Written by Canadian SportWORKS Officer, Gabe Podivinsky
Gabe’s international experiential learning experience is funded by the Queen Elizabeth Scholars (QES) Program. This collaborative initiative is made possible through the leadership of the Rideau Hall Foundation, in collaboration with Community Foundations of Canada, Universities Canada, and Canadian universities. Through its promotion of international student exchange and civic engagement, the QES program is helping to grow young Canadians into global citizens while promoting Canada as a destination for the world’s top talent and attracting top talent and international research leaders to Canada.
Where to begin this second blog? I would be lying if I didn’t feel a smidge of pressure to live up to the first one. I was taken aback by the amount of support and people reaching out. It was humbling. I was in awe of the impact it would have on a global scale and awareness that I had the capacity to bring to everyone reading this. So I guess we can start there. Thank you for reading this. And thank you to everyone who reached out, republished, and shared my experience. I am so grateful to have a supporting community back home, even when I am on the other side of the world. It makes my heart full. Miss you all. Can’t wait to share some stories in person.
Before I began this trip one of the goals I had set out for myself was to try driving on the other side of the road. I have scratched that off the list in fear of my own safety. The driving here is a combination of the Indy 500 mixed with the Lilac Festival foot traffic and the Motocross World Championship. As a foreigner it appears like the Coruscant speeder chase scene from Revenge of the Sith. But as you experience it more, you come to realize there is organization within the madness. A flow exists in the traffic, it is just different from what we are used to experiencing.
In my life there has been very few events that I can say have filled my heart the same way that the tennis tournament did. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience that I will remember. It allowed me to realize my full achievement of what it is I am actually doing. Im in Kenya facilitating sport events and having an impact on the youth here. What?!?!!?! I am so proud of myself. It is the beginning of a long career where I will continue to be able to impact those around me. I was on cloud nine from the event. It’s bad writing to say that there are no words to describe it. But in some way it is true. It was total elation. It was bliss. I cried. It fulfilled me in ways that I didn’t think were possible and I had found a joy in sport that I had once lost when I quit football. It wasn’t about the competition. It was about getting kids out having fun. The cheers, the laughter, the screams, the dancing, the playing. They are sounds and sights that continue to envelop my head. It has given me a goal that I want to replicate. A pride that I haven’t experienced before.
The day itself began early I was at the Nairobi Club at 7:30 to help set up. We had set up eight mini courts and planned to divide the kids by age group into those separate mini courts. Before any of that began though we wrangled the kids and got them to fill the bleachers. We gave a brief introduction. I had to show them that I wasn’t your average Mzungu. I could speak their language. “Mambo. Asante ni Kwa Kuja. Jina Langu Ni Gabe.” Thats about as much as I could memorize in the 5 minutes before it was my turn to speak. But it was enough to get the kids into it and they had a laugh. Definitely gotta practice the pronunciation, develop the Swahinglish flow to my sentence structure. But it is the small acts like acknowledging them in Swahili that goes a long way towards building relationships and getting the kids into what we are doing. We need to have them buy in, in order to have meaningful impact. Coming here and acting high and mighty, telling them what to do rather than guiding them will only develop resentment as they feel there is no choice for them to make. Even though these kids are young, they are still people. They have a consciousness, dreams, ideas, fears. We need to approach them as a person. It doesn’t matter the age, you can always learn and work with someone. These children have incredible imaginations, it would be counter productive to not use that to help them grow. And in turn myself grow.
Following the brief introduction and discussion about what the day is about. We got the kids moving, a little bit of dancing ran by the incredible DJ that we hired. These kids can boogie and enjoy it too. Its not unlike line dancing as I have come to realize. Each song has a specific dance that accompanies it and the kids all know exactly what move comes next. I have been coming to grips that I am going to have to teach Cadillac Ranch and I have been casually practicing in my apartment to make sure I can remember it all. You’d think that 23 Stampedes and an entire gym unit for 12 years would be enough to remember 9 moves.
After getting a sweat on, we divided the kids by age and sent them to their respective court. We could not have done it without the generous support of the tennis federation and its athletes who helped run the courts and keep everything organized and flow smoothly. It ended up not so much being a tournament, but rather getting one hundred kids “playing” tennis. Kids were rallying all over the place, between courts, drawing their own in the dirt, playing keep the ball in the air. Admittedly the tournament dissolved pretty quickly. But that’s where the first lesson and insight also showed itself. We don’t need this project to be about having organized tournaments. We need this project to empower youth to seek physical activity. There is an attitude that surrounds sport sometimes that it has to be organized and have a structured plan. But what the tournament showed me is that we need to give kids opportunities to move their bodies and support them in whatever capacity they want. To help them fall in love with moving through doing what they want to do.
