Charity game at Endrupskolen

Although there hasn't been much blog-activity lately, there's been plenty of action at the Play31 head quarter!

Tomorrow, Thursday August 21st, we have arranged a "show match" to create awareness about our work and the problems children all over the world are facing. Starring in the match will be Nikolai Lie Kaas and some former Danish national team players. The Play31 team will play Endrupskolen's team for a 2 x 20 min. match.
There will be quite good media coverage on the match and we welcome you to stop by if you're in the vicinity!

Before I (Jakob) am returning to New York, I have a few meetings set up with some promising connections. It seems that the interest in play31 is continuing and I really, really hope that some of these connections will choose to throw some $$ at our little organization so the plans of a big tournament in Kailahun district in eastern Sierra Leone shall not remain but an intention but materialize into a world-changing sporting event..!

More on how the game and the meetings went soon and then to follow more on the tournament in Sierra Leone.

Thanks for stopping by,
Play31

Welcome back,

Although the amount of interesting pictures and breathtaking stories of Salone everyday-life has diminished after leaving Sierra Leone, Play31 is certainly still very alive and kicking the peace football!

Here are some of the events that have occurred since the last entry: We have been in touch with a Dutch company that has chosen Play31 as one of eleven charities they want to sponsor; contacted some Danish apparel companies and football clubs who may be interested in cooperating; the Facebook group keeps growing (remember to invite all your friends); some people have even mentioned that they want to see the story of Play31 as a documentary movie. Just yesterday, I received a very touching email from a girl who told me that her family's birthday- and xmas presents this year will consist of donations to Play31. In short, it has been truly amazing to follow the continued interest and enthusiasm for Play31!

For those of you who are currently in Copenhagen, I want to use this entry to invite you to a fundraiser party at Din Nye Ven in Skt. Pedersstraede on July 26th, starting at 5pm. There will be a modest cover and all the Kroners collected will go directly to Play31's work.

I will continue to keep those who are interested posted on news on this site (until the regular Play31 site will be up and running again). Remember that you can always contact the Play31 team at play31@play31.org if you have any comments or questions or if you want to know how to facilitate a $1,000,000 donation! We greatly appreciate the enthusiasm for this project and we thank you for stopping by this blog!

Last days in Salone

Thursday 26th:
Wrapped up practical stuff for Play31 with receipts and more. Finished yet a draft of my Salone article. Feels good.
Met with Thomas and we went over our grand plans of starting a public transport company in Freetown. G-D knows this city needs it: congestion is everywhere and especially in the eastern part where the roads are narrow and the trucks are plenty. Watched the rain fall in an amount that made me feel like Noah and then watched España in their march towards European championship, crushing Russia on the way. Looking much forward to experiencing my first ceremony tomorrow. Bonfire and confessions from the war: what more can a boy ask for?

Friday 27th:
Possible the most intense day here so far. Got up at five to drive all the way to Kailahun district in one go. When we got there we were greeted by the Reconciliation Committee and it was obvious that they’d been preparing for the ceremony for a while and were looking forward. I drove the last part of the way with a local chief on his bike and we stopped on the road to buy a ‘cutting gras’ from some boys. An enormous rodent, the cutting gras almost looks like a small dog. Mmm!
Later I had a long conversation with a local man who played a quite large role in the war. I had met him before and he has always been very open about his experiences. I think someone (possible Ego) will have to write down his astoundingly wild story one day!
At night the ceremony came. Our little Fambul Tok team were picked up on the veranda by a little committee with drums and bells and chanting. They led us around the village and up to the big bonfire. I could write pages on what happened over the next hours, but for now it suffices to say that it was a true lecture in traditional methods of settling disputes and conflicts. Dance, truth telling, forgiveness, playing children, laughing, crying, and food were mixed in a bonanza of Reconciliation. I passed out at 2am but the villagers continued until dawn and I was woken up by the drums a couple of times during the night.

Saturday 28th:
Was woken up by the chickens outside my little hut. I think it’s worth mentioning that I spent the night in a bed of hay!
We got up an prepared for the cleansing ceremony that follows the previous night’s ceremony. There was pouring of libation, there was sacrificing for the ancestors (no humans) and there was more singing and drumming. There was also Play31! The community got a football and we emphasized that it was for the whole community to enjoy. Even the devil (the devil plays a pivotal role in Sierra Leonean traditional ways of settling disputes. She(!) brings the community together in many ways. She also carries a big black mask) played along. To much amusement of the female crowd around her, she started kicking around the bal at the sacred site of sacrifice. Precious!
We drove all the way back to Kailahun and after some bread and sardines and a couple of rounds of chess with Robert, I went into a dream world of devils and dogs and footballs and food and chiefs and chanting and much more…

Sunday 29th:
Started the day going to the XX Chimpanzee sanctuary with Harriet. Supposedly, chimps are 98.something% genetically similar to we humans. It showed. They’re cute. And apparently they also don’t taste bad.
Spent rest of day at the beach before I had a great meeting with the coach of Sierra Leone’s national football team, Leone Stars. He was excited about Play31 and we agreed on various issues where we can cooperate: the team signing footballs that we give out was one of them. Much more on that to come!
Ended the evening watching España win the European Championship. Viva España!!

