Friday, March 23, 2007
Sleepless in Kenya (and the issue of skin colour raises its ugly head)
It's been a while since my last email/post, and together with a rather restless night with not much sleep I thought it about time I threw some verbiage together to let folks know what's been happening. Good stuff for the most part, but also some issues arising most definitely from the colour of my skin and the expectations arising from that. But first the good stuff.
Our next Michezo Youth Initiative junior football tournament is in three weeks time, April 14. Some of you may (or may not) realise that this is quite a gap since our last tournament, December 9 and 10 last year. Four months? Our original plan has been to hold tournaments monthly, so what's changed?
Well, our original plan had always been that these initial tournaments were merely a stepping stone to creating a youth league in the area. They were a way of raising awareness of who we were and what we were doing, of bringing youth volunteers onboard to learn how to plan and manage a community football and HIV/AIDS education program, and of starting relationships with both the junior teams, schools and other organisations within the community that would be essential for working together in the implementation of our overall goals and objectives.
As it turned out, our first two tournaments were a great success on all fronts. With over 1,000 participants across both events, over 30 volunteers provided with training and the opportunity to help implement the program, and working in most cases through the local schools to reach the teams and their coaches, we achieved all that could have been hoped for within the first few months. And we also learnt a few things that could only be learnt by getting out there and starting.
One of those things was that the way we were implementing the tournaments was not feasible in the medium to long term. We required over 30 volunteers to run a tournament day. With the number of reliable, committed volunteers along with our aims to do a little more than just deliver football tournaments, this was just much too high a number to continue.
So, after much head scratching, more than a few sleepless nights, and even thoughts that I really had bitten off more than I could chew, I came up with a plan that acts as a stepping stone to our overall goal of a league. And it also starts putting responsibility on the young people who want to be involved, rather than have them sit back and let me do all the work.
So now we have divided the local area in four regions, with an "Area Manager" for each region. And their initial responsibility was to plan and manage a qualifying program for the April tournament, to produce area winners that proceed to the tournament. A little like World Cup qualifying, though admittedly in a very small, microscopic, far more amateurish and far more barefoot way than the actual World Cup I guess. It means less teams at (and less volunteers to run) the actual tournament, but overall with the qualifying more teams/players involved in total.
And it's been predominantly a great success!! We have less volunteers involved as such, but are engaging far more kids and allowing the volunteers more responsibility and in turn earning more rewards down the track (training ...etc).
Now, I do say "predominantly", since one of the unfortunate influences on the program in some ways is the colour of my skin.
The Colour of Money (and my skin!)
I'm white. "No?" you say. Yes, yes I am. And as such, I'm perceived here to be rich. Now, those of you who know me well will have some idea of how far from the truth that is. And while I can definitely accept that my capacity to earn may be higher than many here (I could go home and get a "real" job after all, and earn a decent salary), the truth is that in my current circumstance, location and vocation that is very far from the truth. However, no matter how many times I point out to a car and house owning local that I myself cannot afford a car or house, their belief in this is often minimal at best.
So, I have become used to the "hand out" habit. That is, either figuratively or sometimes actually, many folks both young and old hold their hand out to me asking for something for nothing.
With the kids I can usually understand and accept this habit, and I don't let it annoy me so much. I usually turn it back on them, and ask them for something in return. They laugh and I go on my way. And even for most of the adults, those I don't really know, I just ignore and take it as "one of those things". However, there are some that really... REALLY.... should know better. Such as...
Two instances occurred yesterday (and hence my sleepless night). The first:
Mary, my Area Manager for the immediate area, went to speak to the Head Mistress at the school we had utilised for our qualifying games last weekend, just to confirm permission for this coming weekend. The Head Mistress raised the issue of cleaning the toilets after our games, which was fair enough, in principle. When asked how much this might be, she said that we should pay 1,000 Kenyan Shillings (Ksh) for this to be done by their cleaner.
Now, let me put provide some context for the amount she was asking, for cleaning a total of four cubicles. Our housekeeper that comes three days a week, 6 hours a day to clean our three bedroom, two office and two bathroom residence/office, earns 1,000Ksh a week. Our askari (security guard) that works from 7:00pm to 6:00am works 6 nights a week, earns around 4,500Ksh a month.
So why was the Head Mistress asking for such an exorbitant amount for an hour's work at best? Well, when Mary did arrive to speak with her, the greeting was, "Oh, you're the girl who was with the mzungu (white person) aren't you?" Would the figure of 1,000Ksh have been proposed if there was no mzungu involved?
The second instance, and one that was even more cutting on a personal level, due to the prior existing relationship I have with the individual involved:
Action for Children in Conflict (AfCiC) (the organisation I originally came here with for those with short memories) have been working with one of the local primary schools, St Patrick's, on a couple of initiatives: the creation of a feeding program at the school for vulnerable children; and the running of a Holiday Club during the August school holidays to keep kids busy with fun activities and off the streets. Both have been going for a number of years, and the headmaster has been a very cooperative and helpful partner in the schemes.
