Day 349 - Bend It Like Beckham

Two boys in pinnies with the ball

Once the boys got used to watching the photos I took at each practice, I started taking a few videos as well. While my photos were improving - I got closeups of the boys, even some with the ball in focus and in the air - the videos were not so good. My camera was basically a still camera that took hundreds of still shots to become a video, but I couldn't zoom in or out while filming. The results were pretty boring.

So I started thinking about what other forms of entertainment I could provide. I had a copy of Finding Nemo and the boys seemed an appropriate age for an animated film. I don't know how much they understood of the language, but they enjoyed it. And it took the pressure off me to keep finding things to say for Dawit to translate.

  by  mlanghans 

When I learned a colleague had a copy of Bend It Like Beckham, I decided to try that film. The boys were very excited, although I think they didn't know much about the story. There were enough scenes of soccer to keep them entertained, but there was a great deal of snickering when Keira Knightley's mother-character started picking out frilly bras for her daughter.

Figuring out something new for the boys to eat each week was a challenge. One weekend I decided I would make sloppy joes. I had no problem finding the ingredients for the meat filling, but when I went for rolls, I discovered there was a flour shortage. I had never bought large quantities of rolls before, but I had seen others do so. But that day, there were no buns in the bakery. None. They sent me away and told me to come back in two hours. I did. They sold me three buns. No amount of cajoling convinced them to sell me more. They had no loaves of bread. I had already cooked the meat. I didn't know what to do.

So I called Jewel. I knew she had a bread maker. I asked for her help. And, as usual, she came through. While I was off watching the boys practice, she baked bread and delivered it to my house after we all returned.

Not long after I gave the boys money for soccer boots, I received a call from a man who told me he was the father of one of the boys. He didn't tell me his name or which boy was his son. He said he just wanted me to know that the parents appreciated what I was doing for the boys, but he cautioned me to be sure the boys were using the money as they indicated. I told him that the boys gave me receipts for everything they bought. He then pointed out that when I gave the boys money for the uniforms, Habtom bought himself a track suit and a few other things like his whistle and a stop watch. I thanked the man for his warning and I assured him that I would be very cautious if the boys asked for more help. By that point it was clear that there would be more requests.

by  fotoizm  The next request was for better boots. Dawit showed me that the boots they had first bought were falling apart. This time I told the boys I would go with them to buy the boots. A few days later, Dawit called me to tell me they had found the type of boots they wanted. He told me he and one other of the boys would meet me at the corner grocery store to bring me back to the shop with them. When they arrived, we caught a taxi in order to get back downtown before the shops closed, my only taxi ride in Asmara, I think. The owner of the shop had set aside the boots in the right sizes. All I had to do was hand over the cash. The boys were all there to take the boots away. The owner thanked me not just for the cash, but also for helping the boys.

Better boots meant more dirt came into the house with the boys. I decided to clean them one last time and then roll up all the area rugs and hide them away in one of the bedrooms. But the boots also had cleats so the boys realized they needed to take off their boots when they came in. There was quite a pile at the door each time they came over.

Dawit was a translator for me in other ways as well. For example, told me that the parents of the boys planned to invite me to the neighborhood so they could meet me. But then one day, I forget why, he was with me in one of the outbuildings behind my house. As we walked into the laundry room, he told me that most of the boys lived with their entire families in houses that weren't much larger than that room. And he then told me that although the adults wanted to meet me, they were uncomfortable inviting me to their homes because of how small they were.

Dawit also shared some of the same observations as the father who called me had. He told me that Habtom had in fact exagerated the cost of the pinnies. He also advised that I no longer give the boys money but instead buy what they need for them. Quite a wise young man was Dawit. Since he was giving me the same advice as the father, I asked if his father was the one who called me. He said the caller was not his father, but he didn't want to tell me whose father had called. So I remained in the dark for a little while longer.