I am here in Nairobi now – we took a shuttle (it’s basically a van that kind’ve looks like a VW van with 3 rows of three seats in the back) to Nairobi and arrived at about 10:30. We had wanted to get here earlier, but when we got to the stage about 1 o’clock, there weren’t anymore shuttles leaving until 4. Grrr. But the great thing is, we are staying with the family that was Kelsey’s host family when she was here in college – they have a REALLY nice house, beds for all of us and of course, when we got here, had food waiting on the table. So we basically had dinner at 11 and then had to have tea – it’s very Kenyan. We all had “drinking chocolate” (hot chocolate), otherwise I don’t think we ever would have fallen asleep!
The football tournament on Friday was AMAZING. I really cannot describe how incredible it is to, first, have 15 “under 14” girls’ football teams playing in a tournament and, second, to have them playing in Mbita! I mean, the status of women there alone is so low and girls? They don’t even get spoken too! But here we are, with 15 teams from all around the district and with coaches who are excited to coach them and have them play. The teams had to pay to be in the tournament and this year, they even had a turn a team away because it was full already. And on top of that, so many people were there to cheer them on, including huge groups of boys from their schools – they even came up with cheers and everything. It is so encouraging to see an acceptance, even more, a desire, for girls’ football. It is so hard to convince people that when girls get to play, they actually do better in other areas of their lives. They do better in school, their health is better, and they feel better about themselves. For too many here, they say, “No, they must focus on school!” They won’t even let them practice for an hour! But seeing this shows a real change and a victory in the struggle to really raise these girls up and empower them. Anyway, the day was so much fun. I got there early in the morning and met Joe, Kelsey and another friend of hers from Kisumu, Keevan. He runs a non-profit based in Manyatta (that’s the area where YGC is as well – it is one of the slums in Kisumu) that has started a girl’s and a boy’s football club and also does a lot of outreach through music (rap to be exact – Keevan is a rapper). So we all helped with the tournament (Kelsey and Joe did most of the work) – I took a TON of photos and helped with random paperwork. Watching the games was really fun – it was obvious that some of the teams really practice and some don’t, but overall, all of them did really well. It is so exciting to see people come to a girl’s football tournament and to think of it as normal – that is such a change from even 3 years ago.
The day was REALLY long, but so good. That night, after dinner, I went home to pack and, of course, the power was out. Goody. So I packed with my headlamp – everything definitely just go thrown in in a jumble, but I didn’t forget anything, which was good! Saturday morning, Joe, Kelsey and Keevan came and picked me up and we took the ferry along with Joe’s football team, “The Suba Lakers.” It’s a girl’s football team he started three or four years ago with girls from around the district. Every few months, they come and stay at SEEK and train for a weekend and along with that, they use that opportunity to talk to them about their choices, that it’s important they know that they can say “no” and that if there are EVER any problems, to come and talk to someone about it. Joe is the coach and then there are four other Kenyans who form the whole team – there is, of course, a chairman and then an assistant coach and than one of the female teacher’s from CGA, who stays with the girls when they come and when they have to travel for games. Anyway, it is REALLY amazing how they have mentored and coached these girls – they have become really good footballers, but also, this club can really give them a chance to break out of the life that soooo many girls are headed for – instead of a life no education, early marriage and many children, they have been staying in school and have a chance to really go somewhere or to at least have the choice if that is what they want.
The girls range in age from about 12-16 and they are so cool – it was so much fun to travel with them to Kisumu. They really remind me of some of the older girls from YGC, so that probably made me like them even more, but seriously, they are so sweet. They were playing a game at “The Show” which is basically like the Kisumu State Fair. Kelsey and I decided to go and watch them, so after we brought our stuff back to the house, we met them at the fair. It was pretty hilarious. It definitely looks like a fairground – when you walk through the gates, there were random fair games, lots of cheap, Kenyan stuff for sale (the things you see all over the street like wallets and plastic watches and a lot of other things that I don’t even recognize), a lot of tents advertising different products, like Safaricom or some sort of appliance, etc… There were even rides – a blow-up house/moonwalk sort of thing and that huge swing ride where you all sit in a “swing” and then it rotates around faster and faster until the swings a really far out and you’re basically parallel with the ground. Minus the bazillion food stands that are at our fairs (there were a few food places, but no Elephant Ears folks), it was pretty typical, although pretty small. When we got there, the girls were just getting on the field, but of course, they had been rushed in there and then had to sit and wait for almost an hour. They were told, “you’re late! No time to eat!” and then they were made to wait. Unfortunately, it’s kind’ve typical for Kenya and even more typical when they’re dealing with girls. Then, they got to play and they played SO WELL, except they didn’t make any goals and had to go to a shoot-out, where they lost. Which was a bummer, because they were way better than the other team (and the other team seriously had WOMEN on it – I bet some of them were in their twenties. They were huge!) – they had the ball probably 85% of the time and it rarely went to the opponents end of the field. But they still had a good time and afterwards, after they ate, we took them on the swing ride! It was hilarious – none of them had ever done anything like that, but they loved it! Some of them even went on it twice – the joy in their faces, the fun they had – I was so lucky to get to be a part of it. Afterwards, we even found cotton candy – another (obviously) first for them. They weren’t sure about it at first, “What is that? How do you eat it?” but once they figured it out, it was all gone in seconds. We got some great pictures though.
Then comes the drama of the night. And really, what is a day in Kenya without some sort of adventure? J Joe had been coordinating with the person who was heading up the fair and they were supposed to have a room for the girls. But of course, they acted like they didn’t know anything about that and weren’t sure they could find something. Joe showed them the letter where they made the promise, which basically forced them to figure something out. Of course, that took about 30 phone calls, many “consultations”, going back and forth between Joe and some guy who was supposed to be finding mattresses. They finally said they though they had a room (this is after almost an hour and a half of waiting – and the room that they “finally figured out” was the room we had suggested AT THE BEGINNING. No one was using it – it was in the main building for the fair.), they “couldn’t find mattresses for the girls.” Oh really? The good thing was, the room was carpeted and had some couches, so a few of them slept on the couch and the rest of them laid out the sheets they had brought with them and slept there. They’ve probably slept on worse, so I’m sure they were fine, but still – they would NEVER have made such a fuss if it had been a boy’s team traveling in. Anyway, Joe was driving Kelsey and I home (oh, we had to walk about 20 minutes to his car because the gate they came in through was “locked”, so we had to walk all the way around – it was pretty funny) and he gets a text, “The girls have the room, but please bring troughs [basins] for washing. That is a condition set by management.” Oh my goodness – they really couldn’t, in all of the buildings on the fairground, find 2 basins for these girls? It was such a power trip. Anyway, we got them, and Kelsey and I went home – by that time we had been at the fair for almost 8 hours. Overall, a pretty great day.
Sunday was basically a travel day – we got up, made a really good breakfast and headed to the stage, where we found out we couldn’t leave until four. So we just hung out at the apartment and then took the bus here! It was a little bit of adventure finding a place to stay – Morgan and Kelsey know a bunch of people, but all of them fell through! Except for the host family and this ended up being ideal. I am going to try and post some more pics, but I only have internet right now that’s fast enough for posting this, but once I get faster internet, I will post the pics!
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