The FA Changing Lives Programme: Rwanda 2014 [Part I]

15-22nd February 2014, The FA Changing Lives Trip 2014

After arriving early to the Park Inn at London Heathrow (Friday 14th February) it was an excitement built afternoon and evening waiting for the team to turn up. Myself and Matt Ford were there early and conversation flowed.. A level of amazement thinking about past young leaders who have been through the Changing Lives Programme and Football Futures.. Realising we were about to become a part of that legacy. 

As the team arrived, excitement continued to build.. That until Donna received a phone call from Steve. Oh no. Flights cancelled. Barriers to participation and we hadn't even left the country! What a nightmare, so much frustration and disappointment.. Trust it to happen the year I go! Fortunately, Donna and the nice lady at ATP solved it and re-booked our flights for Sunday evening. A bit of a wait, but that's where my story truly begins. 

The trip allows 4 young leaders from the Football Futures programme the opportunity to travel to a country in Africa to deliver an international leadership programme to develop young leaders who can then continue a ripple effect of development in their own communities.
 

This year was there first where The FA had returned to a previous country, we were going to further develop those leaders from last year through the Mash Up programme, whilst working with 20 new leaders who would work through The FA Changing Lives Programme Leadership Course. 
 

So.. The trip..

The Changing Lives Team of 2014 was: Donna McIvor, Steve Swallow, John Heathcote, Sharon Muxworthy, Matt Jones, Dominic Best, Matt Ford, Pete Haynes, Lauren Asquith and myself. What an amazing team to be a part of, not just in terms of individuals but as a unit. A group of people passionate about football and wanting to make a change, be the difference. Not only who want to go on their own personal journey, but to also help support and develop others. To push each other well out of their comfort zone!

Lindsey Whitton of West Riding FA told me that the trip would not only change the life of those I work with, but my own.. Words echoed by my Dad when I first got a place on the trip. All of the messages I received prior to departure were overwhelming.. well that's what I thought overwhelming felt like. 

I went with the goal to improve my 'problem solving' abilities, something I struggle with is dealing with problems on the spot. I don't have a thought process, just a mental breakdown of stress and worry that a problem has occurred. My new thought process was.. Problem - 1 Minute Thought - Action - Reflection. This was to have some structure to my thoughts, something to stick to and a route to dealing with any problems. This was a starting point.

Me being me, I had my moments before the trip.. The times where I thought I wasn't good enough, that I might let the team down. So many what ifs, no yeah buts. Yeah but, I know how to manage people and create strong rapports. Yeah but, I've worked hard and deserve this opportunity. 

The extra day and a half spent in the hotel weren't terrible, filled with massive breakfasts, pillow fights, dodgy valentines day lift conversation and ham and picollili sandwiches.. Without the picollili of course. All in all, we got closer as a group and had some outstanding conversations. Those of which I seek at uni with lecturers. 

Time soon ticked on, Sunday morning came and we got to dress in our FA kit. What a feeling that was to be wearing a t-shirt which the FA crest on my chest, knowing I would not only be representing them, but England whilst over in Rwanda. It was another feeling which felt right, like it was my time! This was what dreams are made of. A hefty 4 part breakfast filled me up, by the time we had checked out it was lunch time and the team were once again reunited.. This time all systems were set to go! 

I had been fed previous stories from trips, knowing that the journey would be life changing.. Little did I realise how this previous knowledge wouldn't even scratch the surface of my first hand experience. 

We checked in and through Heathrow, wandered through the boarding gates and convinced a woman we worked for Chelsea. Watched Liverpool lose, drank red bull and started speculating about the week ahead. Kenya Airways were our providers, the team were dotted around the plane sucked in between other tourists.. The journey had properly begun.

It was a long flight, going from London to Nairobi, Steve nearly ate his dinner of my head after managing to draw himself away from the 'Jumpers for Goalposts' esc game. We then travelled from Nairobi to Kigali. 

The Team arriving at Kigali Airport

 

The heat hit us hard after stepping out of the airport, but it was good to see the friends faces of Jacques and Mamim to meet us. Kigali certainly differed to expectations, it was so much greener and built up than I expected. Many shanty towns surrounding the road we were travelling on, these providing the reality of the Rwandan capital. 

Arriving at the hotel again was a bewildering experience, swimming pool, smart lobby and balcony.. How is it possible for there to be such a facility in an area of poverty? Traffic lights capable of counting down the time to cross, swimming pools all surrounded by shanty towns and strugglers. 

We didn't have much time at the hotel before heading out on our first adventure. The plans were to head to the Genocide Memorial Museum and then off to a local orphanage. 

