A pair of sessions successfully completed, it was time to keep things going with a Monday morning class at Open Sky Junior School Entebbe. I planned things out for nearly six weeks with my contact at the school, Walter, and couldn’t wait to work with their students. This was set to be a group similar to our kindergarten classes back in the Philippines with some participants here as young as 3 to as old as 10.

I was told to prepare for as many as 40 kids. I inflated 25 soccer balls and made my way towards the school, which was just a quick 10 minute car ride away. Waiting there with open arms was another one of my contacts, Mrs. Josephine, who was the head teacher at the school. She greeted me warmly with a smile on her face. With it technically still being a holiday and the rain once again falling strong and hard, the kids were trickling in slowly.

We were scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., which soon became 10 a.m. with a heavy rainfall-induced delay. By 11 a.m., we still barely had even a handful of kids present.

“Don’t worry, Stephen, the sun will come out by mid-day,” said Mrs. Josephine, optimistically.

I was thankful for her patience because mine was growing a bit thin. Nevertheless, I trusted her judgment and fixed my eyes back on the school window, waiting for the hopeful clearing Mrs. Josephine had promised. Come to find out, she sure wasn’t lying! The clock struck noon and the sun peeked out through the clouds. Our numbers were now over a dozen and we could finally get things going.

From there, I hit them with another familiar classic – Red Light, Green Light. We were strapped for space but I made sure to utilize everything we had, with the kids moving from the front edifice of the school all the way to the front yard’s fencing. As expected by now, the kids had a blast with this one. With each variation, they put forth their best effort, hoping to reach the fence first and in doing so, be in charge of running the next round. 

I couldn’t help but laugh as one participant, a young lad named Jesse just could not manage to “hold his horses” – consistently leaving his mark a second early or taking one extra step once “red light!” had been called out. A victor turned gamemaster, Jordan, had me weak during his round – quickly yelling “green light! red light!” with barely a second delay between commands. Too much power for the little guy, I suppose!

Dividing into two, even teams, I decided to break into some quick relay races just to work in some competition and basic ball work. Our participants were characters, that’s for sure, but they were all eager to participate and extremely hardworking. One girl dribbled like a wiz, despite being one of the youngest in the bunch! Her name was Ariana, and just like her namesake, Ariana Grande, she was wearing a blue princess dress like Glinda in Wicked. 

Next, I instructed the kids to place the football between their legs to hit our hopping penguin exercise. First though, I posed a question. “Is that a good distance, guys?” I asked. The kids looked at me in deep thought. One boy, named Jordan, had shaken his head. “Would you like the other cone to be closer or farther? Because we can go all the way to Kampala, if you guys want!” I exclaimed, jokingly.

The kids all clutched their stomachs in laughter. “No, Coach!” they yelled out, unwilling to cover the 40 KM distance to the nation’s capital city. After relays, I found one of our least-inflated footballs so that we could work on basic passing and headers, in order to seamlessly transition over to “Head It, Catch It” though aptly described as “Head or Hands” on the day.

A common occurrence by now, the kids were very confused at the dynamics at first, but quick to understand shortly after. By my second or third cycle around the circle, they were seasoned pros already! This was a pleasant surprise because in past sessions, especially with 3-5 year olds, I’ve had to give up on running this game.

Credit to the kids (and their teachers) because they were quick-thinking and very focused, which made for some very competitive rounds of “Head or Hands.” With nearly two hours elapsed, it was time to hit our final activity of the day, teaching our young pupils the neck stall.

One helper was a girl named Erin, who was noticeably talented, though much of her involvement was limited to behind a phone as she was tasked with photographing the session for the teachers. She put the phone down for long enough to step forward as one of our first volunteers to demo the neck stall. Erin managed to spin, walk forward and backward, before attempting a single push up. I was in awe!

From there, many of her classmates stepped up and did just the same. It was fun seeing the kids’ faces light up when they realized they were really doing a trick that seemed impossible just moments ago. With our curriculum nearly fully exhausted, and myself as well, it was time to sit participants in front of me for a little post-program debrief.

“First off, thank you guys for giving me so much energy today!” I said to the group, who had been a giggly and energetic bunch ever since the beginning.

“Next, to say thank you, I have a little gift here. For all of you,” I continued, revealing a ziploc bag full of tiny bracelets. “Guys, what colors do you see here?” 

“Yellow!”

“Black!”

“Red!”

“White!”

All correct answers, but still I had another question to ask.

“And what do those colors represent?” I asked.

“The Uganda flag!” the group answered in unison.

Still, though, the prizes weren’t ending there. “Guys, tell me, what’s the little white thing on your bracelets? Because that’s the hint for what your other giveaway is today.”

Their eyes widened as their eyebrows reached to the heavens. “Coach? Is it a football??!”

They jumped for joy.

One by one, every child approached Mrs. Josephine to receive their very own football with their name written across it in permanent marker. We were just about finished, but I still had one question to ask just to make sure our participants really were paying attention on the day.

“What did you guys learn today?” I questioned.

“How to play football,” said Jordan.

“How to do passes and headers,” said a confident little girl named Noella.

“Head and hands!” said another young boy.

From start to finish, the kids had not let the weather affect them at all. I was grateful, but even more so, I was inspired by their carefree joy.

“Thank you, Stephen. They had so much fun,” said Mrs. Josephine, with a final handshake as I departed back through the front gates – excited for a return back to Open Sky early the next day.

Barely hours later, I received a message from my other contact at the school, Walter. Much like Mrs. Josephine, he was quick to echo praise and gratitude for the session. His message was long, but it was more than worth the read. As I moved from sentence to sentence, I couldn’t help but smile bigger and bigger.

“We are incredibly grateful for your generous donation of footballs and for personally training the children of Open Sky Junior School Entebbe. Your big heart has brought so much joy to our students, who come from challenging backgrounds in the fishing community. We are committed to continuing the football club you’ve initiated and, with your permission, would love to name it after you. Thank you once again for everything!”

I was touched. What an absolutely beautiful end to our third Uganda-based session.