Lexi and I have been
friends for just over a year, but it feels like a lifetime. Sometimes we feel
like we are even the same person, saying something in unison or discovering yet
another totally random thing we both love from music and food to clothing and
interior decorating. In our long commutes (but never long enough!) from Olympic
College campus to Bainbridge Island, between listening to music, we brainstorm
and share ideas. Some of them are good ideas, many of them are just plain crazy
but the idea for the Kenyan Soccer Project was born out of the combinations of
our two main passions, soccer and Kenya, and our shared passion for helping
others and making the world a better place. Lexi came to me about a month ago
and told me about a friend of hers who was working in Kenya at a village near
the one she had lived in while she was there with her family. He said that the
men there were hardworking, young and passionate but lacked someplace to direct
their passion and spare time. This was confirmed when we spoke with John, a man
from the village, over Skype. John told us that the men there would come in
from working in the sugar cane fields and want something to do with their time.
They resorted to gambling, drinking or creating mischief. John and Shebby, a
representative from the farm where Lexi had lived and our primary Kenyan
contact, both wanted to unite the young men and women in the villages
surrounding the farm over soccer; hoping that through the beautiful game, they
would experience community, responsibility, enjoyment and religious
enrichment . Lexi and I hope for those things as well, but in addition we are
hoping that our communities over here in Washington will be able to get
involved and experience the same thing, thus uniting not only the communities
in Kenya, but also the communities here and creating a relationship between the
two.
This is the first
chapter in the story of the Kenyan Soccer Project. I do not yet have much
information, but I hope that by reading this, you will feel just as much
excitement and hope as Lexi, John, Shebby and I do. We look forward to taking
this journey with you!