He had also offered the use of the school field for our local qualifying games. But yesterday, I got a call.
"Hi Dave, it's Peter."
"Hi Peter, how are you?"
"Fine, fine. I am calling with some concerns."
"Okay, what's that?"
"Well, I'm wondering if you're going to provide food for the kids when they play this weekend?"
Some context for this, before quoting the rest of the conversation: There are no organised sports within the community for children. The best they have is a limited range of school sporting activities, but nothing outside of school hours. In the program we have begun, our qualifying games are being run like a mini-league. That is, each weekend a team plays one game against another team. So they come, play their game, and go home. Done and done in an hour or less. I guess many of us who grew up playing junior sports know the scenario: you arrive at the field with your mum or day, play your game, then head off home or via McDonalds to eat. I don't ever recall the competition organisers providing me with lunch...
"Peter, the kids are just coming for one game. Besides the fact we don't have the budget for this [he knows all about the program and how long it's been going], this is not something we would do just for one game."
"Well, I think it would be fair to do this."
"Peter, as I said, we don't have the budget for that. We are providing an opportunity for kids to play. If they don't want to play, they don't have to."
** Abrupt hanging up on the other end **
Moments later, I received the following text message: "Count St Patricks teams out as its unfair and am unhappy".
I could be wrong of course. This may have nothing to do with the colour of my skin. It might have happened exactly the same if I was a local Kenyan attempting to implement a similar idea. However, certain indicators suggest otherwise. A Bishop of a local church, part of a very large international denomination, who has offices both here and in the US, runs a tournament every year. During this tournament teams may play three of four games during quite a long day. Do they get food? No.
And the most annoying thing about these two incidents: it's the adults ruining it for the kids. The kids just want to play. And they are the ones who, because of this interference by adults, run the chance of missing out on potential opportunities in both sports and education. We already have an agreement from one organisation for a full educational scholarship for the best player once we have our league up and running. We also have two dozen footballs coming our was from Chelsea Football Club. Yes, THE Chelsea Football Club.
So, feeling a little exasperated at the moment. If I didn't have such a definite belief in what we can achieve, and didn't want to help the local kids so much, I'd really start questioning if it was worth it. But, for these kids and what we can create for them, I'll take the crap from some of the adults on the chin, and make sure we work with the kids as directly as we can.
(Oh, and don't forget to skip a beer this weekend and donate $5 you cheap buggers: www.justgiving.com/michezo) [more]
Our next Michezo Youth Initiative junior football tournament is in three weeks time, April 14. Some of you may (or may not) realise that this is quite a gap since our last tournament, December 9 and 10 last year. Four months? Our original plan has been to hold tournaments monthly, so what's changed?
Well, our original plan had always been that these initial tournaments were merely a stepping stone to creating a youth league in the area. They were a way of raising awareness of who we were and what we were doing, of bringing youth volunteers onboard to learn how to plan and manage a community football and HIV/AIDS education program, and of starting relationships with both the junior teams, schools and other organisations within the community that would be essential for working together in the implementation of our overall goals and objectives.
As it turned out, our first two tournaments were a great success on all fronts. With over 1,000 participants across both events, over 30 volunteers provided with training and the opportunity to help implement the program, and working in most cases through the local schools to reach the teams and their coaches, we achieved all that could have been hoped for within the first few months. And we also learnt a few things that could only be learnt by getting out there and starting.
One of those things was that the way we were implementing the tournaments was not feasible in the medium to long term. We required over 30 volunteers to run a tournament day. With the number of reliable, committed volunteers along with our aims to do a little more than just deliver football tournaments, this was just much too high a number to continue.
So, after much head scratching, more than a few sleepless nights, and even thoughts that I really had bitten off more than I could chew, I came up with a plan that acts as a stepping stone to our overall goal of a league. And it also starts putting responsibility on the young people who want to be involved, rather than have them sit back and let me do all the work.
So now we have divided the local area in four regions, with an "Area Manager" for each region. And their initial responsibility was to plan and manage a qualifying program for the April tournament, to produce area winners that proceed to the tournament. A little like World Cup qualifying, though admittedly in a very small, microscopic, far more amateurish and far more barefoot way than the actual World Cup I guess. It means less teams at (and less volunteers to run) the actual tournament, but overall with the qualifying more teams/players involved in total.
And it's been predominantly a great success!! We have less volunteers involved as such, but are engaging far more kids and allowing the volunteers more responsibility and in turn earning more rewards down the track (training ...etc).
Now, I do say "predominantly", since one of the unfortunate influences on the program in some ways is the colour of my skin.
The Colour of Money (and my skin!)
