Hey, All,

I have decided to keep our posts about the camp details rather general and to include one personal story from each of the three coaches who were there, full-time and everyday, with the kids.

The camp lasted seven days, and, on two of the days, the girls from the Center joined the activities. The camp was divided into basically three components: morning warm-up and skill sessions; lunch; and afternoon games and activities (applying what was focused on in the morning). The kids had water breaks in the morning, during lunch, and in the afternoon, and their lunch was provided by the Hope Shines Foundation and put together by a cook a the Center. Their food was mainly beans, rice, a piece of meat, banana, and sometimes veggies.

The first story is from the Head Coach of the camp, Andrew Pike:

Hey everyone, just wanted to share some of the stories from the camp we are running here in Kigali, Rwanda at the Rebero Orphans Centre.

Everything has been awesome, from working with the girls from the Hope Shines Foundation, to meeting the founders of Rebero and hearing their incredible stories - but nothing can compare to working with these kids. Their energy and willingness to learn has been so infectious that everyone has been affected.

I find myself consistently comparing the camp to what I know in Canada, and there is no simple contrast I can make. These kids have so little opportunity to experience soccer like we do in Canada that it reinforces everything that I believe in with OA. Soccer can be such a simple, yet powerful, tool for crossing borders, language barriers, and gender inequalities.

The camp was full of very special kids, but one of the boys that I really bonded didn’t even play soccer! Right of the bat we noticed that some of the kids at the camp were too young to fully participate and as a result made their own fun off to the side. The problem with this was that our bag of equipment was constantly getting raided and our stuff was in chaos.

To solve this small problem we appointed one of the kids as the “boss of the equipment.” Soon after he picked up the nickname “Boss-Man,” and really took to his task. Throughout the week the Boss-Man was an example for the other kids of how responsibility and respect are traits that can get you very far in life.

At the end of the week we recognized the Boss-Man with a prize for his special contribution to the camp. Great kid, and I almost brought him home with me to watch my equipment back in Canada!

Tomorrow we will hear from Lindsay.

Stay tuned….