Kenya grandmothers coach subsequent era : NPR
Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly sequence through which NPR’s worldwide workforce shares moments from their lives and work world wide.
Final summer time whereas touring by way of Europe, I ran right into a childhood pal who instructed me a few group of grandmothers in central Kenya who had shaped a soccer workforce to maintain match and to present hope to a era of youngsters. Again in Nairobi, I needed to discover out for myself, and so final month, I took a bus north to the foothills of Mount Kenya.
Miriam Wangui spent 20 years doing humanitarian work on the United Nations in Geneva, got here residence, and final yr opened a coaching heart that included a soccer academy for youngsters. What she by no means deliberate for was grandmothers — she tells me they only arrived one Friday and mentioned they needed their very own workforce. “It was simply natural.”
At 72, Ann Wanjugu, within the heart of this picture, is the oldest. She grins telling me she left her kitchen mid-cooking to run and register for a coaching session earlier this yr. “Earlier than, I may do some work and get drained,” she says. “Now there are adjustments. I really feel match and I cannot cease.”
I’ve performed soccer most of my life. Watching Ann Wanjugu dash previous ladies younger sufficient to be her grandchildren, I felt one thing I hadn’t anticipated — a renewed urge to get again on the pitch myself.
On weekends the grannies mentor youngsters on the heart’s magnificence college, some grannies making an attempt nail polish for the primary time. No uniforms, no correct boots. Simply grandmothers and youngsters shaping one another — one dash, one giggle, one first at a time.
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