Trip Itinerary

Fly from Scotland, arrive Kigali, Rwanda

18 of us arrive at Edinburgh airport at the crack of dawn, most in our club gear and with dozens of kit bags packed with strips, training tops and other equipment to donate

Arrived late at night, picked up by two mini buses - one for us, one for the kit bags! Check in at the Good News Guest House, owned by Ben Kayumba who also runs the Good News charity. Ben is a genocide survivor (we hear his story first hand later on the trip) and is a long time friend of Mark Fleming

Day 1 - Saturday

(am) unpack & plan After a relaxed breakfast, we discuss the week’s itinerary before sorting out the donated kit

(pm) football. We wander 500 yards to a large patch of waste ground, set up some goals and start kicking the balls around. We’re quickly joined by dozens of local kids for an impromptu 50 vs 50 match which attracts a bit of a crowd. Two hours later we hand out boots, tops and balls and happily head back for lunch

(pm) Premier league football match

Day 2 - Sunday

(am) Nyamata Genocide Memorial For most of us, this is our first experience of the horrors of 1994. A former church where 10,000 people thought they’d be safe, but were systematically butchered. An emotional experience, where we see the clothes of 100s of victims displayed on the pews as a memorial, most blood stained. Completely unnerving standing in this tiny space and trying to get our heads around so many people going through that. Also view the bones and skulls of the victims in the basement vaults.

(pm) Football

Each afternoon, one group of coaches will take a session with a youth team of one of Kigali’’s Premier League clubs. Professional “Academies” as we understand them in Scotland don’t exist, instead each Club has U17 & U19 Boys squad and U17 Girls squad. We may also take a session for a Premier League Women’s team.

The 2nd group of coaches will organise fun football for a school, street kids or community group. Usually this is a bit chaotic, which just adds the fun and experience. 100+ kids (with more joining in as we go) with one interpreter, on a “pitch” that Scottish kids and coaches would complain about….

The coaching groups will be rotated daily to give everyone a taste of both formats

Day 3 - Monday

(am) Supported Needs School A lovely morning next door to the guest house, basically playing with dozens of disabled children. As always, it mostly descends into different little kickarounds and other games. Completely uplifting to see the joy on the kids faces

(pm) football

Day 4 - Tuesday

(am) Kigali Genocide Memorial The resting place of 250,000 victims - a very informative and moving information centre

(am) N’tarama Genocide Memorial An even more emotional experience, on the actual site of a genocide atrocity

(pm) football

Day 5 Wednesday

Travelling West A morning’s drive through stunning scenery…easy to see why Rwanda is called the Land of 1,000 hills. Also pretty hard on the bladder after the previous night’s beers…

Nyange Secondary School Up in the hills, this school was the scene in 1997—three years after the genocide - when a band of Hutu insurgents attacked under the cover of darkness, killing six students and a night-watchman and injuring twenty others. The gunmen had intended to kill all of the school’s Tutsi. However, the 5th and 6th grade students refused to split into Hutu and Tutsi groups, proclaiming instead, “Twese Turi abanyarwanda” (“We are all Rwandans”).

We then organised a training session in the most spectacular hillside setting, followed by a mixed match where we mostly embarrassed ourselves…

Overnight at Kibuye, Lake Kivu A real treat, staying in a hotel on the shores of Lake Kivu, with DR Congo in the far distance (the Lake is almost as big as Lothian & Fife put together). A few brave coaches even manage a bit of a swim, with the others on the watch out for crocs and hippos

Day 6 - Thursday

(am) Bisesero Hill Genocide Memorial The last of our 4 genocide visits, every bit as horrific and moving as all the others

(pm) training session at Bisesero School The World’s worst pitch, that runs halfway down a slope and includes a telegraph pole, the two school teams were presented with Heart kits and a set of pop up goals.

Day 7 - Friday

(am) Batsinda ex-street Kids Centre Visiting another outreach project that previous trips have met. In what was obviously an incredibly poor part of Kigali, driving past the huge rubbish dump that was once home to many of the kids we were about to meet. Another eye opening but heart warming couple of hours, with several coaches coming away without trainers, socks or anything else they’d been able to give away, along with more kit from the clubs. (A few of the kids have since been sponsored by some of the coaches)

(pm) football

(pm) Premier League match

Day 8 - Depart from Kigali

Day 9 - Arrive Edinburgh