Our International Woman's Day 2014

our village cheering section

The picture doesn't really show much but that was the cheering
section of our village going nuts. It was the reaction to Rosalie
kicking about a 40 ft bullet of a kick into the right middle corner
of the goal. She definitely had the strongest leg out there and she
proved it with that kick.

It was the only goal of a hard fought game. The other team had
the pressure on almost the whole match. In fact, the majority of
the game was played in our end. But our goalkeeper (Zalissa) is
best described as a natural and stopped everything that came her way.

It was either team's first game experience and it wasn't textbook soccer
but both played their hearts out. They have a starting point and
the coaches can begin to teach them the game.

It may have been a Woman's Day event but it was also a bit intense.
There were hard feelings on both sides. Neither team wanted to shake
each other's hand after the match. With the girls of the other village
saying that they don't want to come to our's as a home and home.

I think it is that it was all the girls first experience in team competition
outside their villages. Or at least in soccer anyway. So, it is part of
the learning and building of character that sports can have a tendency
to do. The coach is going to talk to them and hopefully it is the
proverbial ... teachable moment.

After the girls, the boys played and that was two evenly matched
teams. Man, it was a real good game and ended up 1-1.

You could see that the guys were experienced in the emotions
of playing a team game and they did shake hands.

All in all it was a great day as expected. There was a lot of good
hard effort and emotion. The girls playing did make it an historic

day for our neck of the woods and that includes a vast surrounding area.

The girls were accepted without any problems and they were the
center of attention and the focal point of the day ... they were stars.

For this to happen on International Woman's Day is icing on the cake.

Truth be told my fellow Peace Corps Volunteer and me (or is it I ...
always forget) were lucky as both school's sports teachers are just
fantastic. We just basically gave the idea and they took and ran with it.

Even though our part was small we're feeling ok about it.

We talked about finding a few other schools and planning a
tournament. Maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves like usual.

First we have to get the other village to come and play here.

This is where the real work begins ... the work with character building,
sense of fair play, team work and all the other intangibles.

The boys have learned it and now it's the girls chance.

It all started on this Woman's Day 2014.

Kind of an appropriate time to begin ... don't you think?