A soccer field, one bucket at a time . . . and the World Cup!

A couple of weekends ago Dan and Sky and I went up to a neighborhood on the mountainside where some Unbound mothers groups have organized a project to turn an empty lot into a soccer field for the community. In Medellín the more valuable real estate is down in the valley, and the neighborhoods that have developed up the mountainsides get more tenuous the further you go up. There are large neighborhoods that, ten years ago, were squatter communities and are now fully established with paved roads and street lights and little shops. Above those neighborhoods there are communities that are more makeshift and ever more precarious as the mountainsides get steeper.

That Sunday morning we took a city bus (which sounds easier than it was--there are LOTS of city buses with long lists of destinations, and catching the one you need before it rolls by is tricky!) up to one of those communities. Well, actually, we took the bus as far up as it would take us. Then a nice woman pointed us to a set of cement stairs that went straight up a couple of hundred feet through housing clinging to the hillside. We had each worn an Unbound shirt so people might be less suspicious of three gringos wandering around in a neighborhood where they don’t belong on the national election day. As we walked towards the stairs I heard the woman whispering to her friend, “They’re from Unbound.” That’s what keeps Dan safe in many neighborhoods he goes into around the world, is the goodwill that has been generated in communities by Unbound social workers and programs and families.

View from bus stop

Peace be with you.

Near the top the full bus had emptied except for us.

Miraculously, when we got to the top of the stairs, we were right at the soccer field. There were teenagers and moms and dads already working hard, plus a little boy who was the hardest worker of all! He was finding rocks in the field, carrying them to the side, and throwing them over the low wall that some of the dads were building. The dads work six days a week mixing concrete and doing building, and they gave up their one day of rest to do that same work in the hot sun so the kids in the community can have a place to play soccer.

The field isn’t level, so they’re using the old hand tools they have to dig up the clay and rock from one side and carry it, one bucket at a time, to the other side. (Plus one rickety wheelbarrow.) Yep. I couldn’t believe it a couple of hours later when it looked like we’d actually made some progress!

One of the mothers was making lunch for everyone, but we had told Joe we’d come back for lunch. Super nice people.

That view!!!

We were sunburned and worn out after just a couple of hours. I think of them all the time, still up there carrying buckets after work and school. They're hoping to have it ready in a few weeks!

It’s an understatement to say the people here have a passion for soccer. This weekend was Colombia’s second game in the World Cup, and we went over by the stadium to find a place to watch it. They had a big screen set up, and all the little stalls around the stadium had TVs out, too. We got a table at one of those stalls. I took a video after Colombia’s first goal, but it didn’t capture the noise level or the joy level. (This outdated site won't let me upload the video! Grrr.) What an experience! (We’re so missing Grace, who’s back home for a few weeks for a summer program.)

(That's the Colombian flag on the field in Russia being shown on TV and a man wearing the flag next to it. Ha!)