Africa Gets Football Right
Soccer has been my game since I played on my high school team. And by “played,” I mean sat the bench 95% of the time. There was the one tournament when all of our good players got injured or were sick, so on a fluke I played an entire game and scored 4 goals. Of course, 3 of those goals were meant to be passes and accidentally went into the goal, but they still counted, right?!? That stellar tournament performance was quickly negated a few weeks later when I was put in as 3rd string goalie and let a couple of shots pass right between my legs.
All that to say, I love a good soccer (here, it’s football) game. Some of the Peace House guys and I have made it to 3 games together so far, and the games have not disappointed. While the players are skilled and the games are good, the real action is in the stands. Crazed, American sports fans have got nothing on African football fans. Between the many vuvuzelas, African drums, scary Halloween masks, and giant team flags, it’s major sensory overload. Throw in the 6 teenage boys that I go to the games with, and you’re basically surrounded by pure crazy.
Game 1: Dance Party
Dancing is a huge part of the Rwandan culture, so I should have expected it to be a big part of the football games. Still, I was surprised when the first goal was scored and every single person in the stands, except me, broke out into crazy dancing. It was seriously one enormous dance party for a solid 10 minutes after every goal was scored. Sometimes there was even one after just a good attempt on goal. I am not exaggerating this part…people were sitting up in the trees that surrounded the stadium, and even they were dancing and making the trees shake. After that first game, a DJ led a dance party on the field to celebrate the game being over. Dance, dance, and more dance.
Game 2: Mobs
Our second game was at the big stadium here in Kigali. Because it was between the country’s 2 top ranked teams and rivals, people came out in droves. It was one giant mob at all times. The Peace House boys took on the role of bodyguards for my friend Heather and I, surrounding us on all sides while we were trying to get into the game. Riot police were stationed throughout the stadium and kept a close watch on everyone. As we were walking along the road after the game, trying to catch a ride out of there, a group of several hundred rowdy fans all ran by together, filling up the entire road. We saw public buses rocking back and forth because of the fans leaning out the windows, dancing, yelling, and beating drums. At one point, we stopped on the sidewalk, waiting for the craziness to die down but it never did.
Game 3: Injuries
Rwandan football players are “drama llamas” when it comes to injuries. Even if he barely falls and scrapes a knee, a player will lay on the field and yell until someone finally stops the game for him. Eight players were escorted from the field due to “injuries” during this game, and a stretcher was brought out each time! Three of those times, the player rolled off the stretcher as soon as it hit the sidelines and ran immediately back into the game.
Weekend Update
Yesterday, a Rwandan gentleman named Jean-Baptiste looked at me and asked, “Can you run?” Next thing you know we’re sprinting down several hills and through a village in hopes of catching a bus that would keep us from spending the night out in the middle of nowhere. Picture Jean-Baptiste giving high-fives to all the children we ran past while I was running alongside him with a hiking pack full of a weekend’s worth of gear. By the time we made it to the village, we had a trail of followers and everyone was staring. Fortunately, we arrived at the village bus stop in just enough time to wait almost 2 hours for a bus to actually arrive.
That was just one leg of the weekend that Heather and I spent traveling on our own to and from Nyungwe Forest, a rainforest surrounded by tea plantations. It was a crazy few days. Between getting lost several times and spending a lot of time praying that one of the many passing buses would pick us up, we got in some great hiking, made new friends from all over the world, and took in some of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. Rwanda is a gorgeous creation, and it’s people are a blessing. I’m not sure what we would have done if not for the kindness of strangers pointing us in the right direction or communicating for us when necessary.
These are a few highlights from the trip that I quickly pulled straight from my camera. I’ll write more about our adventures later and share plenty more pictures, but for now these will have to tide you over.
Nyungwe Forest
The Canopy Walk
Kids from the village waiting with us to catch a bus.
Heather passes out candy, therefore, children love her.
Kitabi Tea Plantation
You know you wanna come visit now!
On Being Good Soil
The girls have been mulling over the parable of The Sower for the past week. They’ve brought the parable back up in conversation almost daily since we read and talked about Matthew 13:3-9 during Bible study one day. Most of the ladies have been around farming at some point, so the analogies that Jesus makes to scattering the seeds among the various soils makes a lot of sense to them. What doesn’t make sense, and is our main topic of conversation, is how to become good soil and produce a crop.
Most of the girls assessed themselves as the soil with the thorns. Some expressed how they wanted to grow and produce fruit, but the responsibilities and hardships of life create worry within them, which chokes out the fruit and eventually leaves them withered. I was impressed with their honesty.
I’ve been asking myself the same question. Which soil am I? Like the girls, I want to be good soil, but if I’m honest, sometimes I find that I’m not. I know because there’s little to no fruit. Verse 8 says good soil “produces a crop - a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” Why is it that my crop comes in far too shabby, instead of multiplied as the parable talks about?