The Genocide Memorial was probably the one aspect I wasn't so much looking forwards to prior to the trip, mainly because I don't deal which those kinds of things very well in an everyday sense. I found the memorial experience very difficult, I have learnt about the genocide at uni, but being there was a different matter. So much more of a reality slap of the devastation, I struggled to comprehend and fully accept everything I was seeing and reading. Images and stories really drove home the level of the situation. Silence fell on the team as we walked through, respects given where due. 

My thoughts following 'The Children's Room' were immediately on the orphans we were going to visit. How was I going to help those children and give them a positive experience to make their day. Hundreds of children who lost family members to the genocide became orphans, so I felt it to be my duty to deliver something enjoyable to lift spirits, even just for that afternoon. 

It was quite surreal heading towards the orphanage, driving down a main road which was pretty much perfect before turning off onto a mud and concrete track down a hill and over many road holes.. Another bout of reality. We went to SOS, which was the name of the orphanage and were told about how the place worked and the children there of which there were hundreds. As we continued to delve into the centre we had our paths crossed by cows and finished at a mound of grass with 60+ children waiting for us. As a team we went straight in to meet the children exclaiming 'Muraho' 'Nit Wa Sarah' , such a buzz was their response. Greeted with smiles. We got into our sessions after 30 seconds planning time, me and Matt F cracked on with a game of football before adding in our restrictions.

Even just a basic game of football made the kids happy, being able to be competitive and enjoy themselves through sport. Such a sight as we take it for granted at home. We were there for an hour which seemed to fly by, before long we were saying goodbye and being sung to. A difficult sight walking away, the children chasing the bus, knowing that they wouldn't get that sort of enjoyment again for a while possibly, and that they were going back to lessons and spending their lives without family. 

We all left the orphanage absolutely buzzing, huge smiles and wanting more. What a surreal experience, children just enjoying the game. 

Back to the hotel for tea/dinner before our first mentoring sessions and Big John's briefing for the start of the leadership programme. My task was set for the next day, to pick out 3 positives from the day... As I've said previously I'm very good at being over critical, even if I have a really positive session, 1 negative will always take priority in my mind. The point of finding positives was to make sure I stayed in a positive mindset constantly and faced challenges in the right way. 

So day 2 of the week in Rwanda, we got up, tried breakfast for the first time, consumed our malaria tablets and were soon on the way to The Federation Rwandaise de Football Association or FERWAFA for short. We were greeted by old and new faces, those of young leaders who were on the programme last year, and those new would be working through the leadership programme.

All of the kit was laid out, speeches were made and the course was finally started! Myself, Matt, Lauren and Pete worked with the new young leaders with Steve and John, whilst MJ, Sharon and Dom delivered the Mash Up programme to last years' young leaders.

We started off by breaking into groups and meeting the leaders we were going to mentor before some ice-breakers. It was stunning to find out the FA YLs were the youngest in the room! It seems that 'young' in Rwanda refers to experience rather than age.

Without letting the age gap phase us, we moved on. In my group I had Valentine, Peter, Speciose and Emmanuel. The first task around 'what makes a good leader' was interesting. At no point did I need to push for answers, I only questioned for my own understanding. We had answers surrounding being the friend of your players, respect, discipline and self-confidence. What a fantastic start to the day. These thoughts founded our code of conduct for the week.

We soon moved outside and onto the practical activity, John went through a couple of warm up activities before we delivered our games.
It was a surreal environment.. sand, stones and concrete formed the playing surface. The Rwandan national stadium in the background and we even had a crowd stay and watch. I covered all mediums of delivery, visuals on a whiteboard, demonstrations, walking through the activity as well as speaking. It's weird thinking back, but that 15 minutes was the most comfortable I've every felt in a coaching situation, yet I had never been there before. Do you know what?.. I felt confident, trusted myself and backed myself.

Delivering my session.

All of the games were delivered before heading back to the hotel for lunch, that until Steve lost the room key! Luckily I had seen a key outside and so rushed back to find it, don't worry all danger was averted.

Following lunch we looked at running events and the types of tournaments you can run before planning for the delivery of our first festivals. My group who strived during the morning, struggled to plan. I continued to be patient and persevere as we slowly worked towards an outcome. At times I wanted to do it all for them, but how would that help? Anyway, we reached 5.25pm with a basic plan in place. Fantastic after it first seemed we'd never had a warm up!

Arriving back at the hotel felt pleasant following the days' challenges. Time to reflect and plan myself for the festival. My plans were all back-ups, anything that I thought could bring up an issue, I planned for.

Dinner followed by a mentoring sesh followed by bed, well bed was after my video diary efforts which Lauren wasn't amused by.. I'm quite fortunate not to have been thrown over the balcony!!


To be continued...