It’s really hard to find the time to blog out here, we have a constant agenda usually involving waking about 7.30am and we don’t stop until we get back to the hotel between 6-7pm. By then we’re all so tired and in need of a shower that we’re in need to relax.
As such I’m a few days behind in recording events, but rather than back-track to Wednesday it’s well worth recording what has just happened while it’s fresh in the memory. We’ve just spent about 1.5hrs in one of the poorest schools here in Kisumu. Just the noise from the children as we arrived and walked to the headmaster’s office felt like walking out for the Boxing Day Test Match at the MCG, absolutely incredible.
The next ‘this is what it must be like to be famous’ moment came afterwards when the children came to greet us. They all rush to you for a simple High-5, once they have that they smile and stand back while everybody else pushes forward. If you really want to make somebody glow then all you have to do is squeeze their hand, say hello or ruffle their head. What an amazing power to be able to give so much so easily.
We’ve got in to quite a routine now when going to schools. We do an introduction before the coaches go off to set up their stations (typically 1-2 sets of stumps, a couple of bats, about 10 cones and 20 tennis balls) and then a few minutes later Rich sends a gaggle of children running towards you.
Personally I should have stuck with the High-5s for my station. I had 40 kids run over to me and the High-5s and head ruffling was going down a treat. Then I tried to introduce a simple catching game, one that works well out here, literally one person throwing a ball to their partner and back again. Here though I found that as soon as I introduced balls in to the equation all madness broke out. It’s a real shame that it was impossible to get all 1200 balls out here donated by the Tennis Foundation because something so simple is so important to these children.
The madness only increased when they saw the limited bats & stumps. Everybody wants, or even feels that they need something for themselves which leads to fights and lots of unhappy children. By this stage we’d only done about 20 minutes, I’d lost count of how many children I had in my group (they migrate from station to station depending on what looks most fun) and took a second to look around some other stations;
Tim had everybody in orderly lines playing a variety of catching games with a single ball (smart man). Deeps was trying about as many games as I was but had stumbled across a quick running relay race game that looked like it was working. Mac had a circle around her shouting various things and jumping around and Sherlock, dear Lord, had about 150 children around her all playing the okey-kokey. She later said she thought she might have got pulled under and trampled upon, but she’s just incredible. She’s heading back home tomorrow night and it was both a hugely successful way for her to finish her coaching and shows what a hole she’ll leave.
The only thing I did that maintained any sense of order was to form a small circle, call it a mosh pit if you like, and whilst the kids sang some gospel music (amazing, by the way) I danced in the middle. Not being a dancer, I had to take solace and hide behind my hat and sunglasses, but they have a lovely way of making you feel good about anything silly that you do. I’ll see how that works in Infernos in Clapham when I get home…
When leaving, we again assumed fame with the High-5s and head ruffles, taking at least 30 minutes to get in the bus – free from running over children over – and leave. The kids were a strange combination of delighted to see us, happy to have had some visitors and aggressively trying to take equipment for themselves.
I’ve never had such a long afternoon before. Time went slower than I ever imagined possible and I’m left mind-blown, knowing that we’ve both made a massive positive difference and seeing some huge issues out here.
We finished the day saying goodbye to Derek, our local organiser, but he left us with the present of taking us to our first proper Kenyan restaurant for some delicious chicken & rice. A great way to spend the night, and hopefully signalling the end of our slightly-too-Western approach to food so far!
