A Match for the Girls!

We were finally able to organize a match for our girls' team on Friday and it was so much fun!!! It was somewhat short notice, so on Thursday morning I spent two hours walking around Ndejje making fifteen house calls to the girls on the team to inform them about the match and to ask their parents' permission for them to come. One of the girls from the team, Julie, accompanied me, to show me where everyone lived and to help with the language barrier with some of the parents who didn't speak English. It was a fun morning overall, the best part being watching the girls' faces light up after I told them that we had managed to procure a match for the next day.

The longest stop we made was at our goalkeeper's house. I was a bit nervous about going there because she has an (evil) stepmother who doesn't treat her very well and often won't allow her to come to trainings. However, Lillian is our only a goalkeeper and a very good one at that, so the house visit was necessary, despite my apprehensions. We finally were able to procure permission for Lillian to attend the match, but only after being force-fed porridge (disgusting), bread slathered in butter (also not very appetizing), and some sort of egg concoction whose ingredients I'm not entirely sure of. I knew that we had to eat so as not to appear rude, but it was difficult to get it all down. I tried to guzzle my porridge as quickly as possible and I made Julie eat most of the bread and butter. It was funny sitting in Lillian's house, eating with Julie because she was just as averse to the food being served as I was. But, she was a good sport and put it up with it for the sake of the team.

Early Friday morning we all gathered at the youth center to distribute uniforms and cleats before piling onto the taxi bus that would take us to our match. The girls were so excited and after having selected their cleats from the center, they began scrubbing them with water so that they would be as clean as possible for the game. They were meticulous in their preparation for the big game.

When we finally arrived at the pitch after a taxi ride which had the girls singing and chanting the whole way, we were surprised to discover that we were playing a women's team. Literally, these "girls" were between 18-22 and they had some meat on their bones. Our girls are around middle school age and have definitely not gone through puberty yet, meaning they still weigh next to nothing. The girls weren't too phased by the difference in size though, and some of our larger girls held their own against the women, bumping elbows with the best of them. I was so proud! Even our smallest girl, Stellah, threw down one of the women on the other team at one point which surprised everyone.

We ended up losing the match, but it didn't seem to matter to much to the girls. They were so happy to simply get out of Ndejje for a day and get to play a real match and wear uniforms that I don't think they were too concerned with the outcome of the game, which was good. After the game we bought everyone cold water and snacks, which they were even more excited about! And of course, the singing continued on the taxi ride home. All in all, it was a great experience and it was probably one of the highlights of my time here so far. It was so enjoyable getting to watch the girls have so much fun playing and I was so proud of our girls as I watched them battle it out on the field. I love these kids!!