Thursday November 12th

Thursday November 12th

I started my day off with senior training like I do most days. However, today I arrived at the field early, so I talked to Edom, one of the kids I am friends with. I flipped through the pages of his school notebook, and stopped at a section titled "Pollution." I thouht it was extremely ironic that he had a whole page written about not litering and burning trash, when literally, 150 meters from the school there is a huge garbage dump, which is burnt daily. At senior training, I helped out with a drill or two, but didn't do more than usual. We had school training after senior practice, so we needed to go to the school to pick up the kids. As I was walking with Malik back to the pitch, he handed me a rolled up piece of paper. I opened it, and saw it said "I love you" painted in black and green. It was really so nice, and I was kind of shocked. (He didn't explain why this was for me, but instead just repeated "I love you. I think it was because I bought him medicine yesterday.) I was shocked because he didn't seem that sweet of a kid, and never looks happy. But it was a really nice note, and it made my day!
It was Alex's last day of school training, so he held a competition, and he bought the winners Fan Ice.
While we walked back to the school with the kids, Malik wanted to walk next to me. He didn't really talk, but just wanted me to stand next to him. I said that he has to smile more, because he does not smile at all. Whenever I said this, he would always start to laugh, which was good to see from him.
I had lunch at Sunrise 2 Go with Alex, Chris, Henriette, Jasmine, Laura and Matt. It was a really good meal! It was kind of a going away meal for Alex, because he was leaving Saturday, and we all wouldn't be there for his last night.
Then I went back to the field for U 12 training. I was put in charge of a shooting drill. I let Tomo, a new Japanese volunteer, who only comes to the soccer placement once or twice a week, help out, so he could feel included. It was good, because the kids were working hard today, and not fooling around.
When the practice was over I needed to have a talk with Rama, the head of the football club, Charlie and Richard about the other day. I didn't really care too much any more , but I guess it is a big deal.
Emmanual, Malik and Joseph walked us back to the taxi, which was cool of them to do. The kids here are honestly awesome, and I'm going to miss them a lot when I leave.