Dawsons in JBU news

Hey, John Brown University, our undergraduate school, recently published an article about us! You can read it at https://www.jbu.edu/news/articles/?id=23838

Bujumbura Ultimate Tournament

 Last weekend I had the pleasure to lead a friendly, international sports tournament/clinic in Bujumbura. We played ultimate Frisbee, my favorite sport, and it was a wonderful event.

I started teaching Congolese people to play ultimate a bit over a year ago. We play every Saturday, and also on Wednesdays during the dry season. I learned about 5 months ago that there are Burundians playing ultimate in Bujumbura and thought of the international tournaments I’ve heard of being hosted in Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda. I contacted a player in Bujumbura scene, a Canadian missionary who has been teaching Burundians to play for over ten years, and we worked out a date to try to have an informal tournament. We agreed it would be very informal, would have no tournament cost, would take place in one day, and that everyone participating would cover their own costs. 

I talked with the players on my team (that is, those who play in Bukavu) to try to find out if it would be realistic for them to travel to Bujumbura to play if they were each going to pay for themselves. With the help of our one our players who regularly goes to Buj, we decided that $35 was what people would need if they wanted to travel (including transport, lodging, and all food). The players were adamant that with 2 months of advance notice they would be able to get this amount together.

As the date got closer, several players in Rwanda heard about it and expressed interest in coming. Unfortunately, when it got really close (5 days) all the Rwandans said they weren’t able to come. More unfortunate, it turned out that only 4 other players from Bukavu would be able to go. I would attribute this to the fact that most of our players are students and not financially independent. We wrote letters for players to send home with to give to their parents, but I guess it wasn’t enough, or was too late. We also offered to go talk with parents in person, but only one player took us up on this. It turned out that his dad was actually in the hospital, so two nights before we left I drove down to the hospital with Frank, a Congolese guy in his early 30’s who plays with us and also happens to go to my church (Frank). The player himself couldn’t go because he had to stay home to take care of his younger siblings. It’s about a 20 minute drive to the hospital, which was completely on the other side of town. When we got there, the dad said his son had never mentioned ultimate Frisbee to him, or our planned trip. Undeterred, we read aloud the letter we had written (and given to this player a week earlier). When he heard the name of our pastor that seemed to peak his interest. He said he would think about it and contact us the next day. Well, it turns out that he was okay with it, thus giving us 5 total!

In the end, it was me, two Congolese students, and the Seeder from Colorado. Even though we were a small crew, we had a wonderful time. Frank did an absolutely superb job with the logistics of this trip. I can’t say enough about it. And also… Bujumbura is just so cheap in comparison to Bukavu!! The place we stayed in was amazing for the price ($5 per person per night); quite clean and with a little yard on the side and in a great neighborhood. 

The event itself came off quite well. The players in Bujumbura had negotiated a field for us to play on that was inside the parcel of a church. It had walls and was private, which helped us not have to fend people off of our water and bags and stuff while playing. It also allowed us to play for 5 hours, which would have been very difficult if we were using a public field, because other people want to use it. 

After introductions and a reminder to play fair and not hurt anyone, we split into two teams for a game to 13. Since we were only 5 from Bukavu, and the Buj players had brought like 25 players, they loaned us 6 or 7 for the game. (Ultimate is played 7v7 on the field, but substitutions are absolutely necessary to play a full game if the teams are anywhere close to equally matched). The game itself was intense and really fun. The Bukavu side started out ahead 4-2, but then Buj took half at 7-5. Out of half-time Bukavu scored 3 in a row to bring it to 8-7, and then Buj went on a run of their own, ending with the score at 12-10. Bukavu then scored 3 straight to win the very exciting game 13-12. No one got hurt. No one got really mad at anybody. And the game was very even. It went better than I could have hoped.

After the game (which lasted 2 hours) both teams gave awards to each other, like best defender, best thrower, etc… Then I taught some drills and ultimate strategy, which was followed by completely mixing up the teams and playing 2 games of 7v7 with no subs at all. We did that for 45 minutes, and then I taught another drill. At the end of this drill it was 2pm and everyone was spent. We enjoyed some cokes and chatter in the shade of a tree. Thirty minutes after the cokes, the sandwiches arrived, and we finished up by taking pictures and all saying we all wanted to play again in Bukavu and Bujumbura. 

I look forward to the next match!

Bloggin’ my blog, blog (in Strongbad voice).

Hey, faithful readers! (Hi Uncle John, Hi Moms!) It’s a chill Saturday night in Bukavu. We had power until that period that I just typed. I was going to say I was thankful for power. It will probably flicker on and off three or four more times tonight. They say that the person who runs the switchboard will take money if you want power in your neighborhood at a certain time. Really, it just seems like he’s spastic. 
 

Mark is in Bujumbura where they played a friendly Frisbee match today. I stayed home and chilled. It’s been great! I went to the informal coffee shop/hamburger joint in a residential neighborhood at noon-ish and enjoyed a coffee. I got my hamburger at 3:30. Thankfully, I wasn’t very hungry when I got there, and I had a paper to write, so I was pretty engaged with that. It was tasty, but I had planned to exercise this afternoon and it’s 6:30 and I still feel full.

It’s been almost a year since we got back from Brussels. That’s crazy! I know I still make all kinds of mistakes in French, but I don’t have to think quite so hard anymore. (Power’s back on now!) Mark said that I wrote an email in “beautiful French” earlier this week. That’s nice to hear. We share lunch a couple of times a week with staff from a Swedish church-based development organization whose office is near ours, and their domestic helper makes lunch for all of us. Kinda a lunch co-op. Last week, they had two visiting auditors who joined us. The first day, all of our conversation around the table was in French and the next day, the group was a little different, so all of our conversation was in English. I was proud to be among those who could fully participate in conversation both days!

What else? Mark and I borrowed paddle boards from our French friends (whose kids are the only white kids we know of in Bukavu), and went out on the lake for an hour or so. It was nice, challenging, and the lake had some oily stuff on the surface that was gross. I’ve been writing and thinking too much recently, most of which is kinda pessimistic. So I guess I just want to keep it light here for now.

I’m looking forward to a women’s retreat with MCC ladies in the region (and I’m not in charge!). Also to getting my diploma! And to rainy season so that we have regular water in the house. (plus our road is pretty much done, so it won’t be absurdly muddy!!!) I’m loving WhatsApp and how much easier it makes it to share life with family.