Jinjas event if the year

The next morning began bright and early as we prepared for our tournament. I walked the distance with kyle and Greg to kybirwa primary school where the funda-field had been built and our tournament would take place. The 30+ minute walk was awesome, slipping in the muddy trails that wined through trees, crops, and mud huts. I was excited to see the field, to finally be able to grasp what it is fundafield is doing and what we are doing here in Uganda... Not that i needed an excuse.. Anyway, One side had been dug to level the field and made a nice lip for the spectators to sit on and overlook the field. The concept of building the field at a school is great for a few reasons. First, the kids at the school take pride in the field, because fields are few and far to come by. They plant the grass seeds and take care of the field to make sure it stays maintained/ the admin is supposed to regulate it. It also allows kids from multiple villages to take advantage of the futbol field that is so sacred to every one of these kids.

So, as African time goes, the tourney "started"'at 8, we showed up about 9, and the first team showed up at 10ish. Having the field at a school encourages also gives the kids a good reason to hang around the school and learn.

So the plan of the tournament: 2 days, single elimination, with 8 teams to start. Day 1 is youth/ under 14 and day 2 is 14 and up. Every team gets 13 jerseys for it's 13 players and the tournament winner for each day gets a goat. Yes a live goat tied to a short rope. I'm not sure what the value on a goat is in the states, but here it's around 100,000 Ugandan shillings and is a symbol of your status. So the goat is a great prize, and defnitely worth putting your best team together for. We payed extra for the loud speaker system, not sure if it was a good investment, but thought it would make the tournament more official and bring more people in... The thing is, all you need is a soccer ball under your arm and in about 73 seconds you will have a swarm of kids following you. Soccer is a way of life here, and it is amazing the power a sport can have.. I'm not just saying this, I have now witnessed it first hand, two days in a row. Although the second team wasn't able to check in until close to 11 because they only had 3 kids, by noon we were turning away teams and the tournament was officially underway. (and for some reason not 1 player out of the 104 (or maybe it was closer to 200 after we saw kids swaping jerseys and such to play) participating could even pass for 14.... We rolled with it. This is Africa, and there is only so much you can control.

The first day was hot, veryy long and tiring but so wonderful. I couldn't believe the number of people that came from far and wide to watch. By early afternoon, I roughly guessed there to be 1,000 people of all sizes and ages and English speaking abilities surrounding the field, cheering ever so crazily and loudly everytime their team scored a goal. Most of the women had sleeping babies just tied all over them.. The ladies jumping around didn't seem to care they were there and the babies didn't seem to mind their heads bobbing up and down. the teams followed our brackets well it seemed, knowing who was on the field next.. I was sure this would be the toughest part if the organization. Seeing soo many happy, thankful people was the best part.. Next to handing off a goat and medals to the winners. We never did get to sleep that night because once you rent out the loud speakers for 24 hours... They dont stop bumping til it's time to wrap them up. So yes, the high energy African music was the life of bujagali until 6:45 when it moved back to the field. I don't think anyone slept a wink.

The second morning started much more promptly with the "u14" teams we had to turn away lining up at the school at 8. If nothing else, we taught 26 kids the importance of showing up early and on time... A concept non existent in the rest of the country. These kids wanted to play. 6 of the 8 teams came to play before the first game even started. Now that's what I'm talkin about. Today is gonna be better. Well everything was going soo smoothly apart from peeing in the school hole and getting the annoying kids off of me. My personal space bubble popped at somepoint and it was hard to hear another muzungu cry. Both semi games went into pks, and the thousands of fan crowded ever so closely around the penalty box...forget standing on the sideline. There were kids in trees trying to get a better look. All was good, goal for goal, until one guy kicked before the whistle. On his re-kick he missed and sent the crowd hooting and hollering. The next guy just had to make it to seal the deal to the championship.. After the whistle, the ball hit the left then right post and bounced out. It got wildddd and crazy. Half the people yelling goal, and he other half not. The refs had no idea, so us muzungus, in our futbol knowledge, explained that if it hit both posts and bounced out, there is no way it couldve been a goal. The ball didn't cross the line. someone claimed it hit the back right post and bounced out.. And so the debate continued for a while. The defending team decided to lead a squat in the middle of the field, refusing to budge until we agreed that their goal counted. Moses, the school principal was on the soundsystem. He managed to get the squatting crowd off the field while I made my debut to Ugandan soccer. I kept hearing muzungu, all the way from USA, muzungu missed.. It was crazy. I think that was the moment I've been waiting for since a child to be the star of the field, but I never expected it to be so awkward, nonetheless starring on the Ugandan field. Basically, I was the only one of the 21 girls who knew all the rules or about field poisitioning. All I know is that I played position 10, which is a striker... There are no wings, centers, attackers.. Just numbers. And to make the show better, I scored the first goal for our SOUL team. I've never been pounced on by so many (stinky) people. The other team got two lucky goals as I ran out of steam playing 10 different positions and my girls stood and watched, but they had fun... And for the rest of the visit, I was the local celebrity among the girls. Hahahaha. They'd point and say futbol muzungu.

So it was time to finishhe pks for the other semi, but the one team ran out a squatted the field as soon as we were done again. In true Ugandan reasoning and style, the squatting team refused to move, and the other team in the semi settled for second place, leaving the winner of the first semi as the goat winners of the day. I think that's what happened. We were all so tired and drained from the hot sun that we gave up fighting the stubborn locals. I can't believe that we didn't play the final game! They just agreed on a winner, and once they got their medal, they'd hand off the jersey to a friend to get him a medal too.. We thought ahead and only brought 13 medals, debating with each one who actually played. Wow. No American kid would let someone else get a medal if he didn't play on the team.. Maybe were selfish?

So tired from booming music and 2 straight days of hot sun (that made us muzungus peel like a snake) we tried to sleep again... But as always there's Something else we didnt think of.. An earthquake and heavy rain. The rain pellets sounded like golf balls on the tin roof and I sat wondering how long it would be before the roof caved in. I guess I got lucky it never did. I've never felt such a big earthquake before, an well never know how big it was because of course they are very uncommon here and they don't have the tools for measuring. Every mud hut looked untouched the next morning so maybe all that rolling wasn't as big as I thought... Even though I felt like I was surfin on my bed.