:: Sadili Kids back from Florida
I attended the sendoff for our Tennis ambassadors in November. The kids came back from their Tennis mission from Florida and Dr. Liz Odera sends us this exclusive report.

The kids have returned from majuu!

Whoever said that the journey is as important as the destination was, in our case, absolutely spot on. When PTR member and world-renowned coach, Bill Murray invited 14 aspiring tennis players from the Sadili Oval Academy in Kenya to come and train under him at Del Ray Beach, Florida in December 2006 - it seemed like an impossible dream. Not only did we live half-way across the world from the States, but many of the kids came from underprivileged backgrounds where finding them a tennis racquet was hard enough – let alone a plane ticket.

Initial forays in to the world of corporate donors proved dishearteningly negative. Many of the Kenyan Companies were already committed to their own causes or suffering from end-of-year donor fatigue. However, our affiliation to The Banda, a private school in Nairobi, where Sadili coaches the students, came up trumps. An additional incentive was that two of the students participating in the tour.

A band of committed mothers (and the odd father) took on our cause with a fervent vigor and embarked on a fund raising campaign that would have impressed even a seasoned political campaign manager! With tactics ranging from impassioned speeches and pathetic pleading to the brazen hounding of parents, friends, relatives and teachers, the money came trickling in. Then British Airways stepped in with a discounted group deal on the tickets and suddenly our dream to go to Florida had a remote chance of becoming a reality.

It was wonderful to see our diverse community pulling together – all united by one aim –to give children with talent the opportunity to prove themselves on an international footing. Fund-raising events were planned and executed with military precision. A bake sale with the school-mums press-ganged into baking offerings for the children to buy was deemed a huge success. In hindsight, we should have also lobbied the dentists who were probably in hot demand to fix all the cavities created by so much gorging on sugary treats!

The local country club threw open their doors for an open tennis mix-in. Despite it being the rainy season, the weather smiled on us that evening. People of all ages played on floodlight courts under the balmy African skies, whilst the party that followed carried on well into the night. As the wine and goodwill flowed - the generosity of individuals became overwhelming. Our mini-raffle turned into an impromptu auction. Furious bidding on the donated items meant that we finally managed to raise all the funds needed. Not one child from the squad had to be left behind.

We always thought that raising money for plane tickets would be the greatest impediment to our getting to Florida. Little did we know that this was just the beginning of the adventure. The next obstacle to be thrown our way was the travel visas. Marshalling the children together for their US visa application interview was a mission itself. Then it transpired that the appointment had not been registered and had to be re-made. All the time the clock was ticking and we were running out of time. Urgent phone calls were made, favours pulled-in, and the American Consul stepped in at the nick of time to sort our visas out – for all the Kenyans but not the Burundian children who had to return to Bujumbura to get their visas.

With only two days to go before we left, the two young boys from Burundi were chucked on a bus that had to travel through two countries just for them to get back home. That the bus left from an insalubrious end of Nairobi was bad enough but then they could only travel by day through Rwanda due to a ban on traveling at night. As they had a fixed appointment at the US Embassy in Burundi in the morning it didn’t seem likely that they make it in time.

Never underestimate kids when they really want something – somehow – the boys managed to sweet-talk someone at the border to take them to the Capital and they arrived before they were expected. They still had to get their British transit visas once they had got their American ones, but luckily this was just a formality. They then had to hop straight back on the bus to come back to Nairobi before flying out to join us.

Someone was looking out for us. Our full squad of 14 tennis players did make it to Florida. Bill Murray and the Del Ray Beach Tennis Centre was everything and more than we could ever have imagined. Funnily enough, though, on our return we are all playing badly – playing so much tennis at low-altitude on high performance courts means we now hit the ball far too hard. Needless to say, the training was invaluable and after all this effort, we expect to come out winners in the Tennis for Africa Cup this year.

Don’t think our dreams stop there though – now we know we can do it and inspired by what we experienced in Florida – we are full of ideas. Of course, we have our usual problem with finding funds to support our scholarship programme for ten destitute children which is always an uphill struggle. We have also dusted down the design for two new courts at Sadili that we desperately need but for which we have never had the money. There is also the hope that we can find someone to support a feeding programme for the kids who live in the slums and who need building up so that they can perform better on the court … Then of course there is Florida 2007.

PS. Special thanks to PTR members: Francis Nyawalo, Liz Odera, Glendine Nicholes, Donald Widener and Bill Murray for making the experience successful.

Footnote: to celebrate 2007 being the tenth anniversary of Sadili’s involvement in tennis we are starting Friends of Sadili. For $50.00 you will be able to sponsor one of our promising children and follow his or her’s progress through diaries and updates on our website. All funds will be directed to the scholarship programme which includes the tennis coaching, scholastic education and competition fees.

>> Related Links
:: Sadili Oval's tennis mission - My coverage of the send off

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