As we turned off the highway onto the rutted, red dirt road
leading to the school, we could already see hundreds of children in their
colorful school uniforms and many adults streaming to the festival. Our job was
to sort and hand out the participant t-shirts in 16 different colors, chosen by
their coaches in a blind draw, for the different schools. We then handed out
polo shirts for school staff, coaches, and officials like us. We did this in a
warm, humid, plank sided, tin roofed junior classroom with any hope of a breeze
blocked by the student bodies pressed up against the windows watching us, so it
was sweaty work! After handing out the almost 500 shirts, we sorted Sarah’s
suitcase of medical supplies and put together first aid kits for the four
football pitches (soccer fields). Sarah serves as nurse, not only for the
school, but for their churches, which are in villages where medical help is
often either unavailable or unaffordable.
After our work was done, we got to lend our status as
“mzungus” (white European types) to the games by watching from the sidelines.
Though the netball games are all played within Fountain of Hope’s compound, the
school has only one soccer field, so after lunch I went with Pastor Robert to
make an appearance at the three other fields and scout out Fountain’s
competition. To my surprise, the other fields were several miles away in two
different directions, a long walk for the teams and spectators.
As we drove between the fields Pastor Robert pointed out a
large rock formation with a cave in which human sacrifices are performed. Even
the poorest people try to barricade themselves in their houses at night and get
their girls’ ears pierced if they can, since the witch doctors and their
followers will steal children without blemishes to sacrifice at night, leaving
the parents to find the remains the next morning. Last year they also kidnapped
and sacrificed a local butcher, leaving his family to fend for them selves.
When we got back to the school I took a picture of two of the small signs
around campus that encourage the children in their aspirations. The first said,
“Stop late coming.” The second said, “Fight human sacrifice.” No, not all
schools have the same set of problems.
The good news is that around the school many of the witch
doctors are either dying or converting. Pastor Robert pointed out the
dilapidated shack of one of the chief witch doctors, who had infiltrated his
church when he first started. Unbeknownst to him, she had been terrorizing
neighbors with a large snake she claimed was the embodiment of a demon. During
worship one Sunday, Robert was inspired to predict that someone in the
congregation would come home to dead snake, and it turned out to be her! She
cursed Robert, then died, so her sister and daughter became believers.
Compared to that kind of conflict, the sports matches are a
rather trivial diversion, though you would never know it to judge by the
joyful, shouting children running through the compound, jogging and jumping in
rhythm to celebrate Fountain’s third victory out of three soccer matches today. Their girls team completely dominated
in netball, but from what I could see the boys will have a run for their money
in soccer tomorrow. To be specific and accurate, a barefoot run, since they do not have
shoes, for their bull, since the teams win not only money but something perhaps
better: a bull for their village.
Thanks for keeping us in prayer, and tune in tomorrow for
the tournament results!
Kirk and the Mzungus
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