One of my favorite parts of this past month was the opportunity to coach and then play basketball. The coaching part was definitely part of the plan when we started pursuing basketball contacts.
The first night we went to an outdoor court where a team was supposed to be practicing. There was no coach in sight, but there was pick-up games going on and Pastor Moses volunteered me to play. You have to remember the last time I touched a basketball was while I was still in Serbia in August. I was rusty, but it was a good night and the coach eventually showed up and I was able to watch his practice.
The next day, we went to another sports club where a team was practicing. It turned out, they had a girls team with no coach and were excited to have me come and work with the girls for the remainder of my time in Rwanda.
It was fun to see the doors open and to show up each day at 4pm to have practice. The court is outside and I knew I wasn't in the U.S. when I had to move an avocado off the court in the middle of a drill. It had evidently fallen from a tree surrounding the court.
Some days, I'd have one or two players show up. Other days, I'd end up coaching a girls and boys group of 20+. The most entertaining part was being asked last Thursday to play in a game on Friday against a team from the Democratic Republic of Congo. My team had 6 players including me.
Most of the players on both teams were between 14 and 18-years-old and not exactly the most talented players. They played hard and my team ended up winning, but it was funny to me to play a game in Africa for a team from Rwanda against a team from The Congo in running shoes. Again, is this really my life?
I ended up with an invitation to the Congo to work with the basketball program. They target street kids and started from scratch 5 years ago and are up to 200 kids in the program. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time left in Rwanda to slip over to the Congo, but maybe sometime in the future.
Tonight we depart for Uganda and month 7 of ministry. We are meeting up for a few days as a squad to form new teams again. Please pray for peace for all of us in the midst of another team transition and for safe travel and good sleep as we will be on a night bus tonight and then sleeping in tents until at least Wednesday. It should be just another ordinary week on The World Race.
