football

things were pretty much the same after lunch except the hole soon got too deep to shovel dirt straight out of it and we've had to change our tactics a little.. we've dug two hoes into the side of the wall as a stand and are basically lowering a bucket down onto it, shoveling dirt into it, hoisting it back up and dumping the dirt aside. progress is immediately drastically slower and i must say it started becoming quite discouraging..

we only worked for an hour or so and during my break from digging, these two little girls emerged from the bushes and came and sat with me. they were very huggy and wanted cuddles and the eldest all of a sudden became very interested in my hair.. she noticed i had an elastic band holding it up and once she realised that my hair is actually reasonably long she immediately untied it and proceeded to run her fingers through it.. and for the next 20 mins i had these tiny soft hands gently stroking my head as she smoothed my hair back then plaited and un-plaited it.. it was the most delightful thing. she continued playing with it until she settled on a braid and i ended up with this long braid tied back into a bun-type hairdo (: and the whole while she was softly singing swahili songs to herself which were absolutely lovely.. i was actually amazed by how gentle and careful she was, not once did she pull my hair..

then it was time for a game of soccer!! one of the girls on the trip, lucy, had organised with a local football club for kits to be donated to the school kids (which was a brilliant idea) and these got handed around with much excitement. the photos speak pretty much for themselves but it was a really nice community thing.. so many of the school kids stayed back to watch and cheer and i thought our boys (and jane!!) did really good (: the local boys were amazingly fast and nimble and although us foreigners did a good job, the kenyans ended up winning.