The Football Saga Continues

---

Lots has happened in the last week or so but I'll try to keep it relatively brief!
After a kerfuffle with seamstresses, I finally bought the boys their very own football kit! I laid them all out on their beds then got them all to go into their rooms at break time. They were so excited and started jumping about, screaming and clapping! They couldn't wait to try them out properly so that Friday I took them all up to Magongo and they had their first ever 11-a-side match against a slightly older girls team. Both teams played really well and looked the business in their new kits, but unfortunately we lost 2 - 0. The boys still had a great time and it was such a good experience for them to get out and play their first big match.
That weekend was quite tough as all the people I had grown close to had left, but I tucked my quivering bottom lip away and went down to Diani Beach with all 25 new people! It was sad to see all my friends leave but I soon got to know the new people and had a good weekend with sun, sand, sea and plenty of cocktails!
This week at New Hope has been entertaining! Monday was Robyn's birthday and all the kids came out at lunch time to sing and dance for us! I ended up teaching a few times last week as well which was great and at one point I ended up dancing with all the kids in the class! They also put on a crazy drama involving a character called Plastic Boy and one girl was cast as an Onion!!
On Friday I brought the football team into Mombasa town and we had a practise match between ourselves on a pitch right behind the volunteer house. We played 7-a-side and had a great time as the score ended up 5 - 4! Afterwards, I took them all back to our house and Nancy (the in-house maid) had cooked them all dinner! They were so astounded at sitting down at a proper table and eating mashed potato and beef stew, they were practically silent for the entire meal! Afterwards I gave them a whistle-stop tour of the house and showed them all where I slept, then took them back to the matatu stop.
The evenings last week were also good. Getting to know the new people proved more fun than I thought (helped along with a few Tuskers!) and we've tried a lot more new places than before - such as a vegetarian Indian restaurant!
On Saturday, the New Hope volunteers took the entire orphanage (cooks and all!) to Pirates Beach. Althought the weather wasn't great, the kids still had a fantastic time splashing around in the sea and burying everyone (even me!) in sand. We took them all to a hotel for a sausage and chips lunch and after another hour or so in the sea, we took them home. It was a long, hectic day but worth the stress just to see how excited and how much fun the kids had at the beach.
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing by a pool and taking things "pole pole" (slowly slowly). That just about brings us up to date. The 3 days of this week have been relatively uneventful. We've booked our flights to Lamu for this weekend which everyone is really excited about and with just 2 weeks left in Mombasa I'm starting to feel a bit sad! It's going to fly by and I'll be back home on August 10th before anyone even realises I've gone.
Keep in touch.

---

Photos

New Hope Utd
The team in their new kit line-up before the game

Birthday Dances
Isaac, Faith and Robyn get their groove on

Practise Makes Perfect
The boys at the practise pitch

Comments

[sam]

Snazzy Outfits!!!
My word I love the football kit you managed to get for the kids, it looks amazing, everyone here is so proud of what you are doing for them. i imagine that you have made a huge impact to the lives of the people out there, not just because of your crazy ways lol! We're all missing you so much, other people are starting to come back from uni now, jacks back, lol and as keen about his rowing as ever, Dave and Becky have both finished all their exams bless them, and rich has enroled to do his GCSE maths and physics, so its all go. I think becky is moving to london soon, which is mega crazy i keep getting texts about all the crazy people she meets. Nothing much else has been happening round here though, i'm still waiting for the summer weather to kick in as its been rubbish so far, but hey ho. take care my dear, we are all missing you soooo mcuh mwa mwa x x x x x x

[FionaMassie]

When you get back home
Dear Ben, We continue to enjoy hearing how things are going. Enjoy Lamu its a great place . We are off to Nairobi in 2 days time....can't wait! Last week we spoke to our young peoples group at church about our forth coming trip and they were most interested. Some of them have a real heart for Africa and would love to do something similar to you. We wondered if you might be able to come to speak to them sometime about your time in Mombasa,it would encourage them no end to hear how it worked for you. Will be in touch once you've settled back home. In the meantime carry on enjoying every moment of this special opportunity! All the best Ray and Fiona