Yes, I may be doing good things, and it may appear that I’ve got plants growing, but am I allowing my fruit-growing ability to be choked out? Are roots growing deep in the soil? I’m learning that obedience is the deep-rooted plant that fruit grows from. That understanding leaves me asking myself the toughest question: am I cultivating a relationship with the Lord that includes obedience? If so, He’ll multiply the crop.
The Seven Week Report
A few of the Peace House guys took me to my first soccer match here. More on that later, since I've now been to two!
• Most impressive feat I've seen so far: a man carrying 11
twin-sized mattresses on his head.
• Rwandan sweet potatoes are the best I’ve ever eaten. And they’re white inside.
• Attended a Rwandan dance competition. Part of the dancing was really awesome and put the rest of the world’s dance moves to shame. Part of it was weird, like the dance move that involved milking a cardboard cut-out of a cow.
• Achieved a life goal of having a friend who always greets me with a kiss on both cheeks.
• Thing I miss: clothes dryer. Hanging clothes on the line is not bad. It’s more about how minus a clothes dryer, my pants never shrink back to the correct size. Instead, they are get bigger and stretchier with each wear. I better head to the market to look for some suspenders.
• When conversing via a translator, what I say usually falls into one of three categories: 1) The translation is much shorter than what I said. 2) The translation is much longer than what I said. 3) What I said does not get translated, so I assume it was something stupid and not worth the effort it would take to translate.
• I answer to several names: Libby, Luby, Ruby, Ribby
• My friend Heather is here volunteering at the Peace House with me for several weeks. We’re headed to hang out in a rainforest Thursday- Sunday, where we’ll meet some chimps, do a canopy walk, and other rainforest-y stuff. Here’s to making it on our own across country on a public bus.
• Just “being with people” is something I’ve unknowingly been overlooking at home. It’s valuable to spend time with folks without needing to accomplish anything. The “being” is the accomplishment.
• I love that unlike America’s individualistic culture, Rwanda is a collective culture. People naturally look out for one another and do things together because it’s the best way to survive. Individualism is a luxury.
• Romans 8 has provided good reading the last few weeks. Thank you, Portico Church.
• My constantly dripping water faucet at home is a gift. A serious one. I did a 30-minute, one-way trek with some village women to collect water. The spigot was in the middle of sweet potato fields, and we had to wait in line behind 3 or 4 small children who were also there collecting water for their families.
• My ideas/beliefs/thoughts about “church” are once-again being challenged and reshaped, both by Scripture and by what I'm experiencing here.
• God is not in the habit of giving up on people, even when they appear to give up on Him.
Safari Time
The Lion King was mostly right. Animals DO like to hang out together on the African plains. The Peace House girls and I saw giraffe, zebra, impala, water buffalo, and warthogs all hanging together when we went on safari.
They may be from Rwanda, but none of the ladies had seen the animals that live in their own country. Having been to zoos before, I at least had a reference for what a hippo looks and acts like or how crazy monkeys actually are, but these girls had no clue. Can you imagine seeing animals for the very first time in the place where they naturally belong? There’s just something amazing about seeing a giraffe gracefully glide through the tall grass while you’re 10 feet away with no fence or barrier to separate the two of you. The girls were in awe (and sometimes a little afraid).
The ladies were also excited about the road-trip part of the day because many of them had never ridden in a car for very long before. One girl couldn’t sleep the night before because she was too excited about the long car ride. Twenty minutes into the 3 hour trip, she’d had enough and was asking to get out!
This is what it looks like to see a hippo for the first time.
Things I learned on safari:
• Bad dirt roads + hot African sun + people who’ve never ridden in a car for more than an hour = a bunch of carsick Rwandans
• Warthogs appear to bounce instead of walk. Two weeks later, the ladies still laugh about that.
• Chasing water buffalo with your vehicle is a good time.
• If someone yells, “LEOPARD!” you better look asap. Those dudes are fast.
• So many huge Tse Tse flies swarmed the truck that they most likely could’ve teamed up to pick the truck up and carry us off into the bush.
• Giraffe’s don’t look real when you’re that close to them. I kept telling myself someone was doing some awesome CG work.
• If you’re looking to sunburn just half of your body, riding with one arm out the window for 6 hours will do the trick.
• Off-road vehicles should actually be used for off-roading at some point in their lives. It’s like you’re giving that SUV a chance to fulfill it’s life’s purpose.
• Elephants are elusive and rarely come out to play.
• Standing at the edge of a lake where hippos are swimming will make you wish you’d worn running shoes. One of those dudes could bust out of the water any second.
Check out the whole album of photos from our safari here.