Well, not really, but it makes for a much nicer title than ‘after a few weeks of planning, convincing and a couple days of manual labor we marked the lines for a football field.’ And this post is really about this past Thursday.
This all started from last term really. I was having a really difficult time connecting with the students. Granted I was also focusing on the teachers and building relationships with them, but I had no real avenue with the students. I tried a few clubs and they weren’t as organized as I hoped and I started them too close to the end of the term so they had short life spans.
This term I changed my tactics. I knew two things, one was the boarders were way more active than the day scholars and I decided to make them my target group. Two, I wanted to be more active and show my personality more. Most people know I am a football junkie and have followed Manchester United for years. When I told people here I love football they all laughed thinking I didn’t know much before coming to Africa until I would put them to shame with my Premier League knowledge.
The boarders, which are only girls at my school, had stated that they wanted to play sports and up to that point I had only seen a half hearted attempt at fielding a volleyball team and a school athletics day which was less than stellar organized by my school.
Every month my school gives me 100,000 shillings (about $50) for reasons that would merit its own blog post. Two things to note, they give every teacher a monthly bonus, second mine is the largest and I think it is only because I am white. Both Peace Corps and my morals don’t let me keep this money, but I can’t really refuse it both because people will find out and it will create mixed emotions. I found that the best solution should be accept the money and use it to fund all of my projects.
Back from that little deviation, first I wanted to start sports so I invited Stacey to my school and we played Ultimate. It was a big hit, but they started hounding me about football. I bought a ball from Mbale and brought it in to school and turned them loose. We played a couple times before they asked me to train them seriously. I bought two more balls shortly afterwards once I saw how serious they were. At that point I started evaluating what was else we needed.
I took this up as my goal, I was going to play sports and coach them three days a week. Mondays are ultimate, Tuesdays and Thursdays are football. There is a problem though. St. Theresa’s has never had a field. They have shared a field with the primary school next door, but there are some inherent problems. First the school has had a huge problem with the boarders and their leaving the compound. Just a few weeks ago three girls were expelled; two for sneaking out at night and doing stuff with a guy at his house and another snuck off during the day. In total we have had 5 boarders sent home for ‘inappropriate relations.’ The biggest issue is the girls have to leave the compound for some basic functions like fetching water. The school has really been pushing to keep them within the compound. They just drilled a new bore hole and are talking about a better fence. My role new challenge was to get them a field but keep them within.
Luckily I have Mr. Oriokot. He has been my chief council on things and is the one of the Deputies at my school. First he advised me where the new buildings were going to go so the girls and I got used to playing in the right area. I started telling him how I wanted to start the pitch and he simply said to me, ‘Yes, Markon. It can be done.’ He is the only one here who calls me by my last name.
Myself and Oriokot Charles at our new pitch
So Tuesday we got two spools of sisal rope (thanks to Stacey running to town) and we started to measure out a pitch. We were lucky because we managed to have just enough space to make a 50 x 80 meter pitch. (54 x 87 yards) We lined the outside with the rope and then the girls came through with the hoes, standing on opposite sides of the string so they notched a V in the ground along the line. We left it at that for the evening and Wednesday it rained so we left it to sit.
Today the serious business started. I calculated how we could easily mark the boxes and the rest of the pitch to kind of scale some parts. I decided on marking a rope at 6, 12 and 18 yards. We measured in from the outside 12 yards and made that where the 18 yard box started. We set the rest of the 18 and then set the goal mouth by finding the center and marking 4 yards on either side of it. Next we marked 6 yards from either side of the goal and 6 yards forward to make the 6 yard box. After that we set the penalty mark at 12 yards. We measured the rope and tied a loop at 10 yards to help us mark the arch on the top of the box. Everything was lined with rope and this time we had some S4 and S5 boys helping. They dug the trenches and we repeated for the other side. After that we marked mid field with the center line and circle and called it a day. I grabbed the balls from the office and Stacey brought over sodas for the workers and we opened our field. I normally don’t let the boys play with us, but today I made an exception. The field was filled with small games and some silly play, but it was a ton of fun.
For me it was just a job to cross off on the check list, but Stacey showed me the enthusiasm. It really didn’t sink in of what we accomplished today until I was a home and started to write this blog. Marking the lines in the ground isn’t a big job. Neither is slashing the grass or finding an open space in the school compound. But what is different was I actually had some initiative and someone else was excited enough about it do work with me. The change happened and it happened a lot quicker than I expected. It also showed the girls that I wasn’t just talk on another level. Sure I had been working with them for a month and giving them time and providing the balls, but this is another facet they have never had. They don’t get the use the pitch like the boys, until now. My teachers openly questioned my working with girls because “Do girls actually know football?” was asked by more than a handful of teachers and some even dismissed it all together. Others have been with me and this was also my first foray into saying, hey this should be done, let’s do it! And the tangible result is turning some heads. There are still some things to finish, but it’s a start.
