Football Frenzy

Some of you might know, but I am typically one of the least competetive you would meet. I think it has something to do with never having played formal contact sports, or being a middle child, I'm not really sure. Anyway, I have had many opportunities over here to become more competitive, and poly-poly (slowly) I might be making progress!

Last week there was a sports day at school and I was excited to have a day off and hang out (note hang out-- not play sports!) with the kids. We ventured over to a nearby dusty field where at first all 1000 students ran around in complete choas. It is amazing to me in general, in Kenya, how little control teachers take once they are outside of the classroom. Nobody was organizing the games or the students for a solid hour. At one point I tried to, but nobody listens to me, they just laugh at me when I speak! But at last, a huge football tournament began, one class against another, split boys and girls. It was so exciting because Africans LOVE their football, the world cup excitement is still here. They are so competetive and give the game everything they have. I really enjoyed watching it. All day the students and teachers kept asking me to join the teachers team to play the winning high school boys team. Little did they know, I haven't played football since I was in kindergarten, and I'm sure my best position was picking flowers on the field. I knew I would have absolutely nothing to offer the team, but after a while I agreed to play quidogo (a little bit). I only played the second half, thankfully, but I kept hearing the DJ say something about the Mzungu (that's me!). When I asked the kids what he was saying they just laughed and laughed. Finally I found out he was telling the high school boys on the field to take it easy on me because I don't know how to play with Africans! It's true, and they were quite easy on me. I am proud to say we were victorious over the highschoolers, but I cannot claim that I did much to help... or even touch the ball! Everyone tried to make me feel better about myself by saying "you can run though, you are in good shape!"

This past weekend I went to a Kenya vs Uganda National football game! I was so nervous to go to it because I had heard about all kinds of riots and fights that happen at African football games since the fans are so invested in their teams, but again the guys I was going with insisted I would be fine and would take care of me. And I was in fact totally fine! It was a blast, there were 30,000 fans packed into the stadium sitting on any object available- steps, signs, towers etc. There was a small section of Ugandans that travelled over night to get the match as well. As soon as we walked into the stadium we joined a procession of cheering and dancing fans around the field (again, I'm the only white person, which always attracts people to gawk, I was also wearing a friend's jersery and it had his tribal name on it so I got many comments about being in that family!) the energy in the stadium was insane from one end to the other! I think the wave passed through the entire stadium 10 times in a row as soon as we got to our seats. The game was so much fun, I loved seeing everyone so united and invested in their national team. The only dissapointment was it ended in a draw with no score. However, I think the Ugandan's thought they won because they were celebrating all over. There were no riots though, I learned those are only for the club teams since tribal clashes are involved- that's a whole different problem.

I really love the spirit they have when they play and watch football, it is such a time of enjoyment and relaxation for them. Who knows, maybe I'll become more competetive after all this football craziness. It sure is a blast.