Blistering Feet in Blistering Heat

On Sunday I agreed to play soccer on the roof of our house. Everyone was playing barefoot….and in an effort to avoid stepping on anyone’s toes I decided to do the same.

Of course, within 5 minutes of play had four lovely blisters: two on my big toes, and two on the balls of my feet. I wasn’t upset about it though, because I haven’t had too many chances to play soccer since I’ve been here, and I had a great time.

The following day at school, I found out that Deborah had arranged for me to play soccer at the school at 5:00 that day. Apparently every day around five o’clock, the local men (around age 20 - 50) come to play at the school. There are two teams, the “veterans” (i.e. the old guys) and the youth team.

When I showed up to play, I was put with the veteran team, which unfortunately meant I had to play AGAINST the young, fast, talented soccer players on the other team. I played right fullback and did my very best not to make a fool out of myself. Although every time I got the ball in the tall grass with players rushing towards me, the best I was able to do was kick the ball up the field to a player who I could only hope was on my team, which worked out about 60% of the time.

More interesting than the game itself, however, were the spectators. People of all ages came out to watch the game – or more specifically, to watch me. Those who didn’t know me were calling out “mzungu” and my students were screaming “Chelsea!” or “Madam!” My favorite, of course, were the group of students yelling, “Good Morning!” at me at 5:30 in the evening.

Unfortunately my blisters from playing barefooted soccer over the weekend opened up, causing my host family to be very concerned and threatening that I couldn’t go to school the next day for fear of getting it infected. I gave in on not playing soccer today, but I certainly don’t want to sit at home all day just because I have a blister on my foot! Although I do need to catch up on my blog…..