Sporting Challenges

For the last few weeks, I have been managing an after-school soccer program for high school kids. It is open to girls and boys, but ends up being only boys. The numbers fluctuate every day from 10 kids to 20 kids. The first few weeks, I was actually coaching, but now we are experimenting with a coaching development program in which we use young players, age 19-25, and slowly train and develop them into coaches. One of the major social challenges young people face here is unemployment. Most kids finish secondary school and even attend community college, but after that, it is extremely difficult to find employment so there is a huge section of young people who are just idle. We are trying to develop ways in which some of these young people can be trained in coaching and can somehow gain employment as a coach in youth programs. So the new coach I am working with is 20 and has played soccer for a long time, but these last two weeks have been his first times coaching.

I notice many cultural differences between the US and here. Many of the same differences I observed in Kenya. There is a sort of "don't speak unless spoken to" culture that exists and is fostered by the education system. Most schools do not encourage students to be outgoing or engaging, but instead promote attentive listening, discipline and intense academic standards. Many of these kids do not have outlets to display their emotion or to enjoy themselves as kids. A sports environment is one place in which this could possibly happen, but again, most coaches here also promote repetition and discipline. We are trying to provide an environment for these kids to learn, but to also have fun in a reliable and consistent setting, which is a rare scenario here. One example of the difference in coaching or teaching styles is the fact that the young coach I am helping to trained told me that sometimes when I coach I make the kids feel awkward because I am always saying "please." I thought this was so interesting because first of all, I don't even realize that I'm saying please, but if I'm asking a kid to go pick up the cones or to get in line or to listen, I would always preface the request with "please." While the culture here is to be very polite to teachers (the kids answer every single thing I say with "Yes, miss"), it is not often that the person in an authority position is nice back to them. So the coach was saying that when I say please, it makes it seem like I am putting myself below the players. Interesting cultural difference to me, since I would think it would be disrespectful to NOT say please and they see it as a sign of weakness.

Overall the program is going well and I am learning more and more every day about coaching, working with kids, how to tailor my approach to certain individuals, how to control my own anger when these kids are disrespectful and don't listen, which is basically every day! We are working on developing a curriculum for a coaching vocational training course, which would be a really great project here. This whole process gives me such a different perspective on coaches and really makes me appreciate all the good coaches out there. It is such a hard thing to understand if you are only a player, but once you are on the other side of the situation, it's a whole other world.

Living in St. Lucia

So it has not officially been two weeks that I have been in St. Lucia. Enough time for me to get the lay of the land, but also for me to wonder how people ever leave this place. St. Lucia is such a naturally beautiful island. There are rolling hills and mountains everywhere and lush green forests which is all surrounded by gorgeous white sand, blue/green water beaches. I am extremely lucky to be living in a place on the northern part of the island called Cap Estate, which happens to be the wealthiest neighborhood on the island with multiple mansions, estates, resorts, a golf course, etc. My apartment is a one bedroom place with a big living room and a small kitchen area. The best part is the porch on the front which has a great view of the hills and also has a small pool!




I live in a gated community which is good safety-wise, which is about a 10 minute walk to the beach and also a 20 minute walk to the nearest bus stop which can take me anywhere else I need to go on the island. The closest towns to me are Gros Islet and Rodney Bay. Rodney Bay is the major tourist area on the island. There are two large shopping malls, tons of restaurants, bars and cafes. You can eat any type of food there - Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mexican and of course lots of seafood. There is a marina in Rodney Bay which also has great restaurants along the water and there are so many huge boats/yachts that are coming in and out all day. Kinda fun to see!

The organization I am working with, Sacred Sports Foundation, is phenomenal. They are doing lots of projects around the island, including grassroots soccer programs, girls netball programs, a little bit of cricket and a little rugby. I have been involved with an after-school soccer program that they are running for high school aged boys of varying skill level. A lot of the kids are from tough neighborhoods and difficult family situations so it has been a struggle to organize training sessions for them. However, we have had some success as far as implementing a consistent program with a bit of discipline while still making it enjoyable and fun for them. I will most likely continue to work on this project, among others, for the remainder of my time here.

Last week in Barbados

This past week has been phenomenal. Last Friday night, we went to Oistens which is a small town on the South coast of Barbados very well known for its Friday night fish fry. The whole main street of the town is right next to the beach and is set up with many small food/drink stands all in front of a large stage with music playing. There are picnic tables set up everywhere so you can get food from any of the vendors and sit wherever. Every place is selling a combination of kingfish, marlin, dolphin, mahi mahi, tuna, mackerel, fish cakes, flying fish, barracuda and shrimp. Basically it is a huge outdoor party where everyone is eating fish and drinking beer or rum and dancing to reggae music. There were a lot of tourists there, but many locals as well, so it had a really fun vibe.

