Play For Hope

    Today was the once a month government required event called “Umuganda”.  During this event, the entire country divides all the way down to neighborhood cells, each cell is called an Mdugudu.  Each family must send one member to be a part of this each month.  In short, they clean.  They clean streets and work on neighborhood cleanup projects.  It’s really quite fascinating.  Young kids are excluded and many people try to find ways to duck out, but what results is a very clean country.  It is strange though: in the market around 7am, anyone wandering around is in danger of being whacked by a cop with a little thin stick.  The shops are all closed and the roads are empty.  In all my trips to Rwanda, I have never been here for it until today.  It was so quiet....I felt like I was in the bush. 

    We finished up with formation theory today and tried to dispel more “myths of the magic pill”.  I have been teaching this “there is no magic pill” concept all week because the Rwandans have been hoping I could give them some thing that will make all their soccer problems go away.  They especially think this regarding formations and tactics.  They think a formation is the magic pill that makes a coach good or not good.  So, I taught about formations and showed them a good way....I think.  (-:  Then, we went to a match between with the U17 national team of Rwanda.  I enjoyed it a ton and so did the other coaches, even though no goals were scored.  There are major offensive issues here. 

    All in all...it has been a very good training and there are going to be some kids lives changed massively.  These guys are ready to grow as coaches and mentors for these street kids.