Building a Community Center in Ghana

The world over LOVES futball (aka soccer) and Ghana is certainly no exception. Apparently a few months before we arrived Ghana had hosted the African Cup and the banners celebrating the Ghanaian team could still be seen everywhere. Furthermore with the next world cup being hosted by South Africa and the European Cup on the television every night, it is pretty hard trying to get away from it.

To further embrace out emersion into Ghana, the Abrafo futball team (or club?.... sorry I just know about football) and the ‘Brunie Ballers (us) squared off in a match (aka game) today.

The excitement surrounding the match has been building for days. Most of our Ghanaian workers are on the village’s team and a few of the Miami students have played in the past. Needless to say, the “smack” being talked by both sides has risen into a variable fury! Many of the students seem a bit… concerned, shall we say, but we have managed to get a few Ghanaian ringers to help us out. It was also reassuring to hear one of the workers talking to another student. He laughed and said, “I don’t know what you are worried about. We are not very good.”

Prior to game day the Miamians have been practicing/training, designing a logo to draw onto their white t-shirts with Sharpie markers and driving by the pitch (aka field). Apparently the last group of Miamians also took on the Abrafo village near the guest center. Well this year they have a pitch all ready for the match.

The pitch is a big open field along side the road with a goal net at each end. The field for the most part is surrounded by tall grass that comes up to a person’s chin. While I hate to think of the giant snakes living in the grass, the most amusing aspect of the field is its excellent drainage. The pitch is located on quite a slope!

After lunch and with everyone dressed in their t-shirts, we drove over to the pitch on the bus. Despite its distance from Abrafo, many of the villagers had made the hike out to the pitch to watch the match.

As the Miamians warmed up the Abrafo team came running up from the village all dressed in matching yellow Carlsberg kits (aka uniforms). They looked professional.

For the next hour the teams battled it out. Every so often the ball would fly off into the tall grass and someone would disappear into the thick greenery to find it. Every time I was sure I would hear a scream from the victim of a horrific snakebite.

Miami scored early and proceeded to maintain dominance throughout the match. I am no sports commentator so I cannot really add a whole lot about the actual action, but needless to say it was pretty exciting and everyone from the village seemed to enjoy watching the students hold their own on the pitch.

Check out this video clip from the match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9dM5XVYNys

The students have decided to save their t-shirts, with the logos now smears of black and red, for their studio exhibit when we get back to Miami. I wonder if they would have wanted to keep them if we had lost.