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Mombasa, Kenya
4° 3' S 39° 40' E
Feb 22, 2007 06:09
Distance 0km

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Other entries in Mombasa

Thursday, happy Thursday

Text written in: English

So today, many good things happened!!

1) First day I didn't go to the project for 9, instead I went for 12, in the attempt to have decent working hours.  In that time, I went to the bank (which is a chore here), and managed to look into animal safari (and I specify animal safari, because safari is the Swahili word for "adventure"). I think I chose the one I want, and I have to go back on Monday and pay the deposit.  On the way, I saw a place that sells figurines and they have all sorts of cool stuff.. I usually pass these stores before they open or after they close so it was exciting to see a store actually open!

2) Second, we got the T.B. test results for the girl who tested positive for H.I.V (from now on I will refer to her as Jane, as this is all confidential).  She was negative for T.B.  Yeah!!  Tomorrow, charcoal burner we are having made for her and her mother will be ready.  We decide that would be cheaper for them to maintain then the old stove that we were thinking of giving her cause charcoal is cheaper than the parrafin they use for the stove.

3) I showed up at practice a little early, and usually there are two or three girls there.. today there wasn;t any when I got there.. and no little observers as we often have many other kids come over and want to play with the balls when the girls are running.  Anyways, so I am waiting, and 30 mins go by and no girls.. then a teacher I have never seen before comes by and says, "you are waiting for the girls right, I bring you your Basketball team!"  So he literally goes into every classroom and pulls out all the basketball girls.  Turns out, the teachers keep the students in till random times for no good reason.  So this teacher wants them to train and made sure they were let out.  So all of a sudden I had more kids then usual, but they were all ready to listen. SO, we had a REALLY good practice, they ran, they did layups, they did weaves, they did passing, and all without complaining.  Then the other coach showed up and we got fast rotating games going. They didn't fight, they didn;t yell at each other (there was a bit of fouling, but all is fair in basketball!).  There were even two parents there watching!  Then the next thing you know, another teacher comes by and he turns out to be the headmaster.  He says the girls should not be playing past six, cause the parents complain.  So I tried to explain, these girls have permission since they are a team and the team is not affiliated with the school.  He said, no I recognize most of these girls, they must leave and go home now (this was around quarter to 7). So I decide not to argue him.  We leave to go our normal route through the back gate which is closer to St. Claire's (M.O.Y.O headquarters), and he has gone and locked the gate, which has never happened!!     So that was the only bad part to the day.. but since we had such a good game and good practice.. we are gonna just have to talk to him and find a way around this.  Unfortunately, if he is not sympathetic, we will not beable to take some of the girls with us to the team building exercises at Shelley Beach, since it requires them to miss 2 days of school.   Bokey has an appointment with him on Monday.. so he will have to do a bit of sucking up, or the Basketball girls willmiss out, and only the soccer girls will get to go.  BOO!!

They really need their own field outside of the school compound.   That is what the next bit of fundraising will help.  Bokey has already found the land he wants to use, and its at a reasonable price.   Anyways,  that was today... tomorrow evening I am off for Malindi Beach.. should be a nice weekend.