I'm white. "No?" you say. Yes, yes I am. And as such, I'm perceived here to be rich. Now, those of you who know me well will have some idea of how far from the truth that is. And while I can definitely accept that my capacity to earn may be higher than many here (I could go home and get a "real" job after all, and earn a decent salary), the truth is that in my current circumstance, location and vocation that is very far from the truth. However, no matter how many times I point out to a car and house owning local that I myself cannot afford a car or house, their belief in this is often minimal at best.
So, I have become used to the "hand out" habit. That is, either figuratively or sometimes actually, many folks both young and old hold their hand out to me asking for something for nothing.
With the kids I can usually understand and accept this habit, and I don't let it annoy me so much. I usually turn it back on them, and ask them for something in return. They laugh and I go on my way. And even for most of the adults, those I don't really know, I just ignore and take it as "one of those things". However, there are some that really... REALLY.... should know better. Such as...
Two instances occurred yesterday (and hence my sleepless night). The first:
Mary, my Area Manager for the immediate area, went to speak to the Head Mistress at the school we had utilised for our qualifying games last weekend, just to confirm permission for this coming weekend. The Head Mistress raised the issue of cleaning the toilets after our games, which was fair enough, in principle. When asked how much this might be, she said that we should pay 1,000 Kenyan Shillings (Ksh) for this to be done by their cleaner.
Now, let me put provide some context for the amount she was asking, for cleaning a total of four cubicles. Our housekeeper that comes three days a week, 6 hours a day to clean our three bedroom, two office and two bathroom residence/office, earns 1,000Ksh a week. Our askari (security guard) that works from 7:00pm to 6:00am works 6 nights a week, earns around 4,500Ksh a month.
So why was the Head Mistress asking for such an exorbitant amount for an hour's work at best? Well, when Mary did arrive to speak with her, the greeting was, "Oh, you're the girl who was with the mzungu (white person) aren't you?" Would the figure of 1,000Ksh have been proposed if there was no mzungu involved?
The second instance, and one that was even more cutting on a personal level, due to the prior existing relationship I have with the individual involved:
Action for Children in Conflict (AfCiC) (the organisation I originally came here with for those with short memories) have been working with one of the local primary schools, St Patrick's, on a couple of initiatives: the creation of a feeding program at the school for vulnerable children; and the running of a Holiday Club during the August school holidays to keep kids busy with fun activities and off the streets. Both have been going for a number of years, and the headmaster has been a very cooperative and helpful partner in the schemes.
He had also offered the use of the school field for our local qualifying games. But yesterday, I got a call.
"Hi Dave, it's Peter."
"Hi Peter, how are you?"
"Fine, fine. I am calling with some concerns."
"Okay, what's that?"
"Well, I'm wondering if you're going to provide food for the kids when they play this weekend?"
Some context for this, before quoting the rest of the conversation: There are no organised sports within the community for children. The best they have is a limited range of school sporting activities, but nothing outside of school hours. In the program we have begun, our qualifying games are being run like a mini-league. That is, each weekend a team plays one game against another team. So they come, play their game, and go home. Done and done in an hour or less. I guess many of us who grew up playing junior sports know the scenario: you arrive at the field with your mum or day, play your game, then head off home or via McDonalds to eat. I don't ever recall the competition organisers providing me with lunch...
"Peter, the kids are just coming for one game. Besides the fact we don't have the budget for this [he knows all about the program and how long it's been going], this is not something we would do just for one game."
"Well, I think it would be fair to do this."
"Peter, as I said, we don't have the budget for that. We are providing an opportunity for kids to play. If they don't want to play, they don't have to."
** Abrupt hanging up on the other end **
Moments later, I received the following text message: "Count St Patricks teams out as its unfair and am unhappy".
I could be wrong of course. This may have nothing to do with the colour of my skin. It might have happened exactly the same if I was a local Kenyan attempting to implement a similar idea. However, certain indicators suggest otherwise. A Bishop of a local church, part of a very large international denomination, who has offices both here and in the US, runs a tournament every year. During this tournament teams may play three of four games during quite a long day. Do they get food? No.
And the most annoying thing about these two incidents: it's the adults ruining it for the kids. The kids just want to play. And they are the ones who, because of this interference by adults, run the chance of missing out on potential opportunities in both sports and education. We already have an agreement from one organisation for a full educational scholarship for the best player once we have our league up and running. We also have two dozen footballs coming our was from Chelsea Football Club. Yes, THE Chelsea Football Club.
So, feeling a little exasperated at the moment. If I didn't have such a definite belief in what we can achieve, and didn't want to help the local kids so much, I'd really start questioning if it was worth it. But, for these kids and what we can create for them, I'll take the crap from some of the adults on the chin, and make sure we work with the kids as directly as we can.
(Oh, and don't forget to skip a beer this weekend and donate $5 you cheap buggers: www.justgiving.com/michezo) [more]
posted by Dave | 6:05 AM |
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