Day 347 - Team USA

Asmara Expo Center

The following weekend, I met the boys at the corner grocery store and we walked together to the Expo Center. I knew there was an impressive entrance for that facility so I was curious what the boys had to do to get access to it. I didn't have to wonder long.

The Expo Center was about a mile from my house. That distance was nothing to the boys. They walked from their homes to the downtown shopping area of Asmara, at least three miles the opposite direction of the Expo Center and my house. Asmara had many characteristics that reminded me of growing up in my home town, including that it was apparently safe enough for pre-teens to walk downtown without adult supevision. It was also common to find children playing in the street. There weren't that many cars on the roads to make the streets unsafe as playgrounds, a lot like Dudrey Court, the street I grew up on in the 1950s.

Sheep on the field

The Expo Center buildings were impressive, but we didn't go into any of them. Instead, the boys led me to an area behind the buildings. There was a lot of land, but no soccer pitch, no goal posts, no lines chalked on the ground. But there were dips and valleys in the surface, lots of dirt and almost no grass, some standing water, logs and branches, rocks, and even cows and sheep. The boys zeroed in on a patch that was mostly level, without too many branches or rocks, and they set out to use the rocks and branches they had to move to identify the boundaries. They also found some timbers that they put into position to serve as the goal boundaries. And then they began to practice.

Sandra with Team USA

Habtom had a routine. First the boys warmed up by running around the field. Once they were warmed up, he had the boys practice dribbling and passing the ball back and forth as they ran in pairs from one end of the field to the other. After everyone had had a turn or two dribbling and passing the balls, they practiced kicking the ball at the goal with the two identified goalies taking turns trying to catch or otherwise stop the ball. Habtom ended the practice by having the boys follow behind him as he led a marching drill that had them raise one knee and slap it with the alternate hand as they did a slightly running march, alternating knees every four steps. Habtom used a whistle to indicate when it was time for the boys to raise a knee. Watching them march reminded me that not everyone has natural rhythm. Some of the boys looked like dancers. Some had two left feet.

Sandra with Team USA from behind with numbers to help
her identify who is who on the field

I stayed on the sidelines and took photos of the action. Those early pictures were pretty bad - lots of background with miniscule figures way in the back, too small to identify. But when the practice was over, they all came back home with me and I hooked up my camera to my TV to show them the photos I took.  On the second afternoon, I had made popcorn for the boys instead of picking up more cookies.  Spilled popcorn along with the dirt they tracked in on their shoes made quite a mess of the living room, but having them in the house was worth the mess. They told me they decided to call themselves Team USA because of the support I had provided. And before they left, they asked if I would give them money to buy boots, too. I did. How could I refuse?