Today is the big day: the Kantolomba Sports Day and Party!
We will tell the story in pictures; Brian has a more in-depth version, also with pictures, that will come out under separate cover.
Everyone gathers at the football pitch.
Before the match begins.
The Living Compassion Team prepares.
Theresa organizing the event.
The huddles.
We understood that Everesto would be playing on our team, "Team Building Workers and Musungus" but instead he gathered his football buddies from school to play the builders and the musungus.
The opposing team. Everesto is wearing the white shirt.
Everesto strategizes before the game.
What the obviously more experienced and practiced Lubuto team didn't count on was our secret weapon: our cheerleaders.
The Living Compassion cheerleading squad.
The junior cheerleading squad.
The musungus at half-time.
Tracey and Jen teach The Hokey Pokey on the sidelines.
A close call on the Living Compassion goal.
After many heart-stopping false alarms, it came--the Big Score!
The players congratulate each other.
Magnus celebrates with some young fans
A view of the game from above.
The fans take the field.
Big grins and laughter from the cheerleaders.
We win! The biggest upset victory in the history of Kantolomba. First Everesto wins the national science contest; then our team wins the football match at Sports Day. Let's face it: Kantolomba rocks!
The Living Compassion Team
Everyone heads to the after-party.
Back at the party
Serving the party food.
Great music and dancing.
The musungus take a turn.
The kids enjoying their food.
And the adults.
A view from above.
What a day! Later, at our strategy meeting back at the apartment, Magnus tells us an idea he has for Everesto. Magnus attended one of the United World Colleges for his last two years of secondary school. When he explained to us what the schools are like and what they're for, we agreed that could be perfect for Everesto. He would travel to another country (Venezuela, Norway, Wales, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, the U.S., Italy, Swaziland, or Germany), where he would be essentially cloistered with a small number of students from around the world (all learning in English--for some easy, for others challenging), in an atmosphere of support and equality (all students have the same amount of money to spend during the year whether from a wealthy or poor family), focusing on scholastic excellence, public service, and cultural understanding. According to Magnus, after completing his two years successfully Everesto would be prepared for, and pretty much guaranteed, entrance into the university of his choosing anywhere in the world. Wow! This could be the biggest thing to come out of this trip! We will ask Everesto tomorrow.
An aside: One of Cheri's great heroes is Dag Hammarskjoeld, Secretary General of the United Nations, who died in a plane crash in 1961. At some point on this visit, we realized the Strawberry Cafe is on Dag Hammarskjoeld Boulevard. Hmm. We read about him and learned that his plane had indeed crashed during an attempted night landing in Ndola. Cheri has a collection of Dag Hammarskjoeld quotes on her computer, and we selected the ones below to inspire us in our efforts here.
"God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."
"I don’t know Who--or what--put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone--or Something--and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal."
"Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment."