Sadili, and Sad to be Leaving Kenya

Yesterday it was time to head back to Nairobi, as we were visiting Sadili Oval, a project set up by Dr Liz Odera, for the children of Kibera. Just as with the Vision Africa program we witnessed the other day, which is trying to make day-to-day living easier, Dr Odera is trying to teach children to set goals and show them they can achieve them and can improve their own lives.

The clubhouse at Sadili Oval, which caters for rugby, tennis, swimming, football and athletics, was built out of recycled milk cartons and Dr Odera raised the money. It is built over a water table and the water runs down and is used by the people of Kibera.

The children have cleared wasteland to create pitches but frequently once these are cleared they are moved on by Kibera mafia who decide they want the land, and the process starts all over again.

They have a program called “Sports for Life,” this is where they invite the children in and give them coaching and set them goals which are achievable so that they can improve their self worth and self belief.

A very different program, but again a good one helping improve lives.

Today we watched England lose to Germany, and it really does bring into question the inflated salaries these guys and their coach get, they lacked passion and commitment and were totally outclassed.

We also visited the Liberty academy, which was great; they train on Kenya’s only Astroturf pitch. The academy is actually Ghana based and it was superb to see African nations helping one another.

We are due to head to Uganda tomorrow but have been let down by Astral Aviation.  Despite asking if they were sure they could give us a lift to Entebbe on their freighter months ago when we were booking our flights they assured us all would be OK. Today they cancelled the flight, so we now have to buy tickets at full price, but it will still be worth it.

Kenya has been fantastic and the people so open and honest about the FIFA suspension and why they have not achieved what their West African counterparts have. We hope that the future is more positive as the country and the people deserve it.

Thank you Pete, Martin and Joel in Nairobi and also Deb in Naivasha for making the trip so memorable.