Basketball

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church has a sports' ministry which I first heard about when I started attending St. Andrews.  I have been running around the past 2 months (Mfangano Island, Family Vist, Egypt-Israel/Palestine) and hadn't had the chance to join in any sports.  Welp, that all changed during Kenya Week 21.

Wednesday, I met up with the St. Andrews basketball team and we headed to Moi Forces Boarding High School.  I was really excited to play basketball since I hadn't played in 5 months! 

We arrived and played the most civil game of basketball I have ever played!  At one point, I was fouled pretty hard on the arm and yelled "Foul!"  I felt like "that guy" in a game who always complains!  Every person on the court had been fouled pretty hard at some point in the game, but I was the only one to object. 

The court was interesting.  It used to be made of concrete, but had deteriated and was now a fine gravel basketball court.  I am definitely not used to playing on such a court, but believe I will get better.  I was told that there is only one nice wood court in Kenya.  I had never thought to be thankful for the 2 indoor wood courts my high school had. 

I thoroughly enjoyed playing again and look forward to getting out as many times as possible in the next 5 months.

Earlier as we were leaving St. Andrews for the school, I was told that Nakumatt Central (Kenya's Wal-Mart) was on fire and we saw billows of smoke as we drove by.  On our way home, the St. Andrews bus dropped me and a teammate off so we could walk to the main matatu stop.  In order to get there, we had to walk right by the Nakumatt that was still on fire with hordes of people around it.  I said a prayer to myself that everyone made it out alive and was alright.  For the first few days they thought that nobody had died.

First Retreat

On Friday morning, very early, Henry and I walked down the road to our coordinators home for the ump-teen time.  We were on our way some where, but weren't sure where.  Our coordinator had told us to pack: a swimming suit, malaria pills, and warm clothes.  The swimming suit and warm clothes together kind of confused us, but we have learned to do what we're told.  Once in the van, we were informed that we were headed to Mombasa on the coast of the Indian Ocean.  No warm clothes needed.  So, we had a lot of funny beach clothes moments. 

The 8 hour drive to Mombasa is interesting.  The first quarter the road has pot holes so large that a semi could fall in, while the last 3 quarters the road are nicer than most roads in the States.  Makes for an interesting trip.

We were only there for the weekend, we arrived Friday afternoon, had Saturday to hang out, and then headed back Sunday morning.  It was really nice to see everybody and spend time together. 

The best part of the weekend came on Saturday night when they had a really good cover band play at our amazing buffet dinner on the Indian Ocean.  The songs ranged from Enrique Iglesias to Lynyrd Skynyrd to James Brown.  This obviously led to 7 YAVs, 1 Coordinator, and 2 Facilitators from the States moving to the dance floor as the other 100+ dinner eaters watched and laughed at us.  It was awesome!  I hope to recreate this moment soon somehow. 


Kenya Fires

In Mombasa, I learned that the Nakumatt fire I had seen on Wednesday had been much more deadly than anyone previously believed.  36 people were killed in the Nakumatt fire and it is believed that the guards were told to lock all of the doors to prevent looters from getting in which trapped many people inside. 

Then on our way home from Mombasa we learned that Saturday a Gas Tanker had flipped over and as people were collecting gas someone purposefully threw a match down blowing the tanker up killing 113 people and severly burning 178 others.  So, please keep Kenya and the families who lost loved ones in your prayers.  To read the Times article click here.