A few of us woke up really early Saturday morning and headed up to the north coast beach to go fishing with a guy we had met earlier in the week. He is a friend of our professor and had offered to take a few of us out on his boat for his weekly Saturday morning scuba diving harpoon fishing. Him and two other Bajan guys go almost every Saturday and Sunday morning to fish, mostly just to eat the fish themselves, but they do sell some of it as well. We were out on the water for about 5 hours and during that time they each dove twice, for about 45 minutes each time. They would surface with a wire of between 5 to 12 fish each that they had shot - an assortment of parrot fish, red belly chub, mackerel, ning ning (local name - not sure what the real name is) and barracudas. The fish literally looked like someone colored them with neon magic markers because they are all so brightly colorful. Between dives, we anchored closer to shore and went snorkeling near a jetty. The water is so salty that is so easy to swim and we just needed masks, not even life jackets or flippers or anything. Being out on the water was so great and gave us a good idea of real, non-touristy Bajan life.

Monday afternoon we had decided to again go out on a boat, but to do some more touristy activities - snorkeling and swimming with sea turtles! We were out on a glass bottom boat which also had an upper part which you could climb up to and soak up some sun. We weren't very far off shore to snorkel, but the water is so clear so you can basically see the bottom everywhere. We jumped in to snorkel and were immediately surrounded by schools of fish... some small striped ones as well as larger, shiny purplish ones. The local guys who took us out were throwing some bread in the water so they fish were jumping at us to get to the bread. It was a little weird at first, but then when there was no bread and I was actually trying to touch the fish, it was hard to. We relocated again and were able to swim around for about 45 minutes with approximately 12 sea turtles. Some were bigger than other, but none more than 3 feet long. We could touch them and try to hold on to them too. It was amazing! Their shells were kinda slimy and their fins (hands/feet?) were really rough.

Tuesday night was the beginning of the Twenty20 Caribbean cricket tournament which is being hosted here in Barbados at the main famous stadium, Kensington Oval. We went to the 8pm match which was the Winward Islands versus Leeward Islands. The stadium is quite large and is really cool. There is a party stand section where you can buy tickets to and not sit in the regular stands. They have music playing all the time and food and drinks. I somewhat understand the rules/scoring of cricket now, but still have a long way to go. Is has just been really fun to attempt to understand the value and centrality of cricket to life here in Barbados. It is far beyond the importance of any sport we have in the US. Maybe slightly comparable to baseball as America's past-time, but not totally since cricket is legitimately a way of life here.

We had our final dinner last night at our friends local rum shop and go to say bye to all the Bajans who helped us out this whole trip and who were our classmates. Some of the students left this morning and everyone else is leaving this afternoon. I will stay here one more night and fly to St. Lucia tomorrow. So excited for the next part of my Caribbean adventure... and if it's anything like Barbados, I'm not sure I will ever spend another winter in the US!

How do people ever leave the Caribbean?!?

So basically Barbados is amazing. The last week or so has consisted of us spending days at different beautiful beaches, meeting tons of local people, eating delicious Bajan food, experiencing island nightlife and island culture. My favorite activity so far has been surfing. Yesterday we woke up early to take two buses($1 each!) to the east coast of the island, which is the less touristy, rougher Atlantic coast. We had heard about a surfing legend who lives over in Bathsheba, the surf capital of Barbados, who gives lessons. So we communicated with him about surf lessons and headed over there. The coast line on the east side is much different than the calm Caribbean sea. The coast was very rocky with lots of waves, not huge waves, but frequent waves, and much windier weather. Snake let us chill at his house for a bit while he prepared the surf boards. Also, Snake is a 60 year old Bajan man who is the last remaining surfer from his generation of local surfing legends. He has a mohawk of gray hair, wore red Ray Ban sunglasses and was missing a bunch of teeth! His other surfer instructor friend, Sammy D., came as well. So basically two of us went out at a time, so I was with Snake for the 45 mins-an hour that I surfed. I had surfed once before but didn't remember it at all. I stood up on my second try and pretty much every try after that. The sea was very rough and the waves were so constant that it made paddling out there really difficult. Despite it being hard and exhausting it was SO MUCH fun. I think I might try to go back next week again...