Monday 30th:
The day of the big Press Conference. It was sort of surreal to take questions as Director of
Play31. Made me realize how fast this has really all gone! It went really well, I thought,
and I was again confirmed that people really like this idea and support it at all levels.
Feels good! I will post articles and video from the conference sometime soon when the
real website (www.play31.org) is up and running again.
Am right now waiting to go to Lungi Airport to fly to Londonia. Can’t believe yet
another Salone adventure has come to an end. Will miss it! Adieu Fritong!

I've started realizing that the chronology of these posts don't make a lot of sense. Furthermore, these last postings are not very relevant to Play31's work. But I hope you will return: after the weekend I should have some jiucy stuff from Kailahun. I'm attending a traditional healing ceremony in one of the small communities adding footies to the list of methods for creating peace. Until then,




Monday 23rd:
Quiet day. Worked on paper on Salone and some trivial Play31 stuff. Went to the beach to greet Trina who’s been doing research on colonial laws here for the last month.
Then went home to fry plantains with Robert and Alhaji. Sweet, sweet plantains. Quiet day!

Tuesday 24th:
The rain came to Freetown. It’s just amazing. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. We made plans of going to Kailahun from Thursday and over the weekend to take part in a ceremony in one of the small communities. Along, of course, will come football assistance from Play31. G-D knows they deserve some leisure time out in those little rain-filled villages!

Wednesday 25th:
It officially rains!
Spend the day writing on my seemingly never-ending Salone article. There’s a lot to write about from this country. Most stunningly, I still think, are the stories of forgiveness that this country can boast about. I watched recordings from a previous ceremony where a woman told how the rebels had thrown her new-born baby into the river. At the same ceremony was the very man who snatched the baby out of her hands. They reconciled!
Have also been helping with a proposal for Fambul Tok. It looks good! And then finally I’m starting to realize that I’m leaving Salone in less than a week. Craziness!

More news

Tuesday 17th:
Left at six for Bumaru, the village where the very first shot that initiated the war was fired I 1991. The town chief there was supposedly the first rebel (RUF) to be captured by the Sierra Leonean army. After a long Fambuk Tok session and a very succesfull Play31 delivery, we proceeded to Sakiema, Biwaila, and finally Jopolwahun. Those communities finalized our field trip and I must say it was really, really good to be back in Kailahun district. It’s so different from the western area (let alone from Freetown). The idea of using Play31 in the small communities in direct connection with the reconciliation process seems more and more ingenious to me (I can say that because the idea was partly John’s) and I will certainly work on developing that concept. More on that to come some day.
Now, the music in the car: Yesterday I acted as designated dj most of the time which resulted in somewhat of a diversion away from only hip hop and reggae. We touched upon Jan Johansson, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Malk de Kojn, but finally ended up with Dr. Dre’s 2001 and the Roots collected woks. Good times!

Wednesday 18th:
Before we left Bo, we fixed out registration stuff with one of the motorbikes, tried to negotiate the price of the guest house (they charged us extra because they had allowed us to stay two men (Robert and I) in the same room, which supposedly is illegal in Salone), and stashed up on fruits ad libitum. We reached Freetown after a looong drive in the rain (luckily, we sat in the car while Mohammed was driving the bike – yikes!). Back in Tong I finally met up with Harriet who has come all the way from NYC to work here for the summer. Cool! Nothing much more to tell from this Tolkienish travel day.

Thursday 19th:
Literally spent all day on the world wide web. Amazing how a full work day can be consumed by the electronic highway: The Play31 blog – as you may have noted reading this—couldn’t be updated and I had to create a new one. 200,000 emails and Facebook stuff, not all pertaining to play31, though.
Ended down by the beach in a long an interesting discussion on what we can really believe in in this world. The group agreed that it seems to be true for all cultures that people have a desire to reproduce themselves (expressed in many more or less admirable traits), that incest between a parent and child is a big No-No, and that virtually no animal (including humans) consume their own excrement. Therefore, we concluded that those three things are the only phenomenon/ideas/taboos/values that can be said to be universal. That leaves a lot of good explanatory skills for human right workers (as well as religious people and other “imposers”) I reckon.

