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| Christmas 2014 |
I’ve known of the Thomas Wiser House for a while, through it’s
remedial education programs and shelters for children and young mothers. But
recently I was given the opportunity to visit their youth home for refugees. I
was hesitant, not the least to say nervous, about visiting the home. The residents
are 11 teenage boys from Africa and the Middle East, and due to the fact that
Americans are sometimes not seen in the best light in the Middle East, I was
not sure how they would react to me.
Anyway, I went to visit the home with two
other runners from the Armin Wolf running team (my charitable running team)
along with our team founder and his wife. We brought with us food donations as
well as some sporting goods, including two new soccer balls (all from private
donors). We arrived in the late afternoon and the agenda consisted of “sport”,
which would ideally be a game of soccer or running, and then dinner with the
group.
Upon arrival we were greeted by the supervisor who was
thrilled to have us there. She introduced us to a couple of the residents: a
few of the boys milling around, a couple of them sat in the community room on
the pair of computers available for use and one boy sat on a couch reading a
book. A moment later another boy came out of the kitchen with a loaf of bread
in his hand. A few brief words from the supervisor about not eating between
meals and the bread was quickly returned to the kitchen. I was impressed. The
supervisor was consequent yet understanding; the boy respectful. And this was
to be a recurring theme of the evening. The boys were shy at first. They were hesitant
about coming out and playing soccer with us, I mean, I don’t blame them…I am a
40-something year old woman and the other two on the team included another
woman (23 years old) and a young man (also 23). But eventually six of them came
out with us to the field. Some had to remain at the home to prepare dinner.
Each of them are required to contribute to the work in the home and have a
rotational chore schedule including cooking and cleaning.
Needless to say, although I’d played soccer for years as a
kid, it had been an eternity since I’d kicked the ball around except with my
kids. But, old habits die hard and I quickly got my head and ‘skills’ into the
game. Some of the guys were good players and all showed great sportsmanship. It
was muddy and slippery and the play took on a great spirit.
Then, more than 30 minutes into the game, the impossible
happened, I scored a header.
It was a beautiful looping pass across the goal and I
instinctively jumped up and headed it above the keeper and into the net! My
teammates exuberantly ran up to me with high fives, hooting and hollering. I
was thrilled (and pretty impressed with myself). And even as the play resumed,
some of the guys were in hysterical jubilation…I asked one of them why he was
laughing and he answered, “Your header…it was just like on TV!”
Needless to say, the ice was broken, the roots of friendship
began to take form and my nervous anticipation of the evening was washed away.
