Gooooooaaaaal!!!!!
My very first Professional Liberian Soccer Game. The women of the Pro-Anchor professional team are officially undefeated in the league with a record of 1-0. We won 5-0 and here is a bit of my experience.....
First of all we met in a room near where we practice and they began handing out uniforms for the game. So the girls just begin changing like we would normally do in a locker room before a game, except this locker room contained about 10 other men, lots of windows and no corners or other closed off areas to change in. The funny part is that myself and Lani(which is another girl from the ship that also started playing with us about 2 weeks ago) seemed to be the only ones that were uncomfortable with the situation. Well let's just say I played in the game today, so I got over the changing into the uniform in front of people problem.
Uniforms:
So the jerseys are pretty cool in looks, but yes in Liberia apparently it's not hot enough so we play in long sleeves! You should have seen the look on my face as I quickly remembered my passing out incident from the first week and imagined it happening all over again. But the thing about the jersey's that just made my day, seriously, I knew it was going to be a great game when yes oh yes they handed me the jersey with the number 8 on it. For those of you who don't know since the age of ten I have been wearing the number 8 on my jersey when I play soccer. Club, high school, college, you name it I was wearing number 8. Now I had never told anyone this in Liberia, and today they handed me jersey number 8 I was like a little kid at Christmas. My face lite up, my whole world just made sense, and I knew soccer was going to be played today.
Oh yes you are going to get the play by play of this 3 hour event because everybody needs to enjoy this experience with me...So keep on reading.
Next all 18 of us piled into a bus plus any extra people that we literally picked up on the way to the game which was only about 5 miles away. The cool part is that we sang the whole way to the game praising God. We were singing "In God we trust, we will overcome, because in God we trust" no worries they didn't repeat these words for 10 minutes, but that was all I could understand so that's what I repeated for 10 minutes, oh yeah and I did some clapping as well. Lani and I decided that when Africans are born, God gave them rhythm, but when Lani and I were born well, let's just say God did not poor that same blessing on us.
Game time:
We line up for the referee to do a shoe and shinguard inspection, but nope not here, we still line up but we have to raise our arms like we are being searched by the police (except nobody is patting you down) and then they check the length of our fingernails. I am still confused and slightly concerned about that one.
The field:
The left side of the field consists of sand like the loose sand on a beach, the middle part consists of concrete that has been brushed over by sand, and the right side is then the beach all over again. NO GRASS!! Maybe a weed occasionally if we were lucky. You know when you are standing on the beach and the sand is really hot, let's just say I thought my fight were on fire because your soccer shoes absorb that heat, yeah think about that one briefly. The field is lined with chalk similar to what we would use in baseball, but not all the lines are straight.
Playing:
So the first 5 minutes of the game seemed very odd, especially when a random child crossed the field completely in the middle of the game and briefly ducks also seemed to be a bit of an obstacle. I played the second half of the game, which was great with me, because 35 min. Of soccer was more than enough for my out of shape 26 year old body. It was really an awesome game, I can honestly say I don't think I have every enjoyed playing soccer as much as I did today. Today was not the greatest looking game of soccer that I have ever seen or played, in fact, the caliber of play here is about equivalent to a really good high school team. I simply enjoyed playing, playing for the greater purpose of serving God, playing to cross cultural barriers, playing to be apart of the lives of women in Liberia, playing for the simple passion of the sport, and playing to be apart of something so much greater than winning and losing. To be honest, unfortunately in college I know I didn't always play with a greater purpose in mind, and today it just felt different, I can't really explain it, but I definitely found a new passion for the sport.
Ok back on game track, I scored my first professional goal and I proceeded to run around like an idiot after I scored jumping on people. After a grueling 35 minutes, I scored a goal, and pulled my left quad muscle, but it was nice to feel that total exhaustion you get after you have played a hard game of soccer.
Post Game:
NO stretching, no cooling down, just changing out of your uniform, but this time we had to change in front of a crowd of about 100 people, once again seemed normal to everyone else in Liberia so I guess when in Rome (shout out to Anchorman), so I changed as discretely as possible and road the bus home.... Thus ending the day of my first professional Liberian soccer match.
Seren #8
First of all we met in a room near where we practice and they began handing out uniforms for the game. So the girls just begin changing like we would normally do in a locker room before a game, except this locker room contained about 10 other men, lots of windows and no corners or other closed off areas to change in. The funny part is that myself and Lani(which is another girl from the ship that also started playing with us about 2 weeks ago) seemed to be the only ones that were uncomfortable with the situation. Well let's just say I played in the game today, so I got over the changing into the uniform in front of people problem.
