The Westmont women’s soccer team spent the final full day of their tour of Africa in Nairobi, Kenya where they played the Mathare Women’s Football Club in the fourth game of the trip.

“This was by far the most physical team that we played,” said Mouw. “So it was good to see our players step it up and do well. We scored a goal in the final five minutes to get a 1-0 victory. Anna Gropp had a free kick and either Jane (Wyche) or Jessica (Schoepke) scored after the goalkeeper babbled the ball. Even the players aren’t sure who actually scored the goal.”

In their twelfth day in Africa, the Warriors found themselves waking up in Nairobi, Kenya for the first time.

The day began with the team conducting a clinic for kids at a soccer field in the Mathare slums. Originally planned for just girls, more than 100 girls and boys participated in the event.

The Westmont women’s soccer team spent most of today traveling as they continued their trip through Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. This morning, the Warriors departed Kigali, Rwanda on a plane bound for Nairobi, Kenya.

Before boarding the plane, the Warriors said goodbye to members of the Good News Team which had been traveling with them throughout Uganda and Rwanda.

“The Good News Team players were simply wonderful,” said head coach Rebecca Mouw. “They were so faithful and we are thankful for our time with them.”

Westmont women’s socer team played to a 1-1 tie today with the Rwandan National Team in Kigali. Senior midfielder Anna Gropp scored on a penalty kick for the Warriors after junior midfielder Brianna Russo was tripped in the box.

“When we arrived at the field, another game was already going on,” said Warrior head coach Rebecca Mouw. “The mayor of Kigali scheduled a different game without telling anyone, so we had to move to another field. Unfortunately the field we played on was mostly soft dirt which flew up every time you stepped. That was not a surface conducive to our style of play.”

The Westmont women’s soccer team was back on the road again as their tour through Africa continues. After breakfast and devotions in Mbarara, Uganda, the team hit the road for the 200 kilometer (129 mile) trip to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

“On the way to the Rwandan border we saw meerkats and Cobb’s antelope,” reported head coach Rebecca Mouw. “We reached the border at three in the afternoon, but we had to wait two hours before we were able to enter Rwanda. A new computer system had been installed and the officials were having trouble getting it to work.

“Today was a relaxed day,” said assistant coach Dan Ribbens, reporting on the Westmont women’s soccer team’s eighth day in Africa. The team has spent the last week in Uganda, playing two soccer games and ministering to people in Kampala and Gulu.

“We started early with a 6:30 a.m. training session,” continued Ribbens. “Barnabas (Mwesiga), former coach of the Ugandan national team, helped us with assessments.” Mwesiga, who works for the Sports Outreach Institute (SOI), has been traveling with the team. Former Westmont coach Russ Carr is the president and founder of SOI through which the Warriors trip was organized.

The last week has been filled with wonderful and life changing experiences for the Westmont women’s soccer team traveling in Uganda.

In Gulu, the Warriors found themselves surrounded by hundreds of children wherever they went. Their experiences included running in the morning with the ‘invisible children’ from Noah’s Ark Shelter to their homes some two miles away. The Warriors visited with women and children in their mud hut homes and conducted soccer clinics in refugee camps. They cared for children at the Kirombe School and played Hearts United, the East African women’s soccer champions in the first women’s soccer game ever played at Pece Stadium to the delight of three to four thousand fans.

Westmont women’s soccer team made their way from Gulu to Kampala on Saturday morning during a somewhat more restful day in Uganda. After eating lunch, the team divided into four groups and headed to four different churches in the Kampala slums where they participated in feeding programs.

“The pastor at one of the churches asked the Westmont players to scrimmage with a group of little boys and so they played a little six-on-six soccer,” said head coach Rebecca Mouw. “The other three groups visited with those coming to receive food.”