Evan Playing Soccer

As most of you know by now, Evan's school here in Kenya didn't work out very well.  First off, the credits wouldn't have transferred to Natchitoches Central.  Secondly, the school day goes until 5:00 PM, and I just couldn't see punishing him for having come to Kenya with me by making him go to school longer than he would have if he had just stayed home.  Also, the teachers were often not there at school when he went there, and that got to be kind of a pain for him.  And finally, once the rainy season started up, it would have been a long, muddy walk to a school that didn't count.  So, that's how that played out.

However, one thing that has worked out pretty well for him is soccer.  Before the rainy season began, Evan played soccer (football here, obviously) pretty much every day.  The guys here play a somewhat looser, kind of wilder brand of soccer than we do, and are VERY fast, as he will attest when you talk to him.  The soccer field is right next to our house, and this has meant that every afternoon when the sun is shining he has been able to play for an hour and a half or so.  The guys he plays with are at the college, or are the children of people working at the college.  They call him "Evans" because that is a name that is familiar here (Evan is not), and he has made some pretty good acquaintances here on the field.  The field itself needs mowing, but since I have only seen one mower on campus, I don't think they will get to it before he leaves.  Nevertheless, they play. And here are some pictures of him playing soccer.

Anyone who knows Evan has seen a lot of this type of pose.

Here he is spitting.  Ah, my little Kenyan!

He is out there somewhere.  He is the only mzungu.

Running after the ball.  This is usually a friendly game between engineering students and some other group.  It does get heated occasionally, though.

The Kenyans just have real jump speed.  When I started to take this picture Evan was in front of the guy, by the time the picture snapped, he was past him.

But Evan has held his own, scored a few goals, and really had a good time playing.

He is down there in the mix somewhere.  The guys seem nice, I say "seem" because they are all speaking swahili, so they could be saying most anything, and we would never know it.

Evan doing a throw in.  There are no lines, and no nets in the goal.  This is one step above the village soccer we have all seen in movies about Africa.  There is some grass, and they probably need to put cows on it one afternoon to give it a trim.  Of course, then there would be other problems with the field, I'm sure....

He has gotten a good work out most days, though the rainy season did set us back.  Still, I think this has been one of the highlights for Evan.