Fresh off of our first-ever Guinea-based program the Saturday prior, and energized from a Sunday rest day afterwards, I geared up for our next collaboration – a full week of sessions alongside the Simbaya-based CRS (Conakry Reliance School).

The school, formerly known as Conakry Refugee School, was once the choice learning institution for a number of children of refugees from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and other neighboring countries. They have since been educating hardworking students for over 30 years, deciding to change their name to Conakry Reliance School back in 2023 in order to reflect the fact that their students are now born in Guinea and their community has settled in Conakry. A school of 500 students, CRS provides primary and secondary school education at fees far lower than those of other schools in the market. I was eager to work with the school for a number of different reasons.

First, I had been in contact prior to arrival with an amazing individual named Jackie, the founder of “Friends of CRS”, whose organization does incredible work to offset a majority of the school’s operating costs through generous funders. Together, her and I had spent a number of days planning out a collaboration with the school beneficial to both organizations.

We landed upon a marathon week of programming with two sessions a day in order to accomodate the older grade levels in their entirety.

“Yes we could partner for this – in fact, the school football interclass league has just kicked off!” she said enthusiastically, passing along pictures of the kids donning their finest footballing garb.

The enthusiasm would only rise, as somehow our dates for being in Conakry overlapped! I was stoked. This meant she would be there for at least our first two sessions on Monday. What a coincidence, right? Especially for a pair of England and United States-based organizations. I sent her a message upon my arrival, in order to finalize the partnership details.

“Hey Jackie, I’ll be bringing some drawstring bags and footballs for Monday’s prizes, so let’s work with the young(er) groups in the older levels, if possible,” I said, making sure what I had brought for program giveaways was suitable for our beneficiaries.

From there, I also linked up with my other CRS contact, Mr. Julius. Now this man was a huge help ahead of my arrival. Not only had he helped coordinate our week of programs, he also helped with apparel sizes so I could better prepare those program giveaways. It’s no surprise at all that he was just as helpful upon my landing in Guinea. Immediately Monday morning, he greeted me with a handshake and took me upstairs to meet with the school’s sports director, Coach Bangs. Up there too, on the school’s second floor, were Jackie and her daughter!

Friends of CRS had just wrapped up a sponsored women’s health drive, providing menstrual products and important education for the student body. The event was nearly over, just short of Jackie and the girls heading to the outdoor recess area to watch the girls perform a cultural dance for them. Plenty of pleasantries out of the way, I adjusted as quickly as I could to the space I would be calling home for the next three days. Then, we got straight into it!

Luckily, the weather was cooperating. I mean, at least so far. It was overcast and cloudy, but it sure beat the alternative: the Guinean sun absolutely torching our playing grid. With 24 kids signed up for the first session, I had no time to waste, as we quickly jumped into our listening drill.

I won’t lie though, I wasn’t sure where to begin. After all, I was scratching my head the whole time thinking I’d have to run the program entirely in French. Like, I had spent the six weeks prior getting my French up to a “working-proficiency” level not realizing many of the kids speak better English than French. In reality, most of them speak a language known as Susu. Still though, as always, we were going to make it work. I was determined to do just that. As a result, I found myself explaining things in English, then in French just to make sure all my bases were covered and all participants could understand.

Instructions out of the way, our listening drill was first led by myself followed by one of our girls, donning their sport uniforms: Nike Manchester United kits.

“It’s so hot Coach that we wanted to change into our sports gear,” they had said, swapping them in for their school uniforms.

In fairness, the goals were small and that added bit of difficulty seemed to make all the difference. I decided to up the ante, “first person to score wins a football!” I yelled out.

I had a whopping five soccer balls to give out as prizes in this first session, so it didn’t matter and I didn’t mind. After a couple quick rounds we finally had one – a young chap who had practically walked the ball into the back of the net. From there, we distributed bags while applauding heavily for our prizewinners.

Then, the Man U kits were swapped out for new owners as an older group of kids flooded onto the playing space. Looking to mix things up, I set up an oval drill and explained my expectations for the session as a few stragglers changed clothes in the wings. Expectations fully established, we got to work with the group trying hard to dribble within the confines of the oval. It was a tight space, sure, but it only reinforced the importance of dribbling with their eyes up.

“Head!” I yelled out. They knelt down and stopped the ball with their foreheads.

“Armpit!”

“Nose!”

“Hands!”

The list went on and on, and so did the laughs. Dribbling out of the way, next up were our relay races. I needed seven football prizewinners and figured this method (albeit improvised) was the best way to do so, and let me tell you… the kids were fired the heck up! They were cheering, jumping, running until sweat dripped down their entire school uniforms. From my spot on the sidelines, I counted out wins going down the line – 1 win, 1 win, 0 wins. Next variation – 1, 1, 1. Soon enough, 2, 1, 2 – this was it! First team to three would win a football for each member.

The kids knew the stakes were high and they sure did meet the moment. Tweeeeeeet! went my whistle. “Winning team, team three!” I yelled out. They hooted and hollered, excited to head home with their brand new footballs. Alas, that team was only six players deep so I did have to grab one final winner.

I chose to do so with ‘Red Light, Green Light’. One demo round out of the way, I knew that these kids were sharp. “Red light!” I’d yell out, watching a sea of them stop just in front of me. I paused for a short while.

“Red light!” I yelled out again, catching participants off guard – unexpecting of the old red light, red light two-piece combo.

I went up to a young man way up at the front, gently nudging him trying to make him lose his balance, though jokingly. He remained cold as ice! It was neck and neck between him and a girl. Finally, a photo finish! The girl won! We all cheered and applauded our final winner.

“Don’t fret guys, we have a prize for everybody, so you aren’t leaving today empty-handed,” I said, reassuringly.

One day, two programs, and over 40 kids in the bag. With that, a dozen kids walking home with an extra pep in their step thanks to their brand new football prizes. Thank you, CRS! See you tomorrow.