Fun and Games

Ann and I were invited to a soccer match this past Saturday.  Kondovor, the coach of one team, Bright Stars United, is a student in one of Ann’s classes.  He gave us two tickets and arranged for us to sit with the teams on the far side of the field at Kenema City Stadium.  I have been looking forward to going to a football match ever since we moved into the guest house at Eastern Polytechnic.  The school shares a common wall with the city stadium and the noise from the crowd drifts over our place almost daily from 4:30 – 6:30. The Bright Stars are a Division II team in a league of 20 teams, all from Kenema.  This was their first game of the season.  The opposing team was Med United.

Most of the 100+ crowd at Kenema City Stadium that day sat in the massive concrete stands on the near side of the field.  The stands reminded me of pictures I have seen of Mayan pyramids, rows of massive concrete steps, nothing else to sit on.  Sky boxes at the top of the stands have been under construction ever since we got here six months ago.  The field is sand and gravel with just a few weeds courageous enough to poke their heads out of the dirt.  Sawdust was used to mark the boundaries. 

We had arrived at 4:30, but play didn’t start until 5:00.  The teams shook hands and after a brief moment of prayer, the game commenced. 

The play was hot and dusty.  The players moved up and down the field, their feet making little dust clouds up to their knees. Some of the players wore cleats, but most had flat-soled running shoes.  This made the footing treacherous and often a player slipped on the grit. The ball-handling was skillful, but like most soccer games I have witnessed, each team found it very difficult to mount an effective attack. During stoppage time the players of each team would rush to the sidelines to grab a half-liter pack of water, drink some and pour the rest over his head.  Most of the soccer here is played early in the morning or late in the afternoon due to the oppressive heat.

Several dozen spectators took in the game from atop a wall behind one of the goals, thus saving themselves the 2,000 Leones admission fee.  I have been told that stadium officials will beat wall sitters off with a stick. That didn’t happen this game; maybe it was not important enough.  That end did get to witness the most exciting time of the match, a penalty kick given to the Bright Stars.  The Med United goalie made a great save on a ball struck very well and headed for the back of the net.  The game ended nil-nil (imagine that!).   Everyone seemed satisfied with the result although the Bright Stars felt that they had been a bit unlucky.

Throughout the game Ann and I were entertained by a toddler who could not sit still.   We provided an empty bottle of water which entertained him for a time, but after a while he got tired of that and found the reserve soccer ball more interesting. It amazed us that football has imprinted itself on one so young.  His first reaction to the ball was to try to move it with his foot, even though he could only crawl and the ball was about as big as he was.  His young mother got tired of chasing him around, and I think they were both happy when he spent the rest of the game rotating the front tire on a parked motorcycle nearby.

Soccer by far is the most popular game in town.  I have seen girls play tournament volleyball and guys play basketball in back of the Youth Center, but kids all over town are usually busy kicking around some sort of ball.  These balls come in all sorts of sizes and composition.  The poorest ones are just wads of plastic bags.  Many balls are somewhat deflated.  There are usually two small goals set up in the street with two or three to a side, no goalie. 

A popular game for the girls is stone ball.  The game is usually played with three.  Two players form a team that tries to hit the third player in the middle with a ball made of wadded plastic bags.  As an extra challenge, bottle caps are placed on the ground in the middle.  The player in the middle is challenged to turn the caps over.  If she gets them all over before getting nailed she wins the game. 

Occasionally, I have seen tether ball being played.  Once again notice that the "ball" is a mass of plastic bags.

Checkers, or draughts, as the British call it, is also very popular.  We see kids playing by the DVD store almost every time we walk to the Peace Corps Office.  For some reason the boards we've seen are always pink. Play is fast and furious and the pieces are slammed onto the board.

Ann got this photo of a kid flying a kite made of a discarded garbage bag.  The string was about 10 short pieces of a variety of twines knotted together.

The most popular toy (other than dolls) that we have seen is a simple stick and hoop from an old bicycle rim or tire.  This guy has upgraded to a car tire.

Near our house we see this colorful collection of toys spread on the ground for sale.  These items are the Goodwill Store cast offs.  Probably most things here are beyond the purchasing power of most families.