Coaching Course, Day 1
Today we ran day one of the coaching education course that we are offering in the Manyatta Slums of Kisumu, Kenya. I did not get much sleep, arriving in late at night, working on preparations until 12:30 am, being awaken by a large group entering my few hour stop-off at a Hotel 67 in Nairobi, then waking up and falling to sleep once more before finally rising around 3:15 am. I resumed working on preparations until 4:15 am when I headed down to the lobby to proceed to the airport for the 6:15 am flight to Kisumu.
On the way to the airport, my driver, Samson, and I were talking about knowing your neighbors. I told him truthfully that I know very few of my neighbors. I feel that this is common in the United States because we are so “busy” (*cough, I mean distracted) to “care” about those within our midst. Samson was telling me about a “neighborhood watch” kind of system that Kenya has adopted from Tanzania. In this system, people of the community are joined into groups of 10. They then police themselves to some degree by taking responsibility for anything that happens to their other 9 members. Man, America would be “great again” if everybody cared for nine of their neighbors and vice versa.
On the plane I met a missionary family, speaking with the father about soccer and its impact on the world for the duration of the flight. He also held a degree in Chemical Engineering and said that he had applied and interviewed for a Chemistry position at an American, Christian School in Kenya but had never been accepted due to a lack of teaching credentials past tutoring and graduate school assistant teaching.
I was picked up by a three-wheeled car which was carrying Sharon, my friend, the Kenyan woman that works with Davis and is running the Hygiene Summit with members of Regis University (who will arrive tomorrow and stay at the Jumuia Hotel with myself and Davis. We went straight to the hotel, dropped off the bags, then ventured on the the beginning of the coaching course class at Kosawo Early Childhood Development Centre.
Arriving, we prepared the room for the coaches. We went over an hour before start time, yet, the coaches came early, too. By start time, we were only missing a few of the 21 that we would come to have for the remainder of the journey. We started with “How to Motivate Players.” This was our main theme of the day along with some structural elements of establishing and fostering a team. The focus and discipline of these Kenyan coaches is incredible. Not only is their retention of verbal transmissions very high, but they are also undistracted and intent on listening. With class running all day (9 am to ~6 pm on most of the days), it was really impressive to see their work ethic.
It is an experience that causes you to realize the limitations and distractions we bring into our own lives. Although some of the coaches had phones and headphones, none were using them inappropriately during teaching time. I don’t know if I have even gone a single high school class with all of my students fully intent on learning without checking their IPad for messages or taking a peak at their phone when they think that I cannot see them looking at their pocket under their desk. It is surely to be commendable and respectable and a rarity in a distracted, unfulfilled world.
Just before we broke for a team-building break two hours into the course, two coaches walked through the door. They were Ivan and Tony. This may sound like a normal occurrence, but it is far from it.
Ivan and Tony are from Tanzania, a country that borders Kenya. I was in Wisconsin visiting Roy Patton from SoccerGenius about six months back and wanted to visit a natural grocer for food, so I did what any non-car-wielding fellow would do these days: I ordered an Uber.
Maclean was my driver, a Tanzanian that had moved to the United States. Maclean had a relative, Ivan, who loved soccer, and, in our conversation, I mentioned that I would be in Kenya in a few months to run a coaching course. She was excited and wanted for Ivan and I to meet. I said that he was welcome if he could find his way.
Not only did he find his way, but, after providing a permission letter to attend a few weeks back for his Visa, we had not been in contact. Somehow, he and Tony had crossed the border, navigated by bus, walked around in Kisumu, and found where the course was being run without ever having received a name of the place, an address, or other identifying information. It was such a very cool experience to see the initiative of these player-coaches. Many of us don’t leave the house unless the GPS can tell us the exact route and ETA on our smartphone, yet, they traveled to a foreign country to find people they had never met, for something they knew little about until arriving. A little bit of hope can change the world.
AMDG,
Brad Gieske