Other highlights so far have been the food - tons of seafood. We've eaten flying fish (the most popular local food), barracuda (caught one hour before we ate it), mahi mahi, tuna and marlin- sometimes fried, sometimes grilled and most of the times there is DELICIOUS local hot sauce available to eat with all the food here. We've also had phenomenal grilled jerk chicken, sweet potato mash, breadfruit mash and lots of coconuts! The beverage selection here is also awesome. The local Barbados beer is Banks, which is quite light and great when cold (also pretty cheap). You can get imported beer as well and they regularly have a few other Caribbean beers available, like Piton from St. Lucia. However, beer is definitely not the most popular drink here... rum is king. Mount Gay Rum is distilled here on the island and is everywhere. They have different kinds, older/aged/expensive and newer/cheaper. Rum punch is the most popular mixed drink and is served everywhere. I wasn't a huge rum fan in the first place, but rum punch changed all of that!

The beaches here are also phenomenal. All beaches are public so we can go to any beach on the island. Some are more touristy than others, of course, but we have been to some amazing beaches that I thought only existed on post-cards. There are lots of activities to do in the sea as well - swimming with sea turtles, snorkeling, fishing, jet-skiing, tubing, touring the island by boat, etc. Hopefully later this week we are going fishing with some guys who spear-fish here for a living. We won't actually dive with them, but will be able to see how they do it. The sun is hot - every day - so being able to be near the water is crucial. The swimming is so great because it's sandy bottoms and you can basically see everything through the greenish/blue water.

Classes have been interesting too. We are mixed in with Bajan students as well, so it has been really great to discuss sport, recreation, leisure, tourism and culture with the American as well as local perspective. Cricket dominates the sports world here, but we have also seen some soccer games going on as well as a sort of street tennis game in which players crouch down low over a (usually home-made) court that is about the size of two ping pong tables. They have rackets and hit the ball back and forth. Kinda cool... It is basically a mix between tennis and ping pong and bowling.

This upcoming weekend we are going to have local fish fry on Friday and Saturday night at a lime, which is the world here for party. The locals in our class have been great at setting us up with things to do and places to see here, so we are lucky to have that. It's hard to not be labeled and lumped in with all the other tourists on the island because clearly we are, but we are also getting a little different perspective on local culture because of our interactions with the other students and going to events with them. So far, Barbados is amazing - extremely easy to get everywhere, people are so friendly, the food is wonderful and the weather and beaches are beautiful. I think I might be addicted to island life already...

Somehow I am in school in Barbados...

So here goes the next travel portion of my life - the Caribbean. Somehow George Mason allows us to come to Barbados and actually take classes, like real 3 credit classes, while in paradise. We are at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill staying in the dorms on campus and starting class/seminar here at the end of the week. I am currently sitting in the common room of the dorm (third floor) looking out over the cricket oval and watching Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago play a cricket match under the lights in a beautiful stadium. Now I do need to actually learn all the rules of cricket, but I plan on these relaxing viewing evenings to better my knowledge. We did try out the water already today. It's about a 15 minute walk down to the beach and the water was beautiful and warm - didn't really expect anything else.

After the next two and a half weeks here in Barbados, I will head to St. Lucia for the rest of the semester to work with a youth sport for development organization there and also do research for my Masters project. I know, tough life huh?!

home sweet home

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!

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!!!

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?!?!

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!!

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...

The Mara

Last weekend, I went to Maasai Mara National Park with a few friends of mine. We left Kisumu at 6am on Friday morning and got to the park around 11am after 3 hours of good roads and 2 of hours of absolutely horrible roads. We drive in over this ridge and you look out and its just the best view ever. So we start driving through the park and immediately we're seeing herds of elephants, tons of zebras, wildebeest, antelopes and gazelles. We stopped by the river and saw huge hippos lounging around. After being in the park for like 20 minutes, our driver pulls a u-turn and we speed off the road through a random field and all the sudden we are legitimately 5 yards from a huge male lion just sitting on the ground. I was totally scared but of course, still hanging out the top of the car to take good pictures haha. It was unreal...

Later in the day we saw a leopard which had just killed a zebra and was eating it. We also went off roading and saw cheetahs lounging around. Buffaloes were everywhere and so we giraffes. We left the park on the far side from where we cam in and stayed at our lodge for the night. It was a tented camp, but each tent was huge and had 2 beds in it and was attached to a small concrete room with a toilet and hot shower. It was perfect.

