Kamau: “How are your daughters doing? How is the family,” I said. Kamau replied, “I only have one daughter now, the other has died. My mom died also. She was having trouble with the kidneys…I took her to many doctors.” “I am sorry to hear,” I sincerely replied. “It is just a part of life,” he responded. Is life fair? Are you being rewarded for being a good person by having all these nice things we end up complaining about anyway? Is that why you were born into a country where it is inevitable that you will make a livable wage? Somehow, the “prosperity gospel” falls short when we reference…

In the morning, I hitched a ride with Sister Mary to Nyumbani orphanage as a large group from Ireland left the Mary Ward Centre to head for the Nyumbani Village. The Mass experience is the best I have enjoyed in the world (and I have been to Mass in 11 countries!). The singing, drumming, dancing, clapping, extended time for sign of peace to get around to many people, and the loving intro and outro from Mass by the director of Nyumbani make it incredibly welcoming and engaging. You are a participant in Kenyan Masses, not merely a spectator. Directly before Mass, I had asked the director if we could play…

Arriving After a three hour driving adventure up and down hills and across unpaved roads, we arrived, once again at the overlook of Sigoti Hills. From here, you can see for miles, revealing the expanse of Lake Victoria and the cities that lie below. This, however, was not the reason for our visit to this spot. Our purpose was to visit the holy springs located below. Due to swelling in her ankles from pregnancy, Sharon decided to stay in the car while we trekked down. Pilgrims flock from all over the world, etching there names in the rock, collecting the water that springs forth, and praying as they look out…

I awoke at 6:00 am to grab a breakfast before squeezing in one last training session before sharing a light lunch at Davis and Sharon’s and heading to Karen, Kenya to stay at the Mary Ward Centre. Davis came with a motorcycl, the driving being the man who drove Davis and I to the fields oftentimes last year. Riding on the motorcycles is often a fun experience, feeling the wind flow over your face to cool you from the strength of the Sun. The young players keep time, getting to the field before 6:30 am for training. Mind you it is not common for these players to have a bed…

Originally posted on January 3, 2020 on playbeautifulsoccer.net After breakfast, we headed to the fields to train a couple of Davis’ teams. We invited the Tanzanians out to the session in order to give them one last practice session. In the session, I modeled attacking in the middle third using blind sports and countermovements. Due to the language barrier, I would set up the activity and had the Tanzanians translate and provide coaching cues and guided questions throughout. After the warm-up phase of progressions in the technique and subtleties of find space as a #6, #8, and #10, we moved into the problem (orientation) and solution (learning phases) using a…