And Just Like That, the Holidays are Over

When we were first staring down the five-week holiday break the kids got from school, it was rather daunting. Five weeks meant A LOT of kid time every day, which is great, but definitely overwhelming. Now that the holidays are over, I can't believe how quickly it passed by. While there were indeed a lot of long, chaotic, and stressful days, overall our program during those five weeks was a huge success. We saw a lot of new faces at the youth center, averaging about 50 kids each day, and about 100 different kids showing up over the course of those five weeks.

Originally, we grouped everyone together for football training each day. However, we quickly realized that it was way too many kids for four of us to handle at once, and the effectiveness of the trainings really dropped. We decided to separate the older boys from the rest of the kids who attended and offer them an earlier training session each day. I chose to run this session and train the team of older boys, and it ended up being my favorite part of the holiday program.

While the younger boys and the girls who attend football love to play and have a fun time doing so, they can't really grasp any drills that are a bit more complicated or serve a purpose other than scoring a goal. With the group of older boys that I worked with though, they were able to understand more complicated drills, and participate in them at a much higher speed and with greater proficiency. Working with them marked the first time I felt like I was actually training a real team, and our training sessions each day really energized me and reinforced the reason I love coaching.

Not only was the football aspect of working with the older guys great, but I really enjoyed getting to know them as well. Some of them are a bit rough around the edges at first, and I think they were very skeptical of having a female coach, but as the break wore on we gained each others trust and respect. A few of the kids whom I had been wary about and thought might try to steal gear from us ended up being great kids. A few of them actually took it upon themselves to track down thieves who had stolen from us before and were able to return some of the gear. Others still chose to help us coach the later sessions with the younger kids and girls. It was so satisfying watching these guys grow and develop not only as players, but also as participants in SWB over the course of the five weeks that we worked with them. I really hope that many of them continue to attend our programs as the second school term kicks into gear.

So, now I am facing only two weeks left in Uganda, which I can barely believe. I am definitely ready to come home to the states, but I'm glad that we had such a positive experience with our holiday program prior to my heading home. While those five weeks were somewhat of a whirlwind of activity, these last two weeks here will pass by a bit slower and I'll have more time to reflect on everything that's happened over these past ten months. Only a few more blogs to go!