More Than a Game

This afternoon my heart is heavy for my African friends in Ivory Coast. As a few of you may have noticed, I have not written in this blog since 8th of June. The World Cup (the best of the best in soccer - known as futbol or football by the rest of the world) started on June 9th, and every spare moment I have had, I have spent watching some of those games.

After having lived in Africa off and on since 1985, we have become very familar with soccer and what it really means to the countries around the world. Someone wisely said that a soccer match is not just "life or death" to a team, to a country; it's much, much more than that. To you Americans reading this, that statement may sound extreme as well it probably is, but the fact still stands that there is a majority of countries in the world that eat, drink, live, and dream soccer! Most likely if you think of soccer, you think of Brasil, and rightly so. They are a dominant force in the international world of soccer. But there are others, and a World Cup year (played every four years) puts on the world stage the best of the best.

You may or may not know that we lived five years in the country of Ivory Coast. We know what soccer means there. This is their first showing in the World Cup, along with Togo, Ghana, and a couple of others. The Ivorian Les Elephants by far, for the first-timers, have had the best showing, the most stamina, the strongest persistence in the face of formidable opponents. Placed in the bracket known as "The Death Zone", they held their own, showed their incredible talent, and won over the hearts of those who watched them. Playing two of the toughest teams in the World Cup: Argentina and Holland would possibly had caused a weaker team to "tuck tail" and retreat. But not the Ivorians.

Facing these two amazingly talented and complex teams is nothing compared to what they and their countrymen have endured in the past four years in their country. Civil war took this stable, productive West African country completely by surprise in September of 2002, and it has and never will be the same. We were there at the beginning of the demise. Trapped in a guest house in the capital city of Abidjan for ten days. Even then our hearts ached for what these people would have to face. We had seen it all before in Liberia.

So, for the Ivorian soccer team to be able to play big on the World Cup fields in Germany this summer has been a boost to people who are war-fatigued, discouraged, distressed, and who have lost hope in the foundation that was once solid underneath them. Not to mention that the soccer team consisted of players from both the south and north parts of the country, bringing a strange kind of unity to a country viciously divided by political, tribal, and religious obstacles.

When the whistle blew at the end of the game today against Holland, even while wiping tears from my eyes, I cringed at the thought of the fighting that will possibly start back up again tomorrow. Or will the two sides decided to watch the rest of the World Cup (not to finish until July 9)? Will they restrain themselves in order to cheer on their African counterparts: Angola, Togo, and Ghana?

Just today on BBC it was sited that the segment of militia that was due yesterday to meet at a neutral camp and turn in their arms did not show. Not a one of them. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize why they did not show. It's World Cup time and their Elephants were playing today. And, believe it or not, that is more important than fighting a war.