I spent most of the tournament walking around, talking to kids, played a few matches. I was definitely called out a ton. Kids wanted to take me on. I answered the call, took no prisoners. I showed them what’s up. Because we were playing on mini courts it was easy to unleash the hammer. (Thats what I call my serve). BOOM. 1-0. BOOM. 2-0. BOOM. Into the net. 2-1. It was games to 5. I finished the day 15-3 overall in games. Just cause I am here to help kids doesn’t mean I am gonna take it easy on them how does that help? They gotta earn the victory. And a few did. It was cute to see how happy they were when they won, jumping, getting their friends. “I did it, I did it”. It was just as fun for me. I was smiling and laughing with them the entire time.
The biggest take away from the entire event was that I gotta remember the SPF. I am not tougher than the sun. That was the biggest battle that I lost and the burn lines were gnarly for about a week after. All jokes aside these were incredible children who I am so privileged to have met. They truly touched my heart and I am so humbled to even be able to be doing this in the first place.
After the event, the question was asked to us. What do we want our legacy to be? The answer I gave was, if these kids are still seeking ways to play together in a year from now than we did our job. With that in mind we recognized that these one off tournaments were maybe not the most sustainable or viable option. While it offers a fun community day, does it leave a lasting impact and message that kids will carry through their lives? Truthfully no it didn’t. So we needed to re work and revamp the project to find an option that would provide sustainability and ensure that these students continue to cheza healthy throughout their lives. It’s partly why this second blog has taken so long to come out. We had to go back and rewrite a plan, come up with new ideas and begin a new adventure in and of itself.
Cheza Healthy 2.0 – Please note there has been a bout a 3 week time period between the first part and this second part.
Two things can be true at the same time. This is a once in a lifetime experience. But it is also one of the hardest things I have had to take on. It has pushed me in ways I had not thought of and brought upon new challenges regarding culture shock, communication, expectations, fulfillment that I have had to face. I admit I had reached a point where I considered coming home. It is something I still am in the midst of battling. It is part of the reason why this second blog took so long to write. I was faced with the low after the high of getting here. I think back to my friend Cam when he went travelling last summer and he discussed his lull. It is an isolating feeling in a foreign country. You are forced to grit your teeth and keep pushing. I am so grateful to have such a strong support system back home. There have been a lot of conversations and emails sent. I have seen poverty levels which I didn’t know existed and it breaks my heart. We live in an ignorant bubble in the west. Truthfully it is a bubble that I miss, the comfortability that comes with the seclusion. But is that why I need to tough it out here? Make it through the next seven weeks. Continue to grow, develop an understanding of the world? Who will I be at the end of this experience? If it ends now, am I the same guy that left Calgary? I don’t know. I heard this saying that nothing changes if nothing changes. I have been thinking about it when it comes to the project. But maybe I need to think about it when it comes to myself. This isn’t the end all be all of my life. This is the beginning, I have to be okay with failing, with growing, with learning. The culture I am in will not change to make the project great. So then I have to change to make the experience of being here great.
So with that I drank my cement and hardened up. I had written this original blog but it was more of a venting tool. Thats not what this is for. This is to celebrate what I am doing and share my experiences in a light that other Canadian SportWORKS Officers, organizations, friends, and family can see too. In a way be on this journey with me. I have accomplished a ton. I made it to Africa, I rented my first apartment. I have made friends on the other side of the world. I have organized a tennis tournament. I have initiated the process of this project and was the first intern. I have met olympians. I have found a new favourite beer. I have grown as an individual. I have expanded my world view. I have found the topic of my final school project. I have received this scholarship. I have spoken at a graduation. I have had my phone stolen (it makes a good story) I have gone on a safari. I have experienced sport in a new capacity. There is a lot to celebrate. Sometimes you need to take a step back and look at it from an outside perspective. it is hard while you are in the middle of it though. You become emotionally involved, you set expectations that may not succeed. You have to care, if you don’t whats the point in coming?
So. The tennis tournament was a rousing success. But we as team recognized that five one time tournaments does not do an effective job of reaching the goals of the Cheza Healthy project. That being the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). So we met as a team and discussed possible options we could take the project where the mission of the project was effectively communicated and sought after. One iteration was to partner with an organization in a slum and create weekly sport for development programs based on age groups. Primary, Secondary, Young Adult, Young Mothers and those who face impairment. Organize a support system where we could facilitate a sport or have a meeting to discuss strategies to effectively get people moving their bodies. We recognized that in order to successfully combat NCDs we need to empower the people to seek activity for themselves. One tournament will not do that. Repetitive intervention with the same groups will, it will demonstrate that we care, it will also allow us to develop more of a relationship with members of the public. We need to have effective and impactful conversations with these people. It is the cultivation of an idea that we need to implant in their head and help to grow it, to a point where they feel the empowerment and responsibility for themselves. However, it has been hard to develop these programs and find partnerships, as most of NOCK is focused on Olympic preparation. So while this idea can be added to the three year action plan and hopefully another Canadian SportWORKS Officer can implement it. It is not a beneficial time to mainstream the idea.
