Today as we approached Faraja we could hear squeals, giggles, and tears. This is unual since the kids would normally be at school. Upon opening the gates we were greeted by nearly all (except a few older girls) of the kids. Moraa explained that they were out of school for the day and had already done all the work. At this point they were just running around causing a ruckus. I offered to take them out to play and she was grateful. First I walked back to Ngong and got the soccer ball I had brought from home. The air pump I brought was broke, which really sucked. But thankfully we were able to get the ball blown up by the man working at the petro station. After walking back towards Faraja I called Ben and told him "Twende!" (let's go) and waited at the bottom of the hill. The sight of the kids running down the hill was slightly chaotic but one of the best things I've seen since I came here. They were all shouting and ripped the ball out of my hands and just kept running. Ben handed Kepha to Abi and I and took off after the other boys (do they ever grow up? lol).
Playing soccer with the kids has been one of the things I've wanted to do ever since I knew I was coming to Kenya. And it didn't dissapoint. They played for hours, in a dirt field cover with rocks and cows. I was shocked and humbled when I saw many of them playing barefoot. I mostly watched, but I hopped in the game every now and again, and let myself go enough to scream "GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL" and run around and high fives all the kids when necesary.
One of the boys came up to me about midgame and said "band-aid?" and I asked why. He showed me his foot which was covered in blood. no band-aid was going to do the trick and of course I couldn't convince him to walk home and stop playing. Time to improvise! I took him to my backpack to see what we could do. First we rinsed his foot off and I had him clean the cut (it wasn't bad, but in a really inconvintent spot) I gave him some alcohol swabs and he cleaned it (6 of the kids at Faraja have HIV so caution is a must). Next I help him put a gauze pad on it and tied one of my socks around his foot to hold it using extra ponytail holders. I gave him my other sock to cover the attempted bandage and a kid loaned him one shoe (I never understood that part). With that it was back to the game.
It was a blast. They had a lot of fun and so did I. On the downside I am burnt to hell. Which is really unfortunate since I've heard nothing but horror stories of the Mombasa sun. Most people I know insist they've lost a full layer of skin after their adventures at Kenya's east coast paradise. Oh well I guess I'm just starting the game early. And what is it about sunburn that makes you SO tired? I napped today for the first time in a while, but that could also be because the kids ran me ragged.
Anyway, I am going to the coast this weekend. We leave tomorrow night at 9pm.I'm going with about 10 people and I have only met 1.5 of them, that makes me kind of nervous, but actually it should be an awesome opportunity for networking (since I still need to find a group to go to the equator with!). Im excited since I've never actually been to a real beach before. This place has a way of catching up to you that isn't always so plesant, and I need a break to regroup my head. Next time I blog should be from the beach :D
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