Football -- so much more than just a game

In just the week that i have been here, i have encountered numerous international and domestic organizations, including my own, that are devoted in part- if not entirely-to the creation of football leagues and matches. they have taken this on in an effort to get young adults thinking and acting in a healthy and productive manner. the idea is to give people something to plan around, to train for, to watch and perhaps most importantly, to be proud of. To get them off the streets so to speak, steer them away from thinking about and engaging in sex and drugs, and exhaust the hell out of them so that when they are done, they go home and sleep instead of heading to the bars. so the other day, i found myself looking for something to do with my time other than head home to my lonely octagonal palace(as PCVs are beginning to refer to it) and i stumbled onto a match at our stadium(dirt field).

I was sitting waiting for the game to start and i noticed first, that i was the only woman sitting in the crowd and all around me are about 100+ men sitting - waiting. 100 or so men just waiting for a game to start at 4pm on a Wednesday- 100 or so men who are out of work, day laborers and idle for much of their daily lives. I struck up a conversation with one of the young men sitting next to me. I asked him what the hardest thing was for him about living in Voi. He, a young man of about 22 and a form 4 leaver(highschoool graduate), answered work. he said he has been out of school and trying to get a job for the past 1.5 years and cannot, thus working as a daily laborer-spending all day working jobs like construction for about 150 shillings(about US$2). this is a good day, because competition is tough out there to get these informal jobs.

Actually, the first question i asked him was 'unafanya nini?' what do you do'. he said 'I'm a footballer, i play football'. its an interesting concept-giving youth some agency in their lives by giving them sport. sport because they cannot be given jobs that don't exist, jobs that many of us use to define ourselves, our contributions to this world, our relation to others and even for some, happiness. These 100 or so young men represent probably upwards of 5,000 people in my town and i have no estimate for what it means on a national scale (though i have heard informally that national unemployment is around 50%). Needless to say, its a big problem for thousands of men and women-who for now-are proud to be footballers.

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a few more technical side notes-these day laborers are not paying taxes, pointing to another large problem in this country, taxing the informal. additionally, in those areas where they do pay taxes, like at the supermarket and petrol stations, they are enraged. here over half of the country is jobless, thus food is scarce, many do not have access to clean water and electricity, road accidents are a top killer here due to the poor condition of the roads. the youth (quite rightly) don't feel that their money is coming back to them at all... i wont go into a rant on inefficient and corrupt uses of government funds...but its there.

also, about a week ago, an economist from the American embassy came and spoke to us. he mentioned that many companies are interested in moving their call centers to Kenya because people like the Kenyan english accent better. However, a really large problem this country is facing is infrastructure...once again in my experience/research it boils down to infrastructure. problems surrounding telecommunications, internet, reliability of electricity- all this is problematic if you are an investor looking for stability. call centers would create thousands of jobs...once again tho, we are paralyzed by infrastructure.