1 week until we arrive back home. The journey to Kitale seems like a dim and distant memory and our new normal seems very ingrained in our day-to-day activities. I get up early each morning and watch the sunrise whilst writing my blog, and Olly takes an elite squad out for their morning run. My blog is seeming to be a popular morning read with you all and I did get a message from checking in with me as it was a little late yesterday being published.
Painting
All of our teams spent the day in full swing painting their murals in the schools. The creative ideas are all starting to take shape. I was back at Namanda Primary today and the team there have a large exterior wall to paint. This is the outside wall of a classroom that was built by our school back in 2014. It has faired really well since we built it and in the last 9 years, it would have accommodated somewhere in the region of 1500 students!
This is part of the legacy that is really hard to comprehend. Whilst the idea of a safe and secure building is really easy to see especially as you are physically building it, the impact it has in the long run is immeasurable.
The other schools are all painting murals inside existing classrooms.
We only really have 1 day left for these to be completed as Wednesday sees us going out and officially opening classrooms that have been built previously.
It is really good that these ceremonies have come towards the end of our trip as it means that the students are getting their parade after they have completed work in their own right.
Football
We are always challenged to various games of football during our stays here. Today was the turn of the local school, Milimani Primary and secondary school. The pitch was probably one of the best I have played in a school in Kenya. It was mostly flat, and had a reasonable covering of grass, although clearly large sections of barren soil, there was even a clear goal line at one end. The touchlines along the side of the pitch were nonexistent, but it was clear very early on that there was a clear agreement on what would be given as a throw-in.
The game went off mostly without a hitch, except for a pitch invader in the shape of a cow and its owner who clearly didn't understand a word of English. This didn't stop play at all and we carried on around the cow! This isn't the first time I have played a game in Kenya with cattle coming on the pitch.
The game ended with us losing 1-0 but it was a very close game with both teams having multiple chances to score. Football, or more so sport in general, is one of these activities that bridges the divide of language, and culture and at the end of the game, a group photo of both teams mixing together was a clear indication of this.
Evening
The evening entertainment was a student lead talent show with most of the team getting involved in some sort of act from, magicians, singers, and dancers it was a really entertaining night. The staff team came in a respectable third with Sam and Izzy winning with their really well-delivered magic act. Definitely deserved winners.
Our resident poet Vivi wrote a poem which really captured the essence of the trip and although I didn't admit this to her, it brought a tear to my eye.
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