All you have to do is carry a soccer ball
around a Burkinabe village to witness firsthand the popularity of the sport in
sub-Saharan Africa. As soon as any kid
sees the ball they will run up to you and ask to play with it. If you stay in one place too long, a crowd of
children will slowly grow around and trap you, so it’s important to continue
moving at a brisk walk, if not a slow jog.
It’s also necessary to carry the ball out of reach of children to
maintain possession, unless have the dribbling skill of Ronaldinho and can
weave through countless defenders who have nothing to lose. Hopefully by this point a young adult in the
community has spotted you and started the chain of communication that brings
20-30 young males of the community to the field to meet you.
During
the months of March and April, I helped to set up a formation (training) for
Peace Corps Volunteers and community members led by a non-profit organization
called Coaching for Hope. Eight Peace
Corps Volunteers gathered in Bobo May 9-13. Each volunteer brought two
counterparts from their communities, ranging in age from 15-35. The formation focused on the utilization of
soccer to conduct HIV/AIDS sensibilizations with village populations. Each day consisted of morning and afternoon
classroom sessions followed by practical application on the soccer field. Topics covered included the definition of HIV
and AIDS, modes of transmission, proper condom use, and living with HIV/AIDS. On the last day of the formation, volunteers
and their counterparts were organized into groups to plan their own VIH/SIDA
sensibilizations and practice with the group.
The practice was extremely valuable, as it allowed the participants to
experience firsthand the challenges of using soccer as a health sensibilization
tool. The formation was concluded with a small ceremony during which PCVs and
their counterparts received completion certificates and soccer balls to begin
work in their respective communities.
I
returned to my community excited to implement what myself and my counterparts
had learned at the formation. As I
suspected, however, there were a multitude of challenges to using soccer as an
education tool in village.
·
Soccer
balls are too expensive for most villagers to buy
Soccer
balls tend to cost $5-$7 in Burkina, which is way too much for most Burkinabe
families to spend on what is widely viewed by adults as a “toy.” This can be an advantage when trying to
mobilize groups in the village to participate in soccer related activities, but
trying to control a large group of Burkinabe with a soccer ball is not an easy
task. It also means that once people
know you have a soccer ball, they will ask for it constantly.
·
Young
men have a cultural monopoly on soccer
It
is culturally acceptable for young men to play soccer. Older men dismiss soccer as just a game
because they don’t have the energy to play with younger men or have some sort
of injury. It is not culturally
acceptable for women of any age to play soccer. It’s considered a men’s game and women grow
up believing they can’t play. It is
culturally acceptable for boys to play soccer, but they often have to use a
terrible ball or an object other than a
soccer ball to play. Actual soccer balls
are considered too valuable to give to kids.
Which may be a good policy because Burkinabe kids will find a way to
break anything that you can play a game with, either through overuse or just
general disrespect.
·
People
may not understand or retain connections between soccer activities and health
issues
As
Peace Corps Volunteers, we are often looking for “captive audiences.” Because it would be counterproductive to
offer people material incentives to attend the events we organize, we try to
capitalize on situations where there is already a group of our target audience
assembled. Soccer is an activity that
typical creates a “captive audience” that, if managed correctly, will listen to
basically whatever you have to say. By “manage
correctly” I mean maintain complete control over the soccer ball until you want
to be ignored. Because soccer is so
popular, however, it can distract people from the actual message of what you’re
trying to teach or demonstrate, even if the soccer activities are supposed to
have obvious connections to preventative healthcare.
·
Setting
up a soccer club/team with consistent meetings is challenging in village
As
I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, the concept of time in Burkinabe culture is
completely different from said concept in the US. People tend to say yes to
every invitation they are offered because it is considered impolite to say no. Young men and male kids flock to soccer
activities in village, but it will be difficult to establish a consistent club
or team with women and kids. For the
young men, soccer obviously doesn’t take priority over work and school (I
hope).
Even
with these challenges, I am extremely passionate about sports and this seems
like a perfect opportunity to enjoy my work.
So far, I’ve been playing soccer almost every evening with the young men
in the village, trying to establish a consistent group. Ibrahim and I have proposed the idea of
getting primary school students and women involved on certain days of the week,
which was met with a certain amount of speculation. I can tell I will be working on this project
for a long time before I see the results that I want, which at this point is
honestly just getting men, women, and kids to play organized soccer on a
regular basis and mix in some health education when I can.
In
other news, I confirmed my trip to Cape Town August 20 – September 1!!!!! I’ll have a week to see what kind of trouble
I can get into before my parents arrive.
I just received a Cape Town guidebook from my parents and just looking
at it is pretty overwhelming. Of course
the first page I opened to was a restaurant that has over 450 different types
of whiskey and frequently organizes three course meals with whiskey pairings. It’s going to be quite the shock coming from
Burkina, but words cannot describe how excited I am!
I’ve
been missing friends and family a lot lately.
Hope all is well!
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