Pelada

It’s the Portuguese word for pickup football/soccer games, literally meaning naked...referring to the stripped down nature of the style of the game…and is the name of one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen…if not the best.  It follows a guy and a girl around the world as they discover how football is played in different places and the universal love for the game.  It’s amazing…watch it!…but that’s kinda beside the point.  What I’m getting to is, in this documentary, they go to Africa.  Only a couple clips show them in Ghana…but they do spend a while in Kenya.  While there, they follow a man who works from 5 am to 5 pm each day…and even though he’s exhausted…still goes and plays football at the one pitch they have in the whole area.  It’s completely dirt and totally uneven, built on a land fill - so there‘s always trash coming uncovered…but the narrator said they know where it dips, where the dirt is loose, etc…so they still manage to play with great skill.

Well…today we, the teachers of Golden Sunbeam, played a match against the teachers of another school…and it was on a field just like that (it‘s so neat…I watched Pelada with Chisa, and she was like, “You‘re gonna be there soon!  I‘m so jealous!”…and I‘m here!)!  The other teachers from my school were actually pretty upset at first.  Since we had come all the way to their school, we figured it was because they had a good pitch.  But they didn’t.  Their field was not just all uneven dirt; it also came equipped with 2 goals without nets, no lines or boundaries, a small mud pond about 20 feet away (which I knew the ball would find its way into…but miraculously didn’t, and only came close once! - go our control! = ), rocky areas, graves (yeah…right outside of one “boundary” were about 10 elaborate, stone/tile tomblike things), and a line of 80 cows or so who kindly walked mostly around the field…just cutting off one corner…haha = )  It was so great!  When will I get an opportunity like that again in my life?!

Before I describe the game, let me start at the beginning.  So, I knew we were leaving at 4...but I didn’t know how we were getting there or anything.  I also didn’t know if we’d have a place to leave our stuff…so I decided I would just change beforehand and wouldn’t bring anything.  At 4, Alex, the PE teacher, called me from the office (I was on the computer with Marian and didn’t realize it was time.  Luckily I had changed early = ) and I followed him out of the school gates to a chartered trotro…haha = )  All the guys who were already out there were still in their work clothes and had all their stuff with them…oops.  But when we got there and they all had to change right out in the open, I was glad that I had already changed!  Anyways…back to the ride over…it was so much fun!  The guys were so jovial…singing all of these songs (I know, right?…a group of guys singing, like, girls’ camp-type songs…it was great! = ) and talking (well…half the time they seemed to be arguing…I think it’s a favorite pastime here…haha = ) and laughing…even though I didn’t understand what was being said, I just sat there smiling.

So yeah…we got there, and while the guys were changing (Golden Sunbeam has a set of sport uniforms…so we wore them to represent. There was one skirt in the set - the girls here wear skirts for PE - that they wanted me to wear…but I told them I was happy wearing my own shorts…thank you…haha - but I wore the jersey), I was tying my shoelaces (ever since daddy would tie them super tight for me when I was little…I’ve loved having my cleats laced really tight) when a guy from the other team walked over and said, “You’re gonna play?”  “Yup,” I responded.  Well, he didn’t seem to happy about and said, “Well, I’m gonna boot you (like kick me with his boot/cleat),” to which I replied, “Then I’ll boot you back!”  I realized I had my work cut out for me.

Well, they put me in as left defensive back…and I was so nervous because it’s been YEARS since I’ve played on a full-sized field.  It took a bit to get used to running in the places where the dirt was deep…it was like running at the beach in the soft sand…but eventually I started to get in the groove…and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!  Of course I was taken out in the first 10 minutes  - this huge guy on the other team fully barreled into me!  I fell so hard…getting like a rug burnish scrape on my arm, getting covered in dirt on my right side…from head to toe, and smacking the side of my head on one of the rocky places.  The guy who knocked me down felt really bad, though…and I earned his respect after that = )  The rest of the game, slowly but surely, I found that I was surprising the rest of my critics…haha (besides one jerk who kept yelling at his teammates to pass to him because the “lady” was marking him, and he could use his experience against me).  Considering how intimidated I was to start out with, it was so nice to have so many of their players, the bystanders (we drew a crowd from the neighborhood), my players, and one adorable little girl with her daddy, come up and congratulate me on how I played after.  One of the guys was like, “I want to tell you how impressed I am that you were the only lady out there, and you played better than most of the guys out there (that was so not true…but it was still nice, nonetheless= ).  I thought you were gonna be too tired to keep playing after 15 minutes, but you have more energy now than me.”

After the game, we walked over to this hangout spot (it was basically a cluster of small homes with a couple of tables and chairs in the middle) and had malts and bread (bread and drink seems to be a pretty customary snack - it’s just a loaf of white bread…fresh baked of course…that everyone tears into…yum!), and sang more songs (everyone was in a celebratory mood, even though we tied 2-2...they scored at the very end!).  We had to find a way home, so we all walked over to the station to see if we could find a trotro, or divide up by locations and take taxis, and lo and behold, there was a completely empty trotro seemingly just waiting for us = )  The ride home was just as fun as the ride there, although even more rambunctious…haha = )  You woulda thought they’d all just drank Guinness beer, not Guinness malts, with the way they were acting…haha = )  When we got back to the school, they were still singing and having a great time, so the boarders (who had come to welcome us back and see how we did) were kind of pulled into the fun spirit.  There was just so much excitement in the air, Miracle (the little 2nd grader who usually ignores me when I try to talk to him) even hugged me!

It was such an awesome afternoon and evening!!!!