THE DAY AFTER GAME DAY

Contributed by: Dave

After the insanity that unfolded at Sierra Leone’s 2-1 victory over Egypt yesterday, we wisely planned a bit of a quiet day today. Kei Kamara had spent much of his interview talking about the importance of football in Sierra Leone, and though we had certainly witnessed this for ourselves, we felt we needed to capture the average person’s passion with our cameras.

Right across the street from our hotel, games covered Lumley Beach. Picture your local beach on Fourth of July with blankets and umbrellas covering every available inch of sand. Replace those blankets and umbrellas with balls and makeshift goals and you’ll have an idea of what it was like.

Kei would later tell us that on Sunday, Lumley is the place to play. Guys would run from Kissy, miles away on the opposite side of the city, just to get there to play until they ran out of light. Even the national team gets in on the action. Over their winter holidays, the team arranges games along Lumley. Like the kids that dream of representing Salone, the Leone Stars head to the beach to work on their skills. If the tide is in too far, they sit in the sand, catching up until the water recedes and the game is on.

Unfortunately for us, the tide came in and we were sent searching for another match. We settled on a red clay pitch bordering Man of War Bay. When we arrived, no one was there. We decided to shoot it anyway—it was too picturesque to pass up. We were quickly met by curious children. They poked around our cameras a bit, then disappeared into high grass along the shore. Moments later, they materialized, carrying a small ball. The game began. It was still going a half hour later when the rains rolled in and sent us scattering to get our equipment safe.

And the rain. Oh, the rain. We plowed through Freetown as water flooded through the streets. To our driver, it was nothing. It was a way of life.

A catchall phrase around these parts is “This is Africa.” It’s meant to explain away things like late or missing vans, shady government officials and the general maddening frustration foreigners feel at this way of life. We’ve never been too fond of that sentiment. Because to us, this—the welcoming kids, the sandlot feel of games along Lumley, the resilience and adaptability of the people in face of inescapable challenges like the rainy season downpours—is Africa.