In
general, this trip was a total success. Youths of different genders from
Congo were able to travel to Kigali to play in an ultimate frisbee tournament
against players from other countries in the region. Bukavu players had
countless positive interactions with players from Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi,
and left the tournament with a greater measure of respect and appreciation for
others, as well as a greater value for the importance of positivity and team
work when working with other Congolese people.
As
it happened:
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| On the bus headed to Kigali! |
In the weeks leading up to the tournament, we
asked players to fill out an application form which included essay questions
such as: “What does mutual respect mean when it’s about those who are different
from you?” Players were also asked to agree to some conditions about their
attitudes and behaviors, including to look for opportunities to talk to and
learn from players from different countries. We wrote letters to parents of
players and to their schools to explain what Ultimate Frisbee is and about this
unique opportunity. We visited some families of players in their homes in order
to discuss the tournament with their parents, especially for the girls who were
just 18-19 years old. We also pushed repeatedly reminded players to get their travel
documents.
On
the morning of March 16, thirteen Frisbee players left Bukavu on the bus for
Kigali. There were three Congolese women, 8 Congolese men, and two MCC Service
Workers. Crossing the border into Rwanda was not easy; we learned that when traveling
with a group, we should have a list with all the names on it and a letter of
invitation or “ordre de mission.” The Rwandan immigration officials held us up
for about 45 minutes, but eventually were able to call one of the Rwandan
tournament organizers and he cleared everything with them. Eventually, we all
got across, and we had good discussions on the bus about life and Frisbee.
Excitement
was high when we pulled into Kigali. Only about three of the 11 Congolese had
been to Kigali before, and there were comments such as “Kigali is beautiful!”
and “It’s like Italy!” as we made our way to the tournament location (the
person who compared Kigali to Italy has, in fact, never been to Italy). Hosts
met us at the tournament venue and players went home with them for the night.
We had assumed hosts would be Rwandan Frisbee players, but it turned out all
the hosts were expats on the Kigali ultimate teams Frisbee players.
There
were six teams present at the tournament: two from Uganda, two from Rwanda, one
from Burundi, and ours from Eastern Congo. We played four games on Saturday and
three on Sunday. After each game, we gathered all the players from both teams
into a circle with the two teams interlocking (one from Bukavu, one from the
other team, one from Bukavu, one from the other team, etc...) and put our arms
around each other’s shoulders. Each team had a leader or two who said a few
encouraging words about how the other teams had played and then we all took a
picture together. We ate lunch and dinner with all of the other tournament
participants; this allowed time for informal interaction between players from
different teams. This actually happened a lot. Our players were, in between our
games on Saturday and Sunday, throwing the frisbee or dancing or laughing with
players from Rwanda or Uganda, or running drills with the Burundian team; it
was a very positive experience for them. Our players exchanged jerseys and
phone numbers with other players, wore sets of goofy sunglasses, and completed
avoided any fights or name-calling that can sometimes occur between these
groups.
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| Hanging out between games |
Our team went 1-6, winning our very last game. But we saw
huge improvement over the tournament! We lost our first game 11-2, but when we
played the best team (and eventual tournament winner), we had the game even at 3-3, and were down only
one point at 5-6 before they score two more to finish the game. Our second to
last game we were down 8-5 in a game to 9, and then scored to make it 8-6, and
scored again to make it 8-7, and we forced a turnover and barely missed a throw
into the endzone that would have tied it up at 8-8. After all of this, we won
our final game we 8-6.
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| Celebration, with like 6 different moves. |
In terms of our playing, and especially our attitudes
towards ourselves, there was gigantic improvement. Our players REALLY wanted to
win the tournament, and every single game. So at the end of the first day when
we had gone 0-4, a number of people were pretty down. In fact, when we lost our
6th game (the one that we almost completed a comeback in), one of
our male players actually cried for quite a long time. I have only seen a Congolese
man cry one other time, and it was when he good friend was murdered, so seeing
one of our players cry after losing was surprising. But I frankly identify;
because I used to cry after losing soccer games in little league, and like WAY
after other kids stopped crying. We all have stuff we’re working on I guess.
I said that our attitudes towards ourselves needed improvement, which is true, but our
attitudes towards our opponents were fantastic. This is a point we are
particularly proud of, since Congolese don’t have the best reputation in this
region. In fact, in Bukavu before the tournament we worked on this a lot to be
ready for the tournament. There were a number of occasions where opposing
players would shout at each other, accusing the other of cheating or being
intentionally violent. So the fact that we performed well when facing actual
competition was truly something to celebrate. The six teams participating in
the tournament voted for the team that had the best spirit (defined as: playing
the game passionately but not at the expensive of fairness of respect of your
opponent), and the Bukavu team was chosen as the winner of this prize!
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| The wooden gorillas were our trophies for "best spirit" |
Our
players made new friends with people from other countries, and especially
connected with Burundian and Rwandan players who spoke French. Our players
wrote “Thank you” notes to their host families and were genuinely appreciative
of the way in which the hosts opened their homes. The hosts told me in private
that they were all quite impressed with the good manners and positive attitudes
of the players that they hosted and said it was just a delight to have them.
Several other teams expressed interest in coming to Bukavu or at least to
Kamembe to have further friendly matches against the Bukavu team. In fact, (a
good sign) there are plans in the works to host one of these games in June
without me.
But, speaking of me, I also won the "Best Spirit-Male" award. Maybe my proudest moment as an individual ultimate player.
On
the return trip home, there was discussion about how to improve as a team and
how to share with those who couldn’t come to Kigali about the experience. The
team is hoping to go to more tournaments, to recruit more players in Bukavu,
and to become better players.
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| A formidable team, awaiting the beginning of the next point. |
Upon
returning to Bukavu, players were given and filled out “Reflection worksheets”
which asked the following questions: “What were the positive things that
happened during this trip and tournament?”, “What were the negative things that
happened during this trip and tournament?”,
“What
have you learned about mutual respect and cultural differences?”, “What are you
going to do differently after this experience?”, “List some things that worked
for our team”, “List some things that did not work for our team”. A small
selection of their answers are quotes below. Players said they learned:
“how
to respect another person responsible for me other than my parents”
“to
react differently, to change the negativity in my way of reasoning, speaking,
and acting”
“how
to be respected and also to give respect to the other people who are different
from us”
“I
learned the way that other teams handle themselves, how they talked to us and their
behavior; I appreciated that”
“After this experience, I’m going to do my best to be
a good teammate, a good defender, a good thrower, a good player, and so I’ll do
everything I can to be able to play better” (Note: for me, Mark, the big
learning in this comment is that this player now sees “being a good teammate”
as an essential part of being a good player).
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| My favorite picture from the tournament: all the positive attitudes! |
