Why football is so much more than a game

The football season for secondary schools in Uganda is upon us.  And by football, of course, we mean the game played with a ball and your feet, namely, soccer. In the majority world, football reigns as the most universal sport. Kids can make balls out of wads of plastic bags and string, or dried banana leaves. Goals can be as simple as a couple of sticks. The pitch might be a street, a dusty plot, a goat field, a beach, an alley between houses, the lawn around a church or school. Shoes are strictly optional.  The very accessibility of this game, the inclusion of it, the (albeit rare) possibilities for stardom plucking a village kid to become a millionaire, lend a magical allure.  Pretty much everyone has a favorite major team, knock-off jerseys are found in the remotest places, crowds gather around any device that can broadcast a European match. 

So it is no exaggeration to say that the brief but intense school football season garners the biggest crowds of the year, a festive, rowdy, engaged atmosphere. The word "season" here is a bit confusing. Bundibugyo now has 23 senior secondary schools. And true to form, it has taken almost two months of the 3 month school term for most of those schools to pay the dues needed for the sports association to manage the games.  So the season for the boys has consisted of 4 games in 3 days, all played at CSB (other locations were operating simultaneously for other schools) in a modified group-stage play-off.  This narrows the district pool down to 8 male teams for quarter finals (to be played Monday) then semi-finals and finals (both planned for Wednesday!).  Then the girls get their chance, two days of games Thursday and Friday. It's a one-week, nearly every-day (sometimes more than once-a-day) marathon of games.

Madame Illuminate, who has worked tirelessly to organize the whole district season!

Our team looks good! At the beginning 20 years ago, the district only had a handful of schools and we regularly went to nationals.  Now the competition has increased, and there is a regional layer between district and nationals. Most recently we have no longer been winning the district, and THAT CAME UP ON NEARLY EVERY SURVEY SCOTT DID WHEN WE ARRIVED.  Staff took the football losses very seriously.  But this year we have a former student who is coaching, Happy, and we have some kids who've been in the program a couple of years and learned and grown. They control the ball, pass, play as a team, exude confidence.  The first three games we won 4-0, 5-1, and 9-0.  Scott asked Ike one of our new Serge Apprentices to make a score board, and that was a huge hit and focus of celebration. Our students surrounded it and sang the school anthem!

Our pitch, teams shaking hands before game

Match days start with horns and shouts at dawn as teams warm up. Classes are rescheduled to occur early mornings or late evenings so every student can come out and watch the games.  Probably a thousand people or more come to watch. There are vuvuzelas, a la the South African world cup.  There is marching, chanting, drumming, animated coaching from every sideline, jubilant screams from supporters, face painting, concessions. There are uniformed police officers with long sticks trying to maintain the onlookers at least a few inches off the side and end lines; and UPDF soldiers with massive guns. After one game our teachers had to help get the ref's off the field safely when angry losers stormed towards them.

see if you can pick out the camo and gun 

The intensity built through the first two days to yesterday's "playoff" between CSB and a school recently started by former teachers who broke away from CSB to do their own thing.  They were better than the first three teams we played, and we were rattled, a completely different team than we had been. The refs were calling offsides on people dribbling the ball towards goal, and once when our player intercepted a goal kick done by a defender with the keeper at his side. It was not a pretty game, and ended 1-1. Which prompted a penalty shoot-out, the crowd pressing in towards the goal, the players taking their shots. We ended up winning the shoot-out 4-2.

coaches preparing team for shootout with a pressing crowd of onlookers

the shootout in process

We were happy for the win, but the painful reality was that the students clearly saw that the crowd was against the school.  When our players hit their penalty shots, the only cheers came from our students. When the other team scored, the entire crowd went wild. It was our "home field" (we have by far the best pitch in the district) but the lack of community support felt sad for the kids.

the boys' team doubling as a choir, showing leadership at chapel!

Which brings us to chapel this morning, and a stunning sermon by Desmond the math teacher who is the longest-serving staff member. We've been studying Exodus.  He chose three texts, and I will try to do justice to his points.

• Exodus 4:1-14 when God calls a reluctant Moses and gives him signs, then brings Aaron in to be the spokesperson. Desmond applied to the CSB community by saying, you are in a community that does not fully trust and embrace you. Like Moses, we humbly tell God that we feel inadequate to the task. We appreciate times when God dramatically helps us and marks us with His favor, and we acknowledge that we need each other as a team just as Aaron and Moses complemented each other.
• Mark 6:1-6 when Jesus explains that his hometown, Nazareth, rejected him. Desmond pointed out that hometowns want to keep us all level, even Jesus' neighbors were skeptical and eager to cut him down to size. It should not be shocking to students to face the same challenges that Jesus encountered. Of course there are many who love and support the school too, parents and leaders, but there will also be a significant crowd who cannot wish us well.
• Isaiah 61:1-6 the prophecy about being sent to bring good news to the poor, freedom to the captives.  Desmond said, you might feel like this community is your enemy. But Jesus says to love your enemy. This school is not just here to be a great school or enable our students to get ahead in life.  This school is here to bless the entire community. Whether we feel liked or not, our mission is to live the Gospel. To model humility and respect. To turn the other cheek, to play and study and then use our gifts to help everyone around us. This slowly brings transformation.

What a powerful way to bring the reality of the football experience into a loving focus. Not a message of "God is on our side so we must always win" but of "we are here to serve God and our neighbors". 

So, football is much more than a game in Bundibugyo and I suspect many places.  It is a training ground for teamwork and discipline. It is a gathering point for wholesome community passion and fun. It is an opportunity to build confidence and loyalty and to begin writing new stories for kids who have always felt themselves to be at the bottom of the world's pile. And it is a learning lab for embracing the Gospel, responding with love and vision to a community that does not always cheer our way.