A few days ago AJ and I were have light lunch at a local hotel. I received a phone call and the person on the other end asked what I was doing. At that exact moment the entire Malawi national soccer team walked through the door. So I answered oh you know grabbing some food hanging out with the Malawi national football team, the normal. It gets better.
Last night we went to the world cup qualifying Burkina Faso vs. Malawi football (soccer) match. Loads of fun and tickets were only 300CFA, less than one dollar (I thought National’s tickets were cheep). We were at door 18, no assigned seats just the assigned door so we sat in the front row.
Burkina won the match 1-0, should have been 2-0 but the Malawi keeper stopped an incredibly weak penalty kick from BF. No real excitement at the game just your standard football match, no deaths or fights or anything fun like that.
After the match it was time to chill out and grab some dinner. Siddo, Greg, Brad and I went down to Ouaga2000 to pick up another friend. Once we got him we were leaving to meet up with the others down town. We were side tracked because we passed a hotel and Siddo informed us that it is the hotel the national team uses. So we popped in for a drink.
Of course once we get in we realize we have a contact who works at the hotel. So we talk with him for a moment then he asks if we want to meet the team. At the time they were eating dinner in the next room. So we said sure, why not. So we were escorted in and got to meet the whole Burkina Faso national football team, just standard stuff. We went back to the bar area and our friend asked if we wanted to get some pictures with the team, sure, why not. So we got some pictures with some of the players. Then he asked if we wanted to go meet the goal scorer, sure, why not. So we went up to his room, got to meet him and take a picture, you know the normal stuff.
In any case it was all very exciting and fun. Just nice to be in the right place at the right time.
Cool!
ReplyDeleteAmazing story about the national futbal team. My students are waiting on a followup. They asked me to post the picture on the wall and they now have another team to follow in the World Cup tournament.
ReplyDeleteI was waiting for your posts about Thanksgiving. I knew that Americans were the only ones who celebrated on the last Thursday of November, but it was still a schock to me to wake up that day and have no one else realize what day it was. The best part was that no one woke up on Black Friday with malls screaming "buy this" or "best sale ever".
Have you been keeping out of trouble with the new students being sent to your classroom? Have any of them asked how many cows you own? In Tanzania everyone thought I must have a huge herd of cows, since that was a sign of wealth.
We set up a skype connection at school and would love to share some time online with you at any of your schools. Would you be interested or would it be allowed?
Happy Thanksgiving! and may all of your future adventures be memorable and SAFE!