We got up really early Saturday morning and went to search for more animals, especially a rhino. On the way we stopped to see a female lion which had just eaten a cow. It was still sitting near the cow and guarding it against all the vultures nearby which wanted to eat the rest of the carcass. We watched for about 30 mins as the lion would start to slowly walk away as the vultures creeped closer, the lion would turn back and look at the birds and they would freeze, then it would turn back and continue away. After walking 30 yards or so, it would turn and run back towards the carcass and the vultures would fly away. Pretty sweet to watch, especially because the lion walked directly in front of our car. Later on, we saw a pride of four male lions who would have been rebels in their original prides, but left and joined together. It was wild!

We saw a mom and baby elephant drinking from a watering hole and we were basically about 4 feet from there. It was so cute. We searched for a rhino the whole day but unfortunately didn't see one. During the morning, we saw the leopard again really close up and it was definitely the coolest animal we saw the whole time. The colors were so cool and bright and we were lucky because most people on safaris don't usually see leopards.

The whole landscape of the Mara is amazing and so beautiful. I always think tourists who go on safari are so corny, but it was hands down the coolest thing ever (or at least right up there with bungee jumping over the Nile...). Sunday morning we got to drive back through the park again, so we spent basically 3 days in the car just looking at beautiful views and cool animals. It was exhausting, but so worth it.

Oh Kenya....

Things have been going really well recently. I have just been totally submerged in work, which has allowed me to do more thinking and piece together my thoughts and theories about Kenyans/Kenya in general.

First, I have never been surrounded by so many mean, selfish people. I know ‘bad’ is not a very descriptive word, but that’s how I feel about so many people. They are BAD people. Now of course this is not the majority of people. The majority are warm and friendly and trustworthy, but the percentage of people who are not, is so much higher than I am used to. People have zero shame in stealing, lying, cheating and exploiting others. I am blown away by the audacity of some people and their willingness to brag about their corrupt and immoral ways.

Unfortunately, a huge number of these people are involved in football in Kenya. No wonder Kenyan soccer is never good and never goes anywhere haha. Because of my strict adherence to rules and my straightforward ways, I have made a good number of enemies. Not only are people mean to me, but they are mean to each other, to their friends. I am amazed how people can backstab and cheat their friends even with their friend’s knowledge and they next day they are back to being friends. Forgiving and forgetting and quite common. Maybe it’s me or maybe it’s the culture I come from, but I don’t forget when people talk bad about me or try to cheat me or blatantly lie to my face REPEATEDLY.

I feel like the things I am learning here are so different than my expectations going in. I’m learning more how to deal with bad people, than to deal with the good ones. Not to say I don’t work and spend time with amazing wonderful people every day, because I certainly do, but that’s the easy part, so why would I complain about it, right?!?

Money plays such an interesting role here. As far as I understand, there is a universal theory right now that dumping money into developing countries will not help them. Instead, we should build their capacity and strengthen the human resources within the country to help them build themselves. I totally agree with that idea form an American viewpoint, but from my newly cynical Kenyan viewpoint, I think it’s bull. Realistically, if you ask people in these countries, they don’t want to be trained. They don’t want to take 3 days away from whatever they do for work to come for a training. They don’t want their ‘capacity’ to be built. That takes time, that takes patience, that takes planning. They want money, today, now… in their hand so they can put food on the table. There is very little thinking about the future here, about how they can build up themselves. To them it’s a simple answer… “give us money.” They think, ‘Money will fix our problems, money will rid us of poverty, drought, HIV, famine, flooding, corruption.”

I think I am just becoming more confused as to how development “works” because is it working? Are people and places becoming developed? I don’t know the answers, but I know that truly the only way that is proven, is one person at a time. Today, I was watching a match in our under 12 league. This weekend is what we call mini-league but in American talk is playoffs. So this team is wearing replica Manchester United jerseys that we had given them since they were the number 1 team during league play. These small boys are on the field, playing their hearts out, wearing real uniforms and most of them wearing cleats (their coach had saved ALL his money to help buy the shoes) and one of them scores with a beautiful left-footed half volley from 10 yards out. They all run to the corner flag, ecstatic, and do a circle/dance celebration before returning to the middle of the field. Their (volunteer) coach pumps his fist on the side line and all the older brothers and older boys from that neighborhood who are there supporting the team are running along the sideline waving shirts in the air and yelling and celebrating. I just know that if these kids can stick to football, instead of local brews or drugs or prostitutes that plague the slum they come from, they will be “developed.” Giving people, especially kids, an enjoyable free life is what development is all about. I think the organization I work for plays a small part in that and I’m proud of that.

