Day 29 - Soccer under the African sun

It was a real late start this morning, which did not go according to plan. The late morning was caused by watching 'In Time' (which Andrew bought for $3.50 yesterday) til midnight. Our plan today was to start early and do many hours of Christmas shopping for everyone, because we didn't really know Bulawayo CBD and where to shop. We also had a soccer game planned with some kids from SOS at 2pm, but more on that later.

So brekkie was at 9:30am and then drove to Video World where we were shortchanged on tv series yesterday. Alex laid down the law and by 11:30am we got our missing series of 'Big Bang Theory'. Racing the clock we headed to the CBD to start some christmas shopping. It looked like everyone in Bulawayo left Christmas shopping to the last week because the streets were jammed packed with cars and people on the footpaths.

Buying for others is hard, but buying for each other was easy once we headed to Edgars (a high end department store like MYER). We all pointed to what we wanted and we bought it for each other. Simple. While waiting for the others to browse the shelves, I had a conversation with one of the staff members. I started answering her questions saying we were from Australia and we were here helping out at the Sandra Jones Centre at Willow Park. She then asked me what I thought of the prices at Edgars. Pointing to a $35 pair of shorts, I said it's quite reasonable for us Aussies and then I posed the question to her. She told me that there was no way she could afford them on her $70 weekly wage. After living costs and transportation to work, there was no way she could buy that sort of clothing. Then it struck and reminded me how blessed I am growing up in a country like Australia and a life that I've never fully appreciated. When telling Andrew and Alex about my conversation I'm sure they concurred.

Roads jammed with cars

Footpaths jammed with people

Edgars

Bulawayo Baptist Church

Soccer

So we had to cut our shopping short because we had a soccer appointment at 2pm. We picked up 2 extras from Bulawayo Baptist (Shakes and Moses) and then headed to S.O.S Orphanage as we were invited to play a friendly game of soccer with them. Andy was extremely keen to play some soccer. I on the other hand, was quite nervous when Shakes told Alex and I that these guys from S.O.S have been in numerous fights during some competitive matches, but we both put on our shoes and ran out onto the field. It was the 'guys from S.O.S' verses 'Team Aussies and friends'. In all seriousness, it was a great friendly game. Alex was in defence and was like a brick wall, clearing the ball every time it came near our goals. Andrew and Shakes led the attack and scored many goals, even Andrew's nose scored a goal after the ball deflected off the goalie straight to Andy's unsuspecting face. The kids from S.O.S were really friendly and quite competitive but in a good way. I would love to go back there and verse them again.

After more than 2 hours of straight soccer in the blazing hot sun, we headed back to Bulawayo Baptist for a spontaneous jam session with some of the music team from the church. Andrew was on drums, Alex on acoustic guitar and I was on keys. We did an awesome rendition of 'I can sing of Your love forever' in a hip hop feel with Shakes doing some rapping. It worked out really well and sounded amazing.

We came back home to no power and to some delicious dinner thanks to Debbie. It truly hit the spot after such an energetic day.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Jonno