Baseball4Africa 2010 Begins

We arrived in Nairobi after two long, but comfortable flights from NY-Brussels-Kenya. We cleared customs around midnight with 5 out of 6 bags. Of course the one bag we lost would be the one with all my clothes/shoes/sleeping bag stuff in it. No worries, I'm sure it will show up eventually.

We spent the next two days running around Nairobi getting the car, a 1988 Land Rover nicknamed the "Turtle", in order, getting insurance, and supplying up. The Turtle was a bit troubled after sitting for nearly a year, so we took it to the mechanics who toyed giving it the death warrant and then said it is fixable. So we rented a small economy and drove off east on the Mombasa highway to our host school Kiongwani Secondary School in Sultan Hamud, Kenya. Seeing giraffes nibbling at the acacia trees and looking for other wildlife kept us occupied and alert for the 1 1/2 hour drive.

Yesterday we worked out with the kiongwani students for the first time. The quality of baseball here in Kenya is a drastic improvement from 5 years ago when I was last here. It is a testament to Jim coming back year after year, all the people who have donated and helped out back in America, and the fact that the older students are now passing down knowledge of the sport to younger students.

Pitchers were throwing strikes, hitters were putting the ball in play, and incredibly the fielders were catching fly balls and throwing runners out at first base. I would say definite 'bad news bears' quality, which is a big step. They were all very eager to learn and I'm hoping to show them some real baseball games on the computer to give them an idea of the level to aspire to.

The field is as you would expect. Big rocks and uneven dirt vastly outnumber the non rocky level places. The schools water tank looms in the background behind our backstop which is made out of an old soccer goal. Tons of students and bystanders from the village stop by to watch this new game...until a foul ball hits too close and then they scatter.

I am looking forward to traveling to and teaching at the other schools in the district. Some of the roads are pretty tough so we will have to wait for the Turtle before hitting up those schools. Kiongwani school accepted us with open arms and even put us up in a room in the headmasters house. It has electricity, a cylindrical concrete outhouse with a hole in the floor, and I counted 18 spiders in the bedroom. At least there aren't any dangerous spiders in Africa....wait a minute...