PCV in Kenya: Week 28
Grassroot Soccer (GRS) Training
Monday through Friday was spent at Grassroot Soccer training. This training was held at Sosa Cottages in Vihiga County, Kenya. This was one of my favorite training sites. There were two huge grassy fields to have activities in, a playground, pool, gym, zip line, and archery. In addition, we were placed in cottages that had a full living room, kitchen, and dining room on the ground floor. I was lucky enough to get a room to myself because Savannah did not come to this training. These rooms had a balcony, full bathroom, working TV, and working Wi-Fi. Throughout this training, we were again overfed 😊 They provided us breakfast, morning chai, lunch, afternoon chai, and dinner. The best meal was breakfast because they provided omelets every morning and they had real hot sauce available.
Peter has been the counterpart from my school that I have brought to all of the trainings up until now. Instead of bringing Peter to this training, I brought Phanuel because he is in charge of extra-curricular activities at the school. This week provided us training on Grassroot Soccer (GRS) so that we could become certified Skillz coaches in our communities. GRS is a non-profit health organization that combines soccer with curriculum that provides adolescents with life-saving information, services, and mentorship to live healthier lives. GRS works with local and international organizations, one of these being Peace Corps. Not all Peace Corps countries have GRS, but Kenya is one of the countries that does.
Both the health and education Peace Corps Volunteers were given the opportunity to attend this GRS training. The age groups that can participate in a GRS program are 9-14 and 15-19. Since Phanuel and I work at a secondary school, our GRS camps will be for ages 15-19. Each camp has 12 lessons and players must attend 75% of the lessons in order to graduate from the program. We are hoping to implement our first camp during Term 3 with 30 of our Form 1 students, 15 girls and 15 boys. So, stay tuned for how that goes in a few months.
The GRS training we received was very fun. For the first two days, we were given background on GRS and our trainers took us through a few exemplar lessons. The final two days, we were tasked with presenting our own lessons to the other attendees who pretended to be 9-14 or 15-19 year olds depending on the intended target group. Upon completion of our training, we received the curriculum book, soccer supplies, and certificates. We also ended the training with cake which is always something to look forward to 😊
Finance Bill Protests
Training ended on Thursday of this week, but the Peace Corps Volunteers had to stay here until Saturday morning due to the protests that occurred on Tuesday. Finance Bill 2024 is meant to raise/introduce taxes/fees on a variety of daily items/services in an effort to increase domestic revenue. This has been met with nationwide opposition because of the already increased cost of living in Kenya. This all culminated on June 25th, 2024, Tuesday of this week. On this day, the protests, which had previously all been peaceful, escalated. Most specifically, in Nairobi, the parliament was breached and the office of the Governor of Nairobi was set on fire. There has been major criticism by human rights groups of the escalated response of police, especially the use of live bullets which lead to the death of many individuals. On Wednesday, June 26th, 2024, President Ruto did not sign the bill and sent it back to parliament for revisions. While this calmed the protests for the rest of the week, there are plans for larger protests again next week.
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