Dagoretti 4 Kids goes 6-0!

Last weekend, we hosted Nairobi’s 3^rd annual Ultimate Frisbee Festival. We had 6 teams, 80+ players, sponors, good food and lots of fun. We co-facilitated the event with another teacher from Mandy’s school that plays on a national team in Canada. Many of the participants came from the 25-30 people that come out on Fridays and Sundays to play pickup games each week. They were a huge help in pulling all of this together!

In years past, this event has always been a fundraiser for a local organization doing work with kids in the community. In years past, proceeds went to an organization, they occasionally came out for the day to watch and at best, were somewhat involved. This was not the case this year. We decided to work with a group of kids that had never played ultimate frisbee during the month before, teach them how to play and form a team to enter into the tournament. It was in the spirit of all of this that we were able to go 6-0 in the tournament. Here’s a quick summary of our wins.

1. We taught 15-20 kids how to play a new game that they will likely hold onto in the near future. Teaching them the basics and providing the basic equipment, it was fun to rally them around a new activity.
2. The improvement from the first time that we played to our last game was incredible! You have to imagine that most of the kids had never seen a frisbee before. They thought it was a plate or something that you throw to a dog. All of the teams commented on how well these guys had done for only playing the game for one month.
3. We were able to build new relationships with a great group of guys that we may have never had the opportunity to spend time with. There is something about enduring competition together. It allowed us to connect with the leaders of the org as well as a great group of guys with a tough past.
4. We were able to raise 75,000 Ksh (approx. $1300 USD) for the organization. All of the t-shirts, food and drinks were sponsored by local businesses and the regular group of frisbee players.
5. We were able to help some of our expat friends in Nairobi gain a bit of insight into the lives of local stories. In many cases here in Nairobi, there is a huge gap between the international and local community. This was a way to bring people together in a fun and non-threatening way. Many of our friends from abroad expressed interest in visiting the dagoretti project and playing games in their area.
6. Despite the fact that we didn’t win any games, the guys had a postivive attitude, encouraged one another and set a great example for other teams. People commented left and right on their attitude and politeness to each of the teams that we encountered.

This was an incredible experience for everyone. I (Joel) will always remember my first ultimate frisbee tournament and I am convinced that the kids of dagoretti will do the same.