Professional Development

Last week myself and the other sports teachers headed to a nearby town to attend a 2 day coaching and refereeing clinic in preparation for the inter school sports competition in 3 weeks time. Hopped on the back of motorbikes and a 20 min ride later arrived late at an expensive prestigious boys boarding school where the clinic was held.
We filled out registration forms and split up to go to our individual sports. I walked through the door of the room I was directed to only to find over 100 Kenyan soccer coaches facing me-unfortunately the only entrance was right behind the speaker and the only spare seats were at the very back of the room. Trying not to be too conspicuous I weave my way through the chairs to the back; it is immediately apparent that my appearance is unexpected, there are only about 3 other females in the room and needless to say I am the only white person. Sitting down I pull out a notebook and start to write what the speaker is saying. The majority of the session is quite informative- of the rules of soccer. Photocopying is time consuming and expensive so essentially the presenter reads out the rules and everyone writes them down. When it gets to question time the room livens up, amidst the usual queries about rule clarifications and fouls I find myself a little surprised at some of the questions 'what happens if the ref dies mid-game' and 'what do you do if a wild animal attacks the keeper and someone scores in the interim'... The presenter gives a logical answer to every question however and the session goes long into the afternoon.
The second day once again we are late. I am expecting a colleague to arrive and sit down on the edge of the netball session to wait-not the best idea I've ever had as the presenter stops the session and declares I can't sit on the ground ( despite everyone else doing so) I insist I am fine but he makes everyone move so I can sit in the front and centre and be 'very comfortable'... Bit awkward as I have to get up and leave after about 5 minutes.
This time I am more prepared for the entry scenario and move quickly through the crowd to take my seat, however shortly after sitting, the man next to me leans over and makes a comment asking me if I agreed that what today's presenter was saying was slightly irrelevant. I answer that I don't really know as he is speaking in Swahili. Bad move for attempting to stay inconspicuous. The man next to me is indignant and immediately stands up and yells for the speaker to stop. He explains we have a communication problem and 'madam cannot understand'. All my attempts at blending in with the crowd are right out the window as every eye in the room is now on me. I try to say I don't mind but the man is adamant and the presenter agrees to switch language- which he does for a while until he forgets and slips back to Swahili. Fortunately he draws lots of diagrams on the board and so I am still able to get a bit out of it :)
After the sessions we meet with the other groups and are presented with certificates. The organiser makes a big deal of mine, shocked that I was coaching football not netball as is typical for females and that I play it in Australia. He asks several questions about me shakes my hand profusely and wishes my team all the best. Everyone else is simply handed theirs as their name is called.
Thus ends my first professional development experience in Kenya!