Uniforms:
So the jerseys are pretty cool in looks, but yes in Liberia apparently it's not hot enough so we play in long sleeves! You should have seen the look on my face as I quickly remembered my passing out incident from the first week and imagined it happening all over again. But the thing about the jersey's that just made my day, seriously, I knew it was going to be a great game when yes oh yes they handed me the jersey with the number 8 on it. For those of you who don't know since the age of ten I have been wearing the number 8 on my jersey when I play soccer. Club, high school, college, you name it I was wearing number 8. Now I had never told anyone this in Liberia, and today they handed me jersey number 8 I was like a little kid at Christmas. My face lite up, my whole world just made sense, and I knew soccer was going to be played today.
Oh yes you are going to get the play by play of this 3 hour event because everybody needs to enjoy this experience with me...So keep on reading.
Next all 18 of us piled into a bus plus any extra people that we literally picked up on the way to the game which was only about 5 miles away. The cool part is that we sang the whole way to the game praising God. We were singing "In God we trust, we will overcome, because in God we trust" no worries they didn't repeat these words for 10 minutes, but that was all I could understand so that's what I repeated for 10 minutes, oh yeah and I did some clapping as well. Lani and I decided that when Africans are born, God gave them rhythm, but when Lani and I were born well, let's just say God did not poor that same blessing on us.
Game time:
We line up for the referee to do a shoe and shinguard inspection, but nope not here, we still line up but we have to raise our arms like we are being searched by the police (except nobody is patting you down) and then they check the length of our fingernails. I am still confused and slightly concerned about that one.
The field:
The left side of the field consists of sand like the loose sand on a beach, the middle part consists of concrete that has been brushed over by sand, and the right side is then the beach all over again. NO GRASS!! Maybe a weed occasionally if we were lucky. You know when you are standing on the beach and the sand is really hot, let's just say I thought my fight were on fire because your soccer shoes absorb that heat, yeah think about that one briefly. The field is lined with chalk similar to what we would use in baseball, but not all the lines are straight.
Playing:
So the first 5 minutes of the game seemed very odd, especially when a random child crossed the field completely in the middle of the game and briefly ducks also seemed to be a bit of an obstacle. I played the second half of the game, which was great with me, because 35 min. Of soccer was more than enough for my out of shape 26 year old body. It was really an awesome game, I can honestly say I don't think I have every enjoyed playing soccer as much as I did today. Today was not the greatest looking game of soccer that I have ever seen or played, in fact, the caliber of play here is about equivalent to a really good high school team. I simply enjoyed playing, playing for the greater purpose of serving God, playing to cross cultural barriers, playing to be apart of the lives of women in Liberia, playing for the simple passion of the sport, and playing to be apart of something so much greater than winning and losing. To be honest, unfortunately in college I know I didn't always play with a greater purpose in mind, and today it just felt different, I can't really explain it, but I definitely found a new passion for the sport.
Ok back on game track, I scored my first professional goal and I proceeded to run around like an idiot after I scored jumping on people. After a grueling 35 minutes, I scored a goal, and pulled my left quad muscle, but it was nice to feel that total exhaustion you get after you have played a hard game of soccer.
Post Game:
NO stretching, no cooling down, just changing out of your uniform, but this time we had to change in front of a crowd of about 100 people, once again seemed normal to everyone else in Liberia so I guess when in Rome (shout out to Anchorman), so I changed as discretely as possible and road the bus home.... Thus ending the day of my first professional Liberian soccer match.
Seren #8
posted by Seren Frost | 3:32 PM
10 Comments:
Yeah! Slap one in the 5-hole!
Yeah! Slap one in the 5-hole!
this is great stuff! I am going to call you soon, i swear! love you, Liz
I want pictures. The van rides always make a good story. Any livestock ever riding in the seat next to you?
Classic stories! I'm gonna put a link to your blog on mine if you don't mind kevininliberia.blogspot.com
Hey Seren, your blogs are so classic. I love reading them! Good thing you have a sense of humor...
"The white girl scores!"
And you know, the Number 8 thing--it's not just a coincidence.
and we thought the Diversey Ave. soccer field was bad! It may have had holes the size of basketballs, but no concrete! :) Sounds like a blast!
I mean seriously.... you are hilarious, and your experiences are so funny and awesome and intriguing... I wish you were here or I was there to just talk and talk about it all... amazing. love you, miss you, sorry I suck at calling and emailing. :) --T
Seren, I think what you are doing is fantastic!! I'm so glad there are people like you in the world. I miss you and T when you both were so young, playing ball and enjoying watching you both so much. Take care, T's Mom
Seren,
you are hilarious. i laughed out loud so many times i thought people were going to come ask me what was going on in here (i'm in the office...but don't worry...its after work :)
i love you...and i'm praying for you!
Mel
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