Friday 20th:
Interesting day! Went to a Parliamentary Hearing on Fambul Tok. John Caulker, the Director of F.O.C and Fambul Tok was on the stand and took critical questions from a range of politicians (and Paramount Chiefs, who are essentially pseudo-politicians). As always, everyone loves the concept of Fambul Tok, but the politicians were obviously very eager to gain some influence in the process. Politics! I usually tease John by saying I know he’ll be President of Salone in 20 years. He always denies that he would even be interested, but I can honestly think of very few people I’ve met in this country who wouldn’t hands down vote for him. Quite inspiring.
Had a short time to discuss new ideas for Play31 with John later before leaving work early to wander the streets of Freetown. (After next week, many important thoughts concerning Play31 will have been fleshed out and I will duly report to you the constituency).
Meant to go and watch the Miss Salone competition at the beach but was tired and fell asleep with my the Economist, which I had bought earlier for the same amount of money that could feed a Salonian family for a day. I just saw it and had to, had to get it.


Saturday 21st:
Walked all the way down o the beach in the morning, enjoying a quiet rain and dramatic sky on the way. Once there, I met a group of young men pulling up a net full of fish from the ocean. I decided to lend a hand and started the tedious job of pulling the rough rope thereby causing severe damage to my unskilled, untrained hands. When we had been working hard for some twenty minutes to the sound of the leaders rhythmical but monotonous chant I asked how much was left, expecting we would have another ten minutes to go. “I think it should be around two hours”, he responded. So I decided I was not cut out for the tough life of a fisherman.
At night, the manager of one of the big cell phone companies had a big fest in his mansion by the water. It was the fist time I’ve ever seen a swimming pool in Salone. Funny fun party with loads of food and drinks and energetic music and dance. Late night!

Sunday 22nd:
Absolutely nothing pertaining to Play31 to tell about from this Sunday. Great day at the beach playing with my friend Thomas and a horde of other young men. Whereas the oral greetings here are always very amicable and welcoming, the reception I get as a “pumui” (Mende for white man) s rather rough at times and I had a cool gangsta-limp the rest of the day due to various bruises.
Ended up cheering España all the way to the semi-final. Olé!

The newest one

Monday 16th:
Another 5:30 morning. Visited no less than five communities today: Woroma, Gbahama, Ghaolahun, Gojowo, and Pejawa. Everywhere we went, we were greeted by smiling faces and the occasional pumui and a the rarer Al-Hamdu Lillah. Fambul Tok’s aim for the visits we pay to all these communities is to make sure, that they have understodd the concept of the Peace Tree (basically that each community pics a tree under which they can sit and sort out palaver) and that the Radio Listening Clubs are in place (the communities make recordings of their discussions and these recordings are broadcasted all over the country. Radios are a big thing here since they don’t rely on the very unreliable electricity sources of this country).
Today was also the day of the African Child not completely sure if that’s an official day) which gave extra spunk to Play31 and a lot of applauses for children from the befuddled elders of the communities.
I will have to describe in detail the daily election procedure for what music is played in the car. It normally ends up with hip-hop or reggae, but more on that later. Tomorrow is the last day and night) in the bush. It’s been good!

Tuesday 17th:
Left at six for Bumaru, the village where the very first shot that initiated the war was fired I 1991. The town chief there was supposedly the first rebel (RUF) to be captured by the Sierra Leonean army. After a long Fambuk Tok session and a very succesfull Play31 delivery, we proceeded to Sakiema, Biwaila, and finally Jopolwahun. Those communities finalized our field trip and I must say it was really, really good to be back in Kailahun district. It’s so different from the western area (let alone from Freetown). The idea of using Play31 in the small communities in direct connection with the reconciliation process seems more and more ingenious to me (I can say that because the idea was partly John’s) and I will certainly work on developing that concept. More on that to come some day.
Now, the music in the car: Yesterday I acted as designated dj most of the time which resulted in somewhat of a diversion away from only hip hop and reggae. We touched upon Jan Johansson, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Malk de Kojn, but finally ended up with Dr. Dre’s 2001 and the Roots collected woks. Good times!

Fourth week

Monday 9th:
A somewhat eventless day. I like it. This must be the dream of any graduate student: days without any particular goal as of 4-5 pm. Ended the night wondering whether I’m falling sick again as I was watching the Netherlands beat the hair grease out of Italy. Fell asleep yet again not having electricity sorely missing the buzzing sound of my fan as sweat continued to soak my pillow. A crazy rainstorm with thunder and lighting kept me awake in the night and the neighbor’s chicken woke me up at 7. I like Salone!