Anyway, that’s a little bit of my recent thoughts about Kenya and my experience here. Bottom line is I love it, I love the challenge and I loving proving to people I’m right by helping kids and teaching them to do the right thing. It’s kind of the ultimate “Ha, Ha” in the face of the bad guys.

11 months in Kenya...

So a few recent incidents. The first one involving the local witch doctor. 2 buildings down from me, there is a "traditional healer" who conducts his business from his house. He has signs all over the neighborhood advertising his business, which says how he cures "syphilis, gonorrhea, cancer, court cases, education, asthma, and vomiting all the times." This is no joke haha. So a few weeks ago, I wake up to a lot of commotion outside my apartment building. I walk out to the balcony and there is a huge crowd of about 100 people outside the witch doctor's house and there was a naked man down on the ground on all fours crying and moaning and eating grass while holding a goat on a string. Yea, this is still real. So apparently the story was another man had had a goat stolen from and he went to the witch doctor to try to get it back. So a few days later this crying naked man shows up with a goat. So it looks like the witch doctor placed a curse on him and he came back willingly to return the stolen goat. Along with the 100 or so people there watching, the police came and the media came. It was a huge crazy scene and so bizarre, I could barely believe it was happening. So I find out the next day it was a hoax. The naked crying man was hired by the witchdoctor to make it look like he had placed a curse on him to advertise for his business. Kenya is so strange sometimes...

Last weekend we hosted a nationwide girls tournament here in Kisumu. Of 32 teams that we supposed to come for the tournament, only 16 showed up. Very typical, but it made my life so extremely stressful the first day of the tournament. Turned out to be a very successful tournament and we had about 2000 or 3000 people watching each day. It was awesome!

Nothing else is very new. I have a few American friends who were here for the summer and they are all leaving soon which is sad. People seem to come and go quickly here.
Otherwise, just missing Mexican food and smooth roads...

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!

The beach

I went to the coast last weekend with some friends for a little getaway. We took an overnight bus which was supposed to take 12 hours, but there was an accident on the road, yes THE road because there is only one road going across the country so we sat still in the middle of the night for 3 hours until we finally started moving. We arrived in Mombasa and took public transport down to Diani Beach which is about 30 mins south of Mombasa. The place where we stayed was a like a small apartment/cottage about 30 yards from the beach. You couldn't exactly see the water but if you walked a few yards you could.

The beach was absolutely gorgeous. It's just hard to believe sometimes when you're there that you are in Kenya. Kenya... the place where 56% of the people live on less than one dollar per day, where corruption in the government spoils everything and where food security is a huge issue... Yet here we are on a postcard beach with no one around in the most beautiful place ever. Wierd...

We basically laid on the beach and swam in the light blue, clear warm water all day. Friday afternoon we took camel rides down the beach. It was pretty sweet. We ate at a restaurant a little ways down where you sit at a table with your feet in the sand and the ocean breeze blowing on you while eating good food (cheeseburgers and pizza!!) Then we got up and did it all over again the next day. The Kenyan coast is so cool because you can be in paradise and pay $4 a night. Slightly different than most other beach resort areas.

Otherwise, work is going really well. It was nice to get away but every time I come back I realize how much I have to do. It's never ending, but I love it.

Transportation

So getting places here is actually quite easy. There are a few options:

1. Matatu - 14 passenger vans that run along specific routes and constantly pick up and drop people off. This is the cheapest way and costs 20 shillings (25 cents) no matter where you go. Usually there are way more than 14 people on them and often I am squished up against a huge woman or 3 school kids all sitting in one seat. Most of these vehicles are decorated with stickers of American pop stars of sports teams. There is always very loud music playing and lights flashing at night. Basically they are awesome and by far the most convenient effective means of transport.

2. Motorbike - These are motorcycles that are everywhere on every street corner and can easily feet 2 people plus the driver. I use these when I have to get somewhere quickly and they are still very cheap.

3. Tuk-Tuk - These are three wheeled, covered vehicles that are not super fast but can fit 4 or 5 people in them if needed. They're awesome when it's raining, but they're also pretty slow, very loud, and not a smooth ride. Great for coming home with groceries..

