Nairobi, Kenya – 20 November 20099
Jambo from Kenya!
Our last blog left off from our somewhat harrowing experience in attending the semi-finals of the U-17 FIFA World Cup in Lagos, Nigeria. Both semi-finals were amazing games, and set the stage for a great match-up between an impressive Switzerland, and the host country Nigeria. The final match was held in Abuja, so the Why Sport Matters journey took the 1-hour flight to reach the capital city.
What, no traffic? Was this still Nigeria? Less chaos, green hills and open spaces made a totally different feel than overcrowded Lagos. The beautiful national stadium is a great setting to play a football match. Though the crowds outside were big, they were more organized than Lagos. With 60,000 enthusiastic Nigerians rooting on these teenagers, it was quite a feat for the Swiss to defend incredibly and pull off the upset, breaking the hearts of the thirsty crowd.
It was a twist of fate pulled off by the football gods that didn’t let the Nigerians realise the perfect weekend. The previous day, we were amongst a crowd of Nigerians in a sports bar for the final day of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. In a miraculous turn of events, Nigeria fought back against Kenya to take a thrilling last-minute win in Nairobi (our current location). Simultaneously, Tunisia incredibly fell to Mozambique 0-1, which gave Nigeria their golden ticket to South Africa. How quickly the mood changed as the Nigerians felt so much joy after having already written off their team.
Further north, we also kept our eye on the Egypt-Algeria clash in Cairo. The tensions were high as the Algerian team bus was actually attacked by Egyptian fans in the days prior to the match and as a result players were injured. Security was at its highest. As fate would have it, Egypt got their needed two-goal victory, but only enough to secure a play-off game…scheduled for a few days later in a neutral Sudan. (Algeria went through in a raucous 1-0 win in Khartoum to take the final spot for African teams in the big show.)
As mentioned in the last blog, one of the best memories we will take from Nigeria was when John was unexpectedly invited to play in an organized match amongst journalists. As the only white person, the journalists were quite curious about why we were there, and John was interviewed for 2 TV stations and did several live radio interviews! Check out this video direct from the pitch.
Monday morning saw us back at the airport for our flight to our next destination, Kenya. In Nigeria we had made some great sport connections and also some good friends, including Why Sport Matters first Teammate, Tunde Ajibode (click HERE to see Tunde’s profile), who pulled everything together for us on the ground. Thanks as well to Henry, Samson, Julio and Deborah! Our lasting impression from Nigeria will see how sport is such a unifying subject in a country that battles for survival in the madness of everyday life; a place with amazing raw potential that is still figuring out how to exploit it.
KENYA – this was a must-stop for Why Sport Matters as Kenya is a leader in many ways in the sport world. It produces world-class athletes and is famous for its distance runners, while also being a world leader in using sport for social change. We were excited to dig in to this rich sporting culture and our first few days here have been a distinct change from western Africa.
Despite being right on the equator, our arrival in Nairobi was actually quite cool, as the humidity is gone and the nights get chilly. We connected with our newest Teammate Rachel Musyoka (click HERE to see Rachel’s profile) who has put together a great schedule of meetings and interviews. Yesterday we visited the Mathare Youth Sports Association, one of the world’s best examples of sport for social change. A football organisation was started in the middle of one of Africa’s biggest slums, Mathare, in eastern Nairobi. The club is run, managed and attended by locals from these poverty-stricken neighborhoods (thanks in large part to private donors). Its principles lie in a code of ethics that includes giving back to your community and making your surroundings a better place to live. But more importantly, it provides structure, hope and education to a typically marginalized group of people.
It was then a great pleasure to interview a sport legend, Paul Tergat, world champion distance runner, Olympian, and previous holder of the world record in the Marathon. We were finally able to get to the bottom of why Kenya dominates the world in distance running. With class and humbleness, Paul explained that, as Kenya is a relatively poor country with few professional level athletic facilities, running is an easy sport to practice for poor people. But more importantly, as Kenyans produced some early role models and champions in athletics, this was enough for young people (like himself) to want to emulate these local heroes. Seeing his idols in person gave him the drive to become an athlete.
It makes an exciting week for us as we dive deeper into this sport rich country. The weekend will see us at events for Rugby Sevens, football and cricket (legacies of British colonialism), and next week a visit out to the Eldoret running camps in western Kenya (created by Kenyan running legend Kip Keino). We may even slip away to one of Kenya’s legendary national parks for a must-do safari!
In the meantime, we are looking ahead to our next stop, South Africa, where we will spend the entire month of December, including stops in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. SoccerEx is going on Joburge just ahead of the WC Draw on 4th Dec in CT. And a FIFA Masters reunion on the 5th, all in the warm summer of the southern hemisphere!
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