at work in Kisumu. All is well and we are starting our leagues next weekend. I am excited to finally have everything kicking off and games to watch on the weekend. The weather has been kinds "cold" recently. I have even left the house in the morning wearing long sleeves twice. Crazy!!
So anyway, my friend has started this club to promote healthy activities for girls and to empower them to lead them away from this life they are seemingly doomed for. They came to Kisumu to participate in one of our tournaments last year, so that is how I know them. They had asked Ted to coach them for the weekend, since they get together one weekend out of every month for a sort of mini camp to train. So Ted and I went to coach and see the team. We got there Friday afternoon and has a short session in the evening. The girls are all so great. They all are between the ages of 12 and 17 and all except 4 are total or partial orphans. When they come to the camps once a month, they are sort of able to escape their oppressive lives and have fun and play football for the whole weekend. And they all LOVE football!
There is another American woman who helps out with the team, so her and I stayed with the girls at a cabin type place at night. It was so fun to spend time with them and talk to them. They are encouraged to speak English and Swahili when they are at the camp, instead of the preferable mother tongue which is called Dholuo. During the weekend, we did a football session from 8-12 Saturday and Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon they had an academic session for a few hours and we played a little more soccer in the evening. Sunday afternoon they all travelled back home. So basically the whole weekend, besides playing soccer and emphasizing that, there was a lot of emphasis on academics and also religion because my friends there are missionaries. We had 5 pieces of white bread and butter for breakfast and lunch every day (also a hard boiled egg for lunch). Then beans and rice for dinner... pretty typical Kenyan diet, so I was definitely excited to come back home and eat vegetables and meat haha.
I had a great weekend because fist of all, I was able to coach a little bit, which I never am able to do. It really made me want to be a part of an individual team. I mean, I love what I am doing with KYFA and I know that I am able to make a difference, but it is on such a big scale that is hard to see the results. When working with an individual team, you are able to make a real impact on individual lives and build those personal relationships. I really hope to be able to do this at some point. Also, I had not traveled in Nyanza Province, which is basically the area in Kenya surrounding Lake Victoria, so it was cool to experience a more rural setting. Plus the town is RIGHT on the lake which is really cool. I did not swim because it is sort of a swim at your own risk thing. There are a boat load of diseases you can get from the water and I just didn't feel like risking it. The locals swim all the time, but they are also getting the diseases all the time. Also, there are hippos so you can't swim at night, but during the day is not a problem.
This week I am back at work in Kisumu. All is well and we are starting our leagues next weekend. I am excited to finally have everything kicking off and games to watch on the weekend. The weather has been kinds "cold" recently. I have even left the house in the morning wearing long sleeves twice. Crazy!!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Football, friends and food
So I have been back in Kenya for about 3 weeks now. I already miss American food and hot showers, but otherwise it is great to be back. Work is going so well. I have 2 new staff members who are awesome and work along the same lines as I do, namely doing the right thing haha. So basically it is a new year, with new people and we even have a new office. Well two more stories added to the old office, so we have much more space to work in.
I have definitely figured out how to deal with the stress of my job and let things go. By surrounding myself with the right people, it makes me feel much more confident about leaving here in July and things really being able to continue the way they are now. With work being less stressful, it makes it much easier to have more fun in general.
My 3 American friends here just moved into the apartment building next to mine, so it is awesome to have them so close. We can literally stand at our windows and talk to each from 5 yards away... pretty sweet!
This past weekend I played in a local soccer tournament here. There is a girls team here who I practice with once in a while. The tournament was hosted by a local high school, but it was an open tournament. We played 2 games on Saturday and won both pretty easily. Today, we played 3 more games, including semi-finals and finals. We were playing the other good girls team from Kisumu in the semi's and we were winning 1-0 with about 3 minutes left. The officiating was horrible, no one disputed that, and one of our girls had an obvious handball in the box, almost near the 6 yard box and of course, the referee calls a free kick OUTSIDE the box. So the other teams goes crazy and the girls start swearing and screaming at the ref. Their coaches were calling them and telling them to walk off the field, which is what they did. This is the problem with a lot of soccer here. I have seen this scenario happen MULTIPLE times,but this was the first time I was directly involved because I was playing. Teams have no discipline and the coaches are the instigators in almost every situation like this. What kind of role models are they teaching the kids to abandon matches whenever there is a call by the referee that they don't like. Very frustrating to see...
Anyway, we got to the finals and ended up winning in penalty kicks. It was fun and I scored a few goals so people FINALLY realize that I can play soccer, even though I always say I do. The common response is "but Kelsey, they don't play soccer in America." Maybe now they think otherwise haha.
I am currently sitting in my living room at 4:30am watching the Super Bowl by myself. There are no American commercials, which stinks, and I think the broadcast is about 10 seconds behind the US, but it is live nonetheless. This will be my one major late-night sporting event, besides the Duke-UNC games, but it is totally worth losing sleep over.
I am probably one of 15 people in the entire country watching this game right now. Gotta love it...
I have definitely figured out how to deal with the stress of my job and let things go. By surrounding myself with the right people, it makes me feel much more confident about leaving here in July and things really being able to continue the way they are now. With work being less stressful, it makes it much easier to have more fun in general.
My 3 American friends here just moved into the apartment building next to mine, so it is awesome to have them so close. We can literally stand at our windows and talk to each from 5 yards away... pretty sweet!
This past weekend I played in a local soccer tournament here. There is a girls team here who I practice with once in a while. The tournament was hosted by a local high school, but it was an open tournament. We played 2 games on Saturday and won both pretty easily. Today, we played 3 more games, including semi-finals and finals. We were playing the other good girls team from Kisumu in the semi's and we were winning 1-0 with about 3 minutes left. The officiating was horrible, no one disputed that, and one of our girls had an obvious handball in the box, almost near the 6 yard box and of course, the referee calls a free kick OUTSIDE the box. So the other teams goes crazy and the girls start swearing and screaming at the ref. Their coaches were calling them and telling them to walk off the field, which is what they did. This is the problem with a lot of soccer here. I have seen this scenario happen MULTIPLE times,but this was the first time I was directly involved because I was playing. Teams have no discipline and the coaches are the instigators in almost every situation like this. What kind of role models are they teaching the kids to abandon matches whenever there is a call by the referee that they don't like. Very frustrating to see...
Anyway, we got to the finals and ended up winning in penalty kicks. It was fun and I scored a few goals so people FINALLY realize that I can play soccer, even though I always say I do. The common response is "but Kelsey, they don't play soccer in America." Maybe now they think otherwise haha.
I am currently sitting in my living room at 4:30am watching the Super Bowl by myself. There are no American commercials, which stinks, and I think the broadcast is about 10 seconds behind the US, but it is live nonetheless. This will be my one major late-night sporting event, besides the Duke-UNC games, but it is totally worth losing sleep over.
I am probably one of 15 people in the entire country watching this game right now. Gotta love it...
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