Rugby is the most human and gentlemanly sport. Of all competitions, it is recognised as a healthy carrier of moral dignity and high values that embody the decoubertine spirit.
It is also for this reason that it is a much loved and followed discipline by the Kenyan people, particularly in the rural areas and in the fervent suburbs of the cities, those where the poor people work and try to uplift themselves, and constitute the productive force that makes the country grow.
In the story we tell you, rugby is a metaphor for a beautiful mutual experience.

Paul Derbyshire, an Italian oval-ball champion whose surname betrays the English origins of his father, a rugby player like himself, but a 'Tuscan' from Cecina, in the province of Livorno, has recently returned from Kenya where he wanted to treat himself to a solidarity holiday after concluding a career full of satisfaction playing in some of the most important Serie A teams. Because whoever lives the essence of rugby can only be so and because his wife Bianca is on the same wavelength.
'We had told each other,' Paul tells Malindikenya.net, 'it was the first thing we wanted to do. We already knew the important initiatives of Karibuni Onlus and we decided to experience that reality so distant from our own'.

Paul had already been to Africa, to one of rugby's meccas, South Africa, but more to play.
'Our trip started in Nairobi,' reveals the sportsman, 'we wanted to visit the capital first, with a guide provided by Karibuni. Not in the tourist sense, but by going into the popular areas, into the markets, to get to know the true reality of Nairobi'.
Then, before plunging into the poor but extraordinarily united and humble hinterland of Langobaya, where Karibuni's projects have been running for years, the inevitable safari experience.

"A wonderful thing," Paul admits, "we finally immersed ourselves in landscapes that we had only seen on television until then. The sense of infinity and the animals admired in the naturalness of their environment are strong emotions that we will always carry within us".
And after the 'yards' of savannah in Tsavo East, here is finally the destination: the Karibuni farm in Langobaya, where Paul and Bianca experience intense days, in contact with the workers and the local population.
"It was an honour for us to experience the reality of the Langobaya community; we received from them, in terms of emotion and inner growth, more than we gave. Getting up in the morning with them and participating in farm activities and living in close contact with the rural African reality where everyone helps each other and there is great cohesion, was formative".

After all, that's the spirit of rugby, and for the 36-year-old former player, there could only be a sporting interlude. "We started to get to know each other with an impromptu football match, on a field far removed from the grass fields of us 'spoilt' westerners," Paul recalls, "it was unforgettable. Then we did a bit of rugby, having brought balls and uniforms from Italy. I gave some lessons to the kids at the school supported by Karibuni and there was an enthusiastic response. The Kenyans really love rugby and its philosophy and they are even stronger and ahead of us in '7-a-side rugby', but they also want to learn how to be on the field at 15. They listened to me with a rare interest but, as I said, in Langobaya I learnt more than I taught and I already miss them and those days so real and intense. We hope to return to Kenya and that reality soon".
Paul and Bianca's experience is a testimony to the reciprocity of good: helping each other is the noblest way of doing good by doing good to oneself. Because life can all be a 'third time', where one should not speak of 'solidarity' but of 'naturalness'.