Tuesday 10th:
Change of plans. Again. It seems I won’t be leaving for the provinces until the weekend. This is a very unpredictable country! I’ve grown to like Freetown more than I had ever thought. The atmosphere is just nice and the whole town is filled with so many nice people (not least my lovely Fambul). Have a meeting today with a quite prominent footballer from Britain who is having similar ideas as me about football in Sierra Leone. Should be interesting. Hope to have more to report on that at some point..!

Wednesday 11th:
What do you know? New change of plans: we’re leaving for Kailahun tomorrow. I will bring footballs enough to give one to each of the small communities in the area. That will give Play31 a new twist and spreading the focus out to also encompass a reconciliatory element in that the communities will play together as one team including both former combatants as well as victims, witnesses, old and young ones, etc. Trés exciting!
On another important note, I met with a representative from the Craig Bellamy Foundation. Mr. Bellamy himself, a famous and quite controversial Welsh footballer, is launching his project here in Salone this weekend. He is basically donating a sh*t-load of money to develop football leagues in the country. They really like the concept behind Play31 and we agreed to stay in contact to see how we can cooperate in the future. Pretty cool! Check the Foundation out here: www.craigbellamyfoundation.org


Thursday 12th:
Ok, am leaving today. Will be going to the very east of the country, visiting some of the small communities there. I will be doing research in one little community where the war ended. They want a monument and I will assist in fleshing out the different ideas they have as well as establishing what exactly happened in the very last attack of the war. Furthermore, I will be taking Play31’s brilliant footballs out to the small communities where they will be used in the ongoing reconciliation efforts. Exciting!
On a aide-note: a recently published study shows that Salone is the worst country in the world when it comes to child labor. Supposedly around 50% of children between 5-14 are working. I would estimate the number to be much higher, but regardless it’s certain that so many kids here are deprived of several of the rights stipulated in the convention on the rights of the child. So much more obvious is the need for Play31.
Don’t know when I’ll be back. Don’t suspect to have internet access in Kailahun, but who knows… Until next time.

Friday 13th:
With a date like this it shouldn’t have surprised us that we would be some four hours late due to a broken pump at the gas station. We made it to Kailahun through the bumpy road and I am now sitting in my small bed that I’m sharing with Robert, enjoying the sound of the generator that generates energy for my little Maci. Tomorrow we’re going to Madopolaihun. That is the small community where the war ended; we will talk to them about how they can mark that special history in a way that will strengthen the ongoing reconciliation process.
Went to a local place to se Holland beat the cheese out of France. They look like they could go all the way. As usual, the locals were very excited and knowledgeable about everything pertaining to the match. Kailahun may be a place without a gas station or a supermarket or international newspapers or internet. But that certainly doesn’t mean they’re not tuned into the global footie scene.

Saturday 14th:
We left our Catholic Convent at six am to go to Madopulaihun. After having crossed various unmountable hills and a small river in the Honda 4x4, we were finally stopped by a hole tree fallen onto the road. We therefore had to walk the last three miles before we could finally meet with the whole town (minus the ones that were out harvesting). We had a good talk and people came forward with suggestions for what kind of monument they want in the village. A tower was one suggestion. Another was a communal toilet (yet another example of how this program would’ve been entirely impossible for any western NGO to implement. Who would’ve known Madapolaihun wanted a toilet as their reconciliation monument? On the way home we dozed off to Bob Marley telling us that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned (..) and until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regards to race, there’s war. Right on Bob!
Ended the evening watching my brother-country Sweden loosing in the last minute to España and a somewhat more entertaining at Kailahun’s main square: traditional dance added some local political propaganda for APC. Sweet Salone. It’s good to be back in the field and tomorrow, Play31’s balls are rollin’ again!

Sunday 15th:
Left again at six; this time for the XX-community. On the way we passed numerous villages and followed the moderate pace of people waking up and starting the day’s work as the 6 became 7 and 7:30. All three communities we visited today missed people because the young men had to go to the farms (plots of land typically located a few miles from the village) and harvest. However, we delivered the messages from Fambul Tok and more importantly for this site: delivered more of Play31’s attractive footballs. We made an extra effort today of incorporating the girls in the little delivery-ceremony and underlines that the football is for the whole community t play with – particularly the young boys and girls.
The day’s diet, like that of the last couple of day, consisted of bread, sardines, and fruit (unless avocado is a vegetable?). Beat Robert in chess a couple of times before we went to see the surprising outcome of Portugal-Switzerland. Congrats on the first victory in history to all Swiss friends!
Have started reading ‘the Lucifer Effect’ by Philip Zimbardo (the dude behind the Stanford Prison Experiment) about how ordinary people can end up doing really bad stuff. Very recommendable. Although I’m not sure it’s recommended reading when you’re trying to fall asleep in a house that just a few years ago was in the midst of a pretty nasty war and probably housed numerous prominent rebels. Hmm… Hope to be elaborating on that tomorrow.