Superbowl Fun Time

I spent so many months planning my Superbowl party and while the weekend didn’t turn out exactly as I expected, it was perfect. I arranged for the game to be shown at a bar in town that has a projection screen (the manager there is a friend of a friend). Having friends in town was wonderful and everyone loved my roommates. A few people came in Saturday and we had a great dinner and watched at movie at Dan’s place on his projection screen. Sunday we ate a delicious, late breakfast with coffee which made me so happy since I hadn’t spent a weekend lazing away in weeks. Sunday night the rest of my friends got into town just in time to meet up with the missionaries for a game of flag football. This part of the weekend had been planned, but as the day wore on and I fully embraced laziness I didn’t really want to play anymore. I didn’t really think through the playing in a skirt and flips anyway so it turned out to be a boys game which was fine with me. Deanne and I started throwing a ball around with some of the neighborhood kids and they really enjoyed that. One kid was so good we were sure he must have played American football before, but he hadn’t. The way he jumped to catch the ball looked as if he were mimicking a professional player in the end-zone, but I guess that’s just natural talent. There were Somalis gathered at the field to watch the game and they had their own football game going on too. A few girls even joined in our game of catch. We formed a circle and it just kept getting larger as kids joined in.
As the sun went down and we started to lose the ball against the black sky the games wrapped up. The boys seemed to have a lot of fun and I arranged with the kids to meet them back at the field in two weeks to throw the ball around again. I’m hoping to make this a regular activity. I have been wanting a way to interact with the youth in my area and I think this is perfect. I’m really excited because you never know where this might lead and what opportunities might arise. As the light faded and I looked around the field I was overcome with an intense feeling of happiness. Complete happiness and a sense of family that I haven’t felt in a long time. It’s wonderful how much friends can feel like family and how comforting coming together for an American tradition can be. After the games we all went back to my house to hang out until it was time to head to the bar for the game (it aired at 2:30am here). We were going to cook dinner but since we had all eaten snacks or small dinners already it seemed pointless to cook. We did eat cake for my roommates birthday (I baked a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, mmm) and then just sat around talking. Eventually we realized that while we weren’t hungry at the time we were likely to want snacks at the bar and since they don’t serve any I made chapati to take with us. I really liked playing hostess to all my friends. Around midnight we headed to the bar and at 2:30 the manager turned up the sound on the game and we were in football heaven. The only sad part was that the international feed doesn’t play the commercials, so instead of whatever you saw in America, we had the same 5ish ESPN commercials over and over. I actually laughed at one with a cactus that looked like Shaq which they called a “Shaqctus”. Yes, I judged myself for it… I’ll chalk that one up to my deprivation and let it slide. Some of the kids had to leave to catch their bus before the game finished, but the rest of us finished it out and walked home as the light was coming up. The weekend was so wonderful that I didn’t even mind the loss of sleep. I’m already planning to do it again next year, but I’ll try to figure out how to get the internet feed with the commercials played at the bar… that may prove too technical for me, but hey, I can dream.