As a last minute person, I still wasn’t entirely sure of my day’s plans when Sarah, my translator, asks me first thing in the morning. I decide to take a piki piki (a 30 cent motorcycle ride) to Obuere, the area with slightly more shops than nearby Kibwana where it is usually bustling with people on Monday. Since today is Wednesday, there are not nearly as many little shacks and umbrella stores, but I do manage to find what I’m looking for. I wanted to scope out how much tennis shoes cost. Sue collected a bunch of used soccer cleats from soccer teams in New Jersey but I want to be able to supplement more for when we run out or if the sizes don’t match up. Tomorrow the next girls practice will be held so I want to be ready. I printed out media release forms translated into Swahili so that all videos and photos that I take of the kids that will be used for fundraising and website purposes with identifiers will have parental permission just like in the U.S. At the market, I also buy a plastic bag full of food and later walk into the subvillage of Yakina to give Teresa some food. Teresa says some things in Luo but since I went alone, I’m not entirely sure what she says but knows she probably called me a friend, lists the food items in the bag (dga-a type of anchovies, avocado, onions, etc).
In the evening, soccer time comes around. I join the other med students on the field. For every normal day, its only boys that play. I decide to push my luck with the gender difference being the only girl not only on the field but in the spectator section too and see if they’ll let me play. I get picked last when the captains choose out people like during my awkward middle school days in gym class. One boy tells me I’m #7. This does not mean I have a jersey with the number imprinted, but rather corresponds to a specific position…since I’m not sure I just kind of play left midfield, a position I am comfortable with. Today the boys play the full field and I try not to outwardly show my out-of-shape, exasperated shape. Surprisingly, the local boys pass the ball to me more so than most American guys I’ve played with (on the field at the time, in intramural soccer in college or for fun in grad school). I wonder how my girly girl old self would view me now; the one that used to play Barbies well into the pre-teen years (as my friend Jill will still make fun of me for) and preferred Pretty Pretty Princess over creepy crawlers. We actually played the match with an RFC soccer ball, one that I haven’t yet distributed to the team. My team does awesome 2-1 for awhile but eventually ends up losing 2-3. While we are playing, a cute little girl stands on the main road watching us and I say hello and ask for her name. I remember seeing lots of girls watching with great curiosity last year before the first team was established and know there are so many more that want to join still, more work to be done. I look at the gorgeous sunset while we play and wonder why I ever bother to leave. Later that night, there is a lunar eclipse and about a million stars in the sky. My meager attempt to use a tripod and DSLR telephoto lens to capture the sky does injustice to the beauty of the moon and the stars in person.
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