Kick Off

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The game that Americans and Canadians know as soccer is the much-loved game of football to Ghanaians.  At the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Ghana's national football team, the Black Stars, became the third African team in history to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

Kickin' it volunteers Dawn, Kyle and Akshat

With football so hugely popular in Ghana, GHEI is thrilled to welcome our third group of Summer Serve and Learn volunteers for their session, “Kickin’ it in Ghana.” As GHEI’s summer camp for youth, this session focuses on building strong leadership and communication skills through football training.  Our volunteers had to hit the ground running, holding their first planning session the morning after their arrival. 

The camp opened on Saturday, with an exciting array of team-building activities planned for Humjibre’s keen footballers. One exercise had participants blindfolded and racing against each other through a mock "minefield," attempting to avoid obstacles as their team mates shouted helpful directions to them from the start line.  Colliding with obstacles slowed runners down and could cost them the race, so this activity stressed the importance of strong communication between team members.  

Next, participants lined up, holding the shoulders of the teammate in front of them in a game of “caterpillar.”  Team members could move only one step at a time and only after the person in front of them had moved.  Moving systematically and coordinating their individual movements with the whole group proved to be too much for some flustered links in the long chain, and the caterpillar lurched along hilariously, with jam-ups hindering the flow the group was aiming for.

By far the most entertaining activity to watch was the “Dizzy Izzy” race, in which each contestant held a dowel to his head and pinned it to the ground, spinning around ten times and then racing half the length of the soccer pitch.  Some did remarkably well, despite their wobbly footing, but others staggered off in dizzy disarray, veering diagonally across the field until they collapsed in the dirt, much to the amusement of all onlookers.

Kate Belser, a volunteer from last year’s “Kickin’ it” session, has returned this year to serve as volunteer coordinator for this session.  “This was a new session for Summer Serve and Learn last year, and it was hard to see which direction it would head in afterwards," says Kate.  "We got such a terrific response from the community that we knew this should be a regular part of GHEI summer programming.  I saw so much potential in this camp and had so much fun last year, it only made sense to come back to Humjibre and help further develop the program. It really helps to strengthen community relations and builds strong communications skills by tapping into the kids’ interests and their sense of fun.”

Our volunteers are now keeping busy by running nightly training sessions with each of the six different football teams.  Activities include the classic trust-building “trust fall,” potato sack races, and role-playing on the dos and don’ts of proper sportsmanship.  These training sessions are all building up to a two-day football competition this coming weekend, which will see the six teams vying for the championship.  These young footballers take their sport very seriously and are training hard to reach top rank.  May the best team win!

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