We all sat down at the bar to watch the game, and surprise surprise it was actually pretty exciting. I watched a few games during the World Cup in the States, but this game was definitely better. Both teams were constantly shooting on goal and there was non-stop action throughout the field. I have to say I was kind of surprised because I normally picture futbol as a bunch of guys passing the ball around for 90 minutes. It probably helped that these were two of the best teams. We all had our Tuskers, some more than others, and were anxiously awaiting a goal from either side. Arsenal seemed to be dominating the ball, but all of a sudden a Man U player by the name of Fabio – yes Fabio – took the ball and scored! My table was pretty silent except for the one guy who was jumping up and down, with evil stares all around him. The rest of the place was yelling and cheering, and it reminded me of the Giants versus Eagles game at Buffalo Billiards this past year. Well Fabio and his Jew fro were the stars of the game. Man U ended up winning 2-0 even after the cute Arsenal player, Samir Nasri, with his bright orange shoes, kicked an amazing shot to the corner that the goalie must have had prior knowledge of before diving to the ground and saving it at the last second. But so it was, a loss for Arsenal, kicking them out of the tournament, allowing Man U to most likely go on to win it all. I still look forward to watching the remainder of the games with these guys though; I guess if American football isn’t around every Sunday then real Futbol will have to suffice. I’m even looking to see if I can go to a Kenyan game in Nairobi at some point. That would be very exciting; I can see if those fans really are worse than Eagles fans. :)
At the end of my time in Kisumu, Aduda introduced us to his old high school where he used to play field hockey (it is a guys' sport everywhere else other than the United States, minus the skirts). I was definitely excited since I haven’t played in years, has to be at least 6 or 7, and I was itching to pick up a stick. So that first day I went, I borrowed one of the guy’s sticks on the team and after their practice scrimmaged a little bit against some of them. It was soooo much fun. Just being able to wind up the stick and smack the crap out of the ball felt awesome. I even went out and bought a stick, so when I returned to the school I could use my own. I took it with me to Eldoret where I am now (just moved back!) and will see if I can use it while I’m here. Lauren plans on returning to Kisumu before she leaves so I will give her the stick to donate to the school, hopefully going to a great player who can use a better stick than many of the ones that were provided to them by the school. It has given me the motivation to join a field hockey league back in the states, if anyone wants to join with me let me know!
Not too many exciting things have happened in the past week, hence the shortage on blog posts, but I have traveled back to Eldoret and am excited to see everyone again. Lauren and I are living in a great guest house that Violet found for us, so we are still able to cook and have our own area to ourselves. Jess elected to go back to the IU house, which was nice because Lauren and I can go over there for dinner or whatnot when we don’t actually feel like cooking, or when we want internet that actually works. I have reconnected with our CHW from before, Walter, which I am very excited about. He remembered us and is more than willing to help out as much as he can. He continues to amaze me every time we have a chance to talk. His willingness to be there unconditionally for his community is inspiring and truly shows his benevolent nature.
With that I’m sending out a shameless request for whoever would like to donate or join my Servathon team back in DC. I feel like this may be a good forum for it since I think a lot of people read this, but I really don’t know who. Many of you probably already received some emails from me letting you know about Servathon and if anyone would like to join the team, so if you have you can disregard the next paragraph like you probably did the email :). For everyone else, Servathon is the largest volunteer day in DC and the greater area. It is run through the organization Greater DC Cares and last year there were over 7,000 volunteers in service projects at 100+ nonprofits and schools. Last year we volunteered at Boystown DC and we made benches, a volleyball court and did some landscaping around the area. The year before we painted the interior of an apartment building which provided permanent support housing to people living with HIV/AIDS and other disabilities. This year we are volunteering at the Ophelia Egypt Program Center where it is their mission to provide high quality, affordable reproductive health care; promote education programs that empower all individuals to make informed and responsible reproductive choices; and to protect the right to make those choices (yes I did copy and paste that). We will be painting landscapes and other murals on canvass to be placed around the program center and we will also clear out and build an urban garden space in a lot next to the center. Now I may be writing we in all this but in reality it is occurring on April 16th so I will still be in Kenya at the time. Julia and Makeda have been my helpers on the ground in DC. This is the third year that my team will be going though so I didn’t want to miss out on having them return just because I was out of the country. I want to thank everyone who has signed up so far and encourage others to continue to do so. If you would like to join or donate you just have to go to: http://servathon2011.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=464521&lis=0&kntae464521=0962EC71D7AF47279BDCCD79B9C9A80B and either click Register Here or Sponsor Participant. My team name is Rescue Rangers (thank you Julia!). It should be pretty self explanatory from there, but shoot me an email if you have questions.
So… sorry for the self-promotion but I guess it has to happen once in awhile to get real results. Also it goes to a great cause by providing volunteer services to DC’s nonprofits and schools and having the residents of the community give back, which I guess is what I was going for at the end of this post. Also, I want to shout out to Minard for the cds he sent me half way across the world, always have to love the annual Music Man Minard mix.
Time is flying by like usual, only 6 weeks left on this amazing journey…
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