Go Go Ghana!

In 1998 I traveled to West Africa with a group of middle school/high school students. I went along as their photography and writing teacher; I coached them to take photographs and do subsequent writing on the photos once we got back to North Carolina. The kids were there for two weeks, but I stayed for two additional months and poked around Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso by myself. As you can imagine, I learned a lot about myself, about Africa, and about travel during that summer. But the one thing I was really schooled on was the World Cup.

In these small African countries, soccer and the World Cup were the sun and the people revolved around the games. Small black and white TVs were dragged into public spaces using extension cords that could reach a city block, and dozens of folks would gather around these televisions to watch the games. People held babies up to see, they were deathly silent during crucial moments, they cheered rabidly when any African team scored a goal, they welcomed me into their soccer fanaticism as I watched my first World Cup games. The World Cup is the only sporting event that I get excited about. Yes, the sexy factor of the players does help, but I mainly think back to my time in West Africa and their passion for the sport.

Immediately after 9/11, there was a piece on NPR by a guy who had been traveling in the Middle East and Egypt the summer of 2001 with his two elementary-aged kids. They were back state-side when the events of September 11th transpired, but he had an interesting perspective on it: Having had visited these Middle Eastern countries weeks before 9/11, WITH their kids, they had made many real life connections with people and didn't have that gut-reaction "THOSE people are horrible" sentiment that many Americans had. He emphasized that their connections while traveling were exclusively because they had their children with them and, also important, that their children played soccer. He explained how soccer was a universal, global language and that wherever they went his kids could go play soccer with other local kids, opening the door to friendly conversation and exchanges between him & his wife with other adults. His kids and their soccer skills were their gateway into a culture very different from their own.

My own travels and this story have resonated in me for years. You can bet that Alexandra and Nico will both play soccer (it's also helpful that Adam was a big soccer player as was his sister) and we will travel internationally with them.

But until we have some cash flow to do that (and they can carry their own bags!), I'll continue to pull for the African teams in the World Cup. Go Ghana!