Trip Itinerary

Day 1 - Fly from Scotland, probable stop-over

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

(Jan 2020) A bonus stop-over in Instanbul for a day of sight seeing and an evening at the bar in the hotel airport - a great way to get to know each other

Day 2 - Arrive Kigali, Rwanda

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 3

(am) training session. 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) 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.

Day 4

(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) Faith & Hope Primary School An hour’s drive from Kigali, we get off the minibus and are instantly mobbed by 100s of primary kids. Their “pitch” is another area of waste land with sticks for goals - we divide into 5 areas for different drills and then do 3 or 4 shifts as 100 kids join us at a time. Complete chaos, but lots of laughter and as always, lots of smiles.

Day 5

(am) training session Training session for some older kids, who it turns out are 3rd in the national U18 league…

(pm) Batsinda ex-street Kids Centre Visiting another outreach project that the 2016 trip had 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) Kigali Genocide Memorial The resting place of 250,000 victims - a very informative and moving information centre

Day 6 - 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 other on the watch out for crocs and hippos

Day 7

(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 a local School A pitch that runs halfway down a slope, the two school teams were presented with Heart kits and a set of pop up goals. We then watched as our own Jack Beesley did a star turn…

Day 8 - Depart from Kigali

Day 9 - Arrive Edinburgh