4. Boda-Boda - These are the most common... bicycle taxis. Guys ride bikes with thick padded plastic seats on the back. They are EVERYWHERE and there are a million of them. The only part that sucks is that they can't go up hills or inclines of ANY kind very well because they have only one gear. It's a slight blow to my ego where I'm going somewhere up a slight incline and the guy has to ask me to get off and walk because he can't carry me haha. Also, the guys that are carrying me are often about half my weight...

I can easily use all of these in one day. But I do use matatus and bodabodas every single day. I wish I could explain more how crazy and chaotic the roads are here. Cars, matatus, bikes, tuktuks, and pedestrains... all using horrible, pothole-filled, half paved roads. It's crazy!

The rainy season

It has rained almost every day for the past 3 weeks. It happens at the same time every day, usually late afternoon around 4 or 5. It has been a nice break from the insanely hot dry season.

Otherwise this month has been going so well. My friend Daniel from UNC was just here to visit for two weeks. We spent most of our time here in Kisumu just hanging out. He got to see how I live and what my life is like here. We did take one trip to Eldoret, a town about 3 hours from here. We took public transport, a matatu, on the way there. The route we went was absolutely ridiculous. It took 4 hours and the road was the worst I have been on in all of Kenya. It rained and the roof of the vehicle was leaking. At one point there were 21 people in the 14 passenger vehicle. It was an interesting trip...

Eldoret town was great. It was much cooler than Kisumu but still sunny an beautiful. We stayed with Daniel's distant relatives who live in a beautiful compound with many Americans. The night we got there the dinner was MEXICAN FOOD... which just happened to be the food I miss the most being here. It was awesome.

Work has been going well. I am starting to see some of the things I have done being implemented. Kids are playing, there is a little less cheating and we are training many coaches, referees and youth leaders. Speaking of playing...

I played in two tournaments earlier this month. There is a girls team here which is pretty good and they train regularly, unlike most other teams. So I played in a game at the main venue in town, called Sportsground, and there were soooo many people there. Definitely the largest crowd I have ever play in front of. Every time I touched the ball, people would start cheering or yelling and I would get a lot of applause for ANY completed pass... I wish it was like that at home too haha.

My team won 9-0 but I'm pretty sure the team we played, some women from the rural area, had never played in a real game. Now people always tell me that they now believe me that I can play football. They ask me why I'm not playing professionally or on the US national team... They don't really understand the level of women's soccer at home.

So now I have officially been in Kenya for a total of one year... crazy. I am finally starting to really feel comfortable here. I understand how things work and I understand how the people work. Every time I have a visitor from home, I am reminded just how different things are here.

Next week, I am planning on going to the Coast for a much needed break. Can't wait to be laying on a beach!!

March Madness

so I have officially been here 6 months... how did that happen?

Work is going great. I am becoming much more adjusted to the Kenyan ways of doing things. We have about 150 teams participating in our leagues, so we are essentially organizing competitions for 3000 kids!

This past weekend I went to Nairobi for the day on Saturday (took the night bus there on Friday and the night bus back on Saturday). I went just to watch the Harambee Stars play, which is the name of the national soccer team here. They played Tunisia in a World Cup qualifying match, but we lost 2-1... bummer! It was an awesome experience though. Live events always are.

On Sunday, I went to a party with about 40 other Americans. It was on a barge that was anchored just in a bay here on Lake Victoria. We hung out and had drinks and a buffet dinner. I ate tuna, brie cheese, shrimp and turkey. All things I have NEVER eaten in Kenya before then. It was amazing! Then in the evening, people started jumping off to go for a swim so of course I also had to do it. I was assured there were no hippos in the area even though we were in a place called Kiboko Bay, which means Hippo Bay in Swahili. So I did it and it was my first official swim in Lake Victoria.

Today I spent the day at a local school where school games were held between four schools from around the area which have all students who are special needs. Here they are called "intellectually disabled." The kids, of all ages, competed in track and field events as well as a soccer game. Little did I know, I was the guest of honor so they talked about me for about 10 minutes and then I had to give a speech to the 150+ people who were there. Good thing people don't understand my English very well...

So overall things are great and going very well. I could essentially start a youth football organization ANYWHERE in the world right now with the experience I have had here in the last 6 months. People around here are starting to know my name and not be afraid to talk to me (they used to call me "mzungu" or "white person"). I've been invited to a lot of events as a special guest of honor which is flattering but also making my schedule quite crazy.

Also, March madness has not quite been the same here without other college basketball fans. I have tried to explain the brackets and the tournament to people and no one gets it. Oh well.... as long as Carolina is in the Final Four it's allllll good with me!

GO HEELS!