Rwanda vs. Ivory Coast Football Champs!

On Wednesday we went to the semifinal of the African Under 17 Football Championship, Rwanda vs Côte d'Ivoire. Nations from around the world have been competing over the past few weeks to qualify for FIFA U-17 World Cup which is being held in Mexico later this year.  My youngest brother Nathan is in the New Zealand U-17 Team which qualified last week at the Oceania Football Championships to play at the World Cup so I more than excited to be on the other side of the world watching teams that the New Zealand team will play against in a few months time.  The tickets were cheap so we decided to take the  children from the FVA school with us to the game.  We walked the short distance from the school to the stadium with 9 excited children, none of whom had been to the stadium before let alone an international match.  We did a head count at the gate and found that we now had 10 children, an extra  child had attached himself to our group somewhere along the way. What was one more?.. sure he could come too. When we arrived there was a group of a few hundred men gathered and waiting to go through security. Police armed with batons held this scary looking group back and security personal ushered Cait, Lucy and I, each with 3 children hanging off our arms, towards the front of the crowd where we waited to go through the slow security pat down and bag check.  Security didn’t seem to be in any rush to get the crowd through this check despite the minutes counting down to kickoff.  Cait and Lucy were on the other side of the fence and I was nearly at the front of the security queue when there was a rumbling noise from the crowd behind me as it started to surge forward.  At this moment my heart was thumping and I feared that the children and I were about to be trampled in a stampede that seemed to be close to breaking out. It went through my mind at this point that perhaps the decision to come to the football ourselves, let alone with a group of children, was perhaps one of the stupidest decisions I had ever made.  The police stood their ground and after hitting wildly with their batons for a minute or so the crowd settled down and returned to waiting patiently. I was more than relieved to get to the other side of the fence and into the stadium. To say that us 3 muzungo (white people) stood out would be an understatement. Despite the stadium being nearly full I am confident that we could have been spotted in less than 30 seconds by anyone who was looking to find us. The game and the atmosphere was incredible – it was like nothing I had ever seen or experienced before.  The crowd chanted and cheered and vuvuzela horns pierced the air all around.  The crowd, which by now where all on their feet, went wild when Rwanda scored the winning goal. Presidant Kagame, who was at the game, would flash up onto the big screen periodically throughout the match and the stadium would cheer madly and announce proudly that there on the screen was the President and how much of a good man he was.  The game ended in much elation and the Rwandan team hoisted their coach on their shoulders as the supporters excitedly sung, danced and celebrated. The celebrations continued on the street and in cars as we headed to catch a moto home.  The final is being played this Saturday and I can only imagine what that will be like.