A Special Weekend

This past weekend (Feb 19-21) our Suba Lakers Football Club reported to Mbita for a weekend of training. Nineteen of the twenty-three girls came on Friday and stayed through Sunday afternoon. Some travelled by foot, others by public vehicles, others on the back of motorbikes, and about four came from islands on boats.

These primary school players come at least one weekend a month, but this one was extra special because Coach Ted travelled from Kisumu to conduct the training. He is the coach of a professional club in Kenya called Kisumu Real. Also, the director of Kisumu Youth Football Association, Kelsey Moore, also came with him to see what we are doing with our girls and to train with them. The girls loved having someone new putting them through a workout and they also loved having a mzungu (white) lady training with them. The girls worked really hard over the three days and impressed the visitors with their skills and ability at such a young age. Most of our girls are only in 6th-7th grade and are around 11-16 years old. They have really improved over the past year that we have been working with them. If they stay together and continue to grow at the same rate, we will have a pretty incredible team in the coming years.

The club is preparing for the Copa Coca Cola tournament at the beginning of March and also for the primary school ball-games immediately after. Most of these girls will be forming the team that represents our district at Regionals and many of them will represent the region at Provencials. Even a few may get selected to reach the National Level.

Our club was grateful to our good friends, Ted and Kelsey, for taking time to travel to Mbita, staying with the girls in the camp, and helping to train them.

Proud of Our Kids

I have a big sense of relief now that all of 25 of our graduates are safe and sound in their new secondary schools. It is pretty remarkable that each of our students that finished at CGA last year are in schools. The transition rate from primary to secondary within our district is around 60%. If you factor in those that dropped out before finishing 8th grade in the district, then it would be much lower than that (around 40%). We have had a 100% transition rate in our school's history. Currently we are sponsoring 90 students in secondary schools all throughout the country. We have eight of our former students in National Schools and most of the rest are in the next best class of schools (Provencial).

That is pretty amazing considering that most of our students are orphans from poverty stricken families where few others, if any, are educated. It is a testimony to God's faithfulness and how he has used CGA to impact the lives of so many others.

So all twenty-five students from CGA have begun their first year in high school. Twenty-four are in boarding schools. Many of them got chances at some of the best schools in the province and in the country. We are excited to see how they will excel against the best and brightest. Part of CGA's vision is to prepare these children for secondary school and for life. The ones that succeed at CGA, end up doing even better when they reach the next level because they have learned how to be self-disciplined and self-motivated. They end up out-performing others who had higher marks than them in primary school.

I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to attend a big secondary school sports tournament and I was able to watch several former CGA students competing in boys basketball, girls basketball, boys football, girls football, volleyball, rugby and field hockey. It was so much fun to see them using their God-given abilities in different areas. Sports has a way of creating a close connection between the student and the school and with their coaches and teammates. It also provides them good exercise and allows them to be exposed to new places away from school. Plus, it helps to develop their character as they learn about hard-work, discipline and teamwork.

I am very proud of all of our kids. So many of them have had challenging lives, but are managing to rise above it with support from CGA.