I bet you’re probably wondering what are you doing then Gabe? Well thats a fantastic question and one I have been asking myself. Rather than take all of these groups and try and develop them at the same time, we have focused on one age group, primary students. I was lucky enough to meet a gentleman named Fred Awour. He heads the Olympic Values Education Program. He is also a former headteacher of multiple schools and had worked in the Ministry of Education in Kenya. He has been a godsend. The new approach for the project is to go to primary schools and empower them with the creation of Olympic Clubs with a focus on sport for development. Our goal is to visit a minimum of 10 schools in my time here in the Nairobi county and expand across Kenya as we continue to grow. So working with Fred we have created this implementation plan and have given the project new life in a capacity we are confident will ensure sustainability when it comes to NCD prevention as well as education and implementation of sport for development. It is a partnership, that is beneficial to both parties. Fred also allows the project to have a respect component the schools. I can’t just walk into a school and start talking about wanting to develop these programs. But Fred has the ability to. It has helped the project absolutely take off we have visited two so far and plan to visit two a week for the next six weeks that I am here.
What it actually looks like is we come and we teach a gym period for a day, we begin with about a group of 100 students and engage them with a brief discussion about what Cheza healthy is and what the Olympic values are. Following that we engage them in basic games that require little to no equipment, tag, tug of war, capture the flag, soccer, and they also teach us (mostly me) the games they like to play. It is quite outstanding the games these kids play with the equipment they have, using plastic bottles, crumbled up bags. They have incredible imaginations like we already said, we just need to empower them to use it for sport. At the end of the period we bring the students back, ask them about what they have learned in regards to Olympic Values and Sport for Development. We leave by challenging them to create an Olympic Club within their school where this core 100 students with the help of teachers will promise to get together once a week and do some sort of activity. It doesn’t have to be in depth or difficult all they need to do is cheza healthy together for thirty minutes. It gives the students a sense of responsibility and puts the initiative in their hands to seek to develop themselves and make a difference for their community. We of course as facilitators will remain in contact with the schools and help where necessary, if it is program planning, advertising though posters to hang up, or helping to fund equipment. We also plan to host a bi-monthly training for the teachers as a way to say thank you for their efforts where we will bring together teachers from all the schools that we have been to. Discuss what is working, what isn’t and train the teachers to help in expanding the programs within their own schools.
Trying to get a sport for development project up and running at an Olympic Committee in an Olympic year, feels like Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the endless hill in Tartarus. It has tested my patience, grown my problem solving, expanded my thinking process, developed my communication and since we are honest here, made me cry a few times. I see these instagram reels sometimes of this marathon swimmer who rips off 35,500 meter swims, his motto is that incremental progress repeated is virtually unstoppable and I think about that a lot with this project. We had nothing, then we had a tennis tournament, then we didn’t build so it stopped. Now we have begun again, have been to one school, learned, grew, adjusted. Went to a second and it was so much better already, we have captured the momentum and we need to keep building slowly. Cultivate an attitude from the ground up. Progress is unstoppable.
I have also been doing some other cool things and we will go through a quick slide show. My phone did get stolen so I lost some pictures. But here are some from my google drive I managed to upload before that happened.
*Pictures that I would’ve shared if my phone didn’t get stolen. (Use your imagination). Me in a big cave. Me in front of a small waterfall. Pictures from the first school Visa Oshwal. Me giving the thumbs up in front of Olympic Camp. Me at a market. Me playing soccer. Me giving a speech. Athletes training. Team Kenya Athletics Olympic Trials. That’s all I can remember, I am sure there were more.
Any who, if you’re in Calgary make sure to conserve your water. Take it from someone who has been pretty conscious of their water usage for the past 6 weeks, its not that bad. Sometimes a bottle tastes better than a tap. I saw it snowed the other day so just catch the flakes and drink that. Easy solution. Changing the world here and still helping people back home. Global ambassador at it’s finest.
Stay tuned for the next one, I will be running the marathon and prepping for a Mt.Kilimanjaro climb. While continuing to develop the program and go to a few more schools.
Cheers,
Gabe
Go Oilers