Day: January 21, 2018

The soccer team paused for one last photo around 3 p.m. Sunday, if they were tired, they showed no signs of it. This was a great retreat – wonderful food, a movie, dinner out a much-loved DVD, books, and hours of sledding, singing, playing UNO and staying up nearly until dawn.

They sure wore me out, and Maria is mumbling like a zombie. Fate and Red have been sleeping all night. I much enjoyed this weekend, if I am building a Cathedral, so are the members of the Army of Good, who are improving and touching and brightening the lives of so many people.

And it looks to be a big cathedral.

The work for the soccer team goes on, and on. If you wish to support this team – I believe it is critical for them to succeed against lots of money and power and lopsided odds –  you can do by by sending a donation to me, Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 or via Paypal, [email protected].

Next week, I hope to meet some of the new members of the new RISSE girl’s basketball team, also being coached by Ali.

I will soon be working to help them get uniforms and good shoes. I had a great and meaningful time, I wish them the greatest luck and peace.

We gave every member of the soccer team a copy of best selling book “Outcasts United,” the story how soccer transformed the lives of the kids in a refugee soccer team in Georgia, and changed their small town as well. The best two commenters would get to take home a tropical fish – a Beta (a/k/a Siamese Fighting Fish), I got two roomy special tanks for each one, and nets and food as well.

I had no illusions that anybody would get through the whole book in one night, but I did see  about half the kids reading it over the weekend. The kids grasped the idea of the book, especially that being on a team breeds community and strength and friendship.

We had a good talk about the book this morning before lunch.

They talked about how they are almost always up against wealthier and better equipped kids in their soccer league – some even have personal trainers and special coaches. Sa-Nay said soccer taught the kids not to quite to depend on each other to stay away from the drugs and other troubles on the streets.

Almost all of the kids had experiences with kids in school who wondered if they were terrorists, or who are picking up on some of the racially charged political attacks on immigrants.

Ali, Maria and I met to pick the winners, and these two were very happy to take the fish home.

They arrived safety tonight, they rode home in their laps. I like these tanks, they have LED lights and covers.  Betas are often sold in tiny jars, this is much better than that.

These fish have a history with me. I bred Beta’s when I was a kid, I sold their babies to the fish department of a J.J.Newberry store in Providence and had quite a fish world in my room – five or six 25 gallon tanks with heaters and filters and real tropical plants.

One day, the thermostat blew out and it blew the sides out of all the tanks, sending hundreds of fish out onto the floor (When I got upstairs my Basset Hound Sam was lapping up as many of the fish as he could eat.)

That was my last run-in with fish. I was very happy to give these two to these impressive and articulate kids. While I was at it, I got two goldfish for Maria, they are named Frida and Diego, of course.

I bought seven sleds for $9 apiece at the hardware store, all but one were in shattered pieces by this morning. I guess they don’t make them like they used to. Some of the kids rode double on the sleds, and that didn’t help. Some of them just broke in pieces

The refugee kids loved sledding they did it for hours, Saturday and Sunday. Ali and the kids picked up all of the pieces, and Maria and I took them home, they are headed for the dumb. Next time I might try to find those old-fashioned wooden ones.

It was a pleasure to see all of the sneakers stacked up in the mud room at Pompanuck Farm over the weekend, the signature sneakers of the RISSE refugee soccer team a/k/a the Bedlam Farm Warriors. Two or three of the kids had winter books, most wore their sneakers or in some cases, flip-flops with socks.

I was glad the weather was warm – in the 40’s both days. They cleaned up feverishly this afternoon, and Maria and I finished what they couldn’t get to. They did a great job of cleaning up for themselves. It was an exhausting weekend, even Ali seemed worn out by the end of the day.

Everybody got up at 5 a.m., there were some plumbing issues, and then one of the kids rolled backwards in a rocking chair and was unscathed, although the chair was banged up. We had pizza for lunch, made by Scott, whose Round House Cafe pizza has become a huge Friday night hit.

This weekend was a complex undertaking, involving a lot of saving, fund-raising, planning and negotiating. I saw how much it does for these kids, and it was a gift and a joy to be involved. Maria spent a lot of time at Pompanuck, serving and helping with the clean-up, I am always grateful for her presence.

She was worn out too, we went out to the Bog for dinner and she is soaking herself in the bathtub, she needed some bubble bath time. I’ve got some blogging to to, and normal life resumes tomorrow.

I am grateful for the weekend. I wrote last week that I am building a Cathedral, brick by brick, and that’s what this weekend felt like. Thanks for supporting it, it would not, of course, have been possible without you.

The weather was perfect for downhill racing. It was in the 40’s, after days of sub-zero temperatures, and the hill was hard and smooth. They raced for hours. they had great fun. They are fearless and tireless. More racing today