Playing with the Boys.

Some of my favorite people here in Rwanda are a bunch of Rwandan boys or men who just love to play soccer. I spend almost every Saturday coaching, teaching, and playing soccer with them. We all share a love for the game and a love for kids. (Me and all the other leaders from Saturday Soccer Camp. Our friend Kent was leaving to go on a break in the U.S. for one year, so we celebrated with food and competitive games, which led to me being pushed into a torn bush while going for a football.)
More importantly we all love the Lord. Of course, I wish there were more girls in the picture and rightly so I think there should be. But unfortunately, in Rwanda, like other places/ countries, soccer is for the boys or as it is said. For women, playing soccer in Rwanda is what people call a man's sport. Women just are not suppose to play. To prove my point, it is interesting to watch the women from my club team. The way they act, dress, and relate to one another does in fact resemble what I have come to know as boyish qualities (i.e. big baggy jeans, style of clothing, the way they carry themselves, etc.). Of course, that is my western skewed philosophy and view, but I really do not think it changes too much from culture to culture. Most often, there are things boys do and things girls do, and in Rwanda soccer is definitely not yet a women's thing to do. Thankfully, times are changing. I mean, I definitely am very much a girl with liking pink, wearing very much so girls clothing, and whatever else us girls do and like. So... I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes it just takes time to change mentalities and stereotypes that have been around for years maybe even centuries. There is no way this Rwandan stereotype will probably change in my life time that is for sure. Yet that does not mean I give up and stop encouraging the change. It actually simply means that I continue to do what I do, do what I love, and if that takes just playing with boys at times and loving on those girls who feel like they have to dress, act, and be like boys to be accepted and play then so be it. It is my job, my role to just be who I am and follow my heart in the things that I love and am called to do.