The Big Game

So, get this.

Today, we played soccer against Scott College’s team.

And I was good!

Here’s the thing, whenever I’ve played in the last few years, I’d get all self-conscious because I’d be with fellas who were all hardcore. But tonight I was just like, eh, whatever, and it went swimmingly.

(I feel like there should be at least one boy in Chambana who is proud of me. Eh, McCabe?)

In short, God gave me the grace to play soccer, and it was awesome.

A ton of Scott students and almost all of our ABO folks came out to watch. It was quite the crowd. They really dig soccer here.

We even had school boys stopping by to watch.














Naza (a TIMO team member from Brazil who is serving on the Horn of Africa) led all the kids in these obnoxious cheers. For a while, they were my personal cheering section—I was the only girl playing—which almost made me laugh too hard to play.













(TOP: The ladies of ABO, cheering it up. BOTTOM: Later, they organized the kids. You can get a good luck here, too, at what the soccer field looked like. Full of tall grass and not flat at all. Naza is at the far right there in the second picture.)

The ladies from Scott made fun of the boys when I would (by the grace of God) dribble by them or take the ball. “Watch out for the white girl!” Once, I got through these three Kenyans and they girls just went nuts. They made fun of them the rest of the game. It was hilarious. I was voted player of the game. Haha.

I won’t talk anymore about it, ‘cause it sounds a lot like I’m tooting my own horn, but it was probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve had so far here in Africa.

Doctor Paul manned my camera, so he got some great pictures. I'll share some more with you here.













This is Jairo (on the left) shaking hands with the Scott captain. See how they have fancy uniforms and everything? They actually play against other schools... and are really good.














See that giant hill he's sitting on? That was in the middle of the field. I totally biffed on one, full speed, and fell on my face. The Kenyan players were very concerned. I laughed.














This is my teammate Cath on the sidelines playing with a couple of the boys who came out to watch. I think she had a lot of fun, too.

Alright, that's all. :)