A Trip That Olympic Rower Jane Rumball Will Never Forget

COURTESY OF JANE RUMBALL AND RIGHT TO PLAY

Continuing with the theme of Olympic athletes giving back – see today’s story in the Star – rower Jane Rumball has just returned from a trip to see the humanitatrian group Right To Play in action in Uganda.

Rumball spoke about the journey last night at the Toronto Sport and Social Club’s winter awards, where she was presented with a cheque for more than $23,000 for Right To Play. Rumball, a medical student at U of T who is still training full tilt, raised more than $1,100 through an Erg-a-thon she held at the university just before she left and more than $1,700 overall.

Here are some excerpts from a story Rumball wrote on her Uganda experience:

The scene was one I will never forget: crowds of joyful, boisterous African children laughing and clapping, giggling at the awkward muzungu Olympic athlete who couldn't match their rhythm to save her life! It all happened under the unbelievably blue Ugandan sky, with rich red earth and lush greenery surrounding. It was surreal. For a moment, we probably all forgot where we were: Navikale refugee camp, home to almost 50,000 displaced persons who had to flee their countries in order to survive. Immense poverty, rampant diseases, and unspoken stories of conflict. Nothing here seemed to faze the children, though... for a brief moment in time, everyone at the school in Nakivale forgot about conflict, hunger, poverty, and sickness. Instead, we laughed, danced, got rich African soil all over our faces and bodies.

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I tried to take on this challenge and participate with my whole being. This meant fully participating in the games, taking time to talk to as many children as possible, and saying a few words to the children. I tried my best to teach them how to row in an eight (on dry land, with hand motions only!), alhough the eight turned into twelve and fifteen as more volunteers came forward! One of the times our coxswain (the smallest volunteer in the group) fell over laughing at the absurdity of it all. It made me wonder if our own coxswain (Olympic gold medallist Lesley Thompson-Willie) actually felt that way sometimes too!

At a particularly difficult stop along the way in Nakivale, I found a little friend who I will never forget. She was a beautiful but severely malnourished girl who held tightly onto my hand throughout all the games. She had severely infected bumps on the side of her head, but still tried to dress up with earrings that looked like they were fashioned out of paper clips. Once she realized that she could hold my hand, she started slowing to rub her face on my arm. For a brief moment I wanted to pull away for fear of somehow getting that infection transmitted to my own skin... but then I realized that most people probably do draw back and make her feel bad. I wanted to be different and let her just stay put beside me for the rest of the session. It ended up being a very special moment for both of us, I think. She started to get into the games and laughed and danced like the other children around her.

Right to Play's tagline is "When children play, the world wins". Most of us would probably agree with that intuitively, but it came to life for me in the Ugandan refugee camp called Nakivale.

Read her full story after the jump

The scene was one I will never forget: crowds of joyful, boisterous African children laughing and clapping, giggling at the awkward muzungu Olympic athlete who couldn't match their rhythm to save her life! It all happened under the unbelievably blue Ugandan sky, with rich red earth and lush greenery surrounding. It was surreal. For a moment, we probably all forgot where we were: Navikale refugee camp, home to almost 50,000 displaced persons who had to flee their countries in order to survive. Immense poverty, rampant diseases, and unspoken stories of conflict. Nothing here seemed to faze the children, though... for a brief moment in time, everyone at the school in Nakivale forgot about conflict, hunger, poverty, and sickness. Instead, we laughed, danced, got rich African soil all over our faces and bodies.

COURTESY OF JANE RUMBALL AND RIGHT TO PLAY

Right to Play Uganda operates with a single-minded focus: reach the children who need their help the most, and use the value of sport and play as a tool for development. Games have added value: after each game is played, we take time to reflect, connect, and apply the lessons from that particular session. The Right to Play curriculum teaches kids how to say no to peer pressure, to resolve conflict, to set aside gender barriers, and to learn about caring for their own health and that of others. As an Athlete Ambassador, I serve as a role model to athletes and children alike, and tell my story to raise funds for what I deem to be an extremely worthy cause...using the common language of sport to teach children to look after themselves and look after one another.

My trip to Uganda with Right to Play involved visiting different field projects in Kampala and Navikale, and each one had its own special story. There was Naguru on the first day, an outreach from Right to Play that drew children living in poor slum areas of Kampala. To put it into perspective, 30% of the children in the communities we visited are HIV positive. Unfortunately, 40% of the volunteer project leaders are also HIV positive. These are groups of children that include former child soldiers, where at least 1 out of every 5 children are orphans. You would never believe these statistics by just seeing the kids play, though. All barriers were removed, and they were doing what they did best: they were being kids.

The games were phenomenal - games like "mosquito tag" where once you are tagged, you remain frozen until the doctor comes by with medicine (a red soccer ball), rolls it under your legs, and heals you to run again. Or Boda Boda (the names of the motorized bikes), where one person gets blindfolded and the other steers them by tapping them on various spots on their bodies. Afterwards we discuss how it feels to be blind or lost, and what we can do to help those people around us who may feel the same way. There was a game with someone labelled as "White Blood Cells" having to fight off tuberculous, malaria, and other common illnesses here, who finally seemed to succumb to another child labelled "HIV/AIDS". But who came to the rescue? The children in unison announced: "ARVs!" Anti-retroviral medications... and kids know about these at age 8!! I was and still am in awe.

COURTESY OF JANE RUMBALL AND RIGHT TO PLAY

Before we got to Uganda, it was sometimes hard to imagine what I could offer. I have lived my life in relative luxury and comfort, participating in a sport that is only accessible to the wealthy. The Ugandan Right to Play staff explained the value of the role, though, and it made it crystal clear. The children look forward to the Athlete Ambassadors visits with huge expectation. A muzungu (white person), one who went to the Olympics, actually cares enough to visit them. They know that our presence means that they are not forgotten, that we are trying to do our part to help them and we know their cause.

I tried to take on this challenge and participate with my whole being. This meant fully participating in the games, taking time to talk to as many children as possible, and saying a few words to the children. I tried my best to teach them how to row in an eight (on dry land, with hand motions only!), alhough the eight turned into twelve and fifteen as more volunteers came forward! One of the times our coxswain (the smallest volunteer in the group) fell over laughing at the absurdity of it all. It made me wonder if our own coxswain (Olympic gold medallist Lesley Thompson-Willie) actually felt that way sometimes too!

At a particularly difficult stop along the way in Nakivale, I found a little friend who I will never forget. She was a beautiful but severely malnourished girl who held tightly onto my hand throughout all the games. She had severely infected bumps on the side of her head, but still tried to dress up with earrings that looked like they were fashioned out of paper clips. Once she realized that she could hold my hand, she started slowing to rub her face on my arm. For a brief moment I wanted to pull away for fear of somehow getting that infection transmitted to my own skin... but then I realized that most people probably do draw back and make her feel bad. I wanted to be different and let her just stay put beside me for the rest of the session. It ended up being a very special moment for both of us, I think. She started to get into the games and laughed and danced like the other children around her.

Right to Play's tagline is "When children play, the world wins". Most of us would probably agree with that intuitively, but it came to life for me in the Ugandan refugee camp called Nakivale.

Comments

[John D.]

Congratulations Jane! You've experienced one the real magical places on the planet - so much good surrounded by so many difficulties! I hope you cherish these memories for a lifetime and that you can use them as continued motivation for future success and good.

All the best.