The Youth Rally

Wow!!!!! What a week it has been.  Starting Monday morning we began the youth rally at Bowe.  There were kids invited from 4 different zones to come and attend.  They were ranging in age from 14-18....I believe that was about correct.

The schedule each day was divided as followed:

Mass . Breakfast . Lectures . Lunch . Lectures . Sports . Dinner . Activity

Now I cannot give specific times because here in Malawi nothing ever runs according to schedule.  Sometimes when we go to mass in the villages, we say 9 but nobody starts showing up till one and a half hours later.  So this in mind, we had to be flexible.

The entire event was organized by Father Stephen and he did an excellent job.

The four Zones were:

Bowe (Boh-whey)
Juni (Jooh-nee)
Nkavilla (Ka-v-yah)
Nkamankuku (Nuh-Ka-mahn-koo-koo)

There was great activities happening each day.  They centered all around these young kids growing up and  the responsibilities they were taking on.

On the first day I was involved in officially starting the futbol match and kicked it off.

The winners on the first day were Nkamankuku over Bowe 6-1...Here is the team photo mixed with fans:

Tuesday was a lot of fun.  All day there were activities and then the futbol game at 4.  This match was Nkavilla vs. Juni.  Again here is the team photo.

Also Tuesday night was a pageant where 6 guys and 6 girls strutted their stuff and answered multiple questions about Malawi....i.e - Who is the Bishop of Malawi?  It was great fun and the winners became Mr. and Mrs. Bowe.  Which was really great because it endowed some responsiblity to these youngsters, which they might not usually get.

Here are pictures from that night:

 

The catwalk

 

 

Little E and I enjoying ourselves

 

Ms. and Mr. Bowe

 

The next day Father Stephen asked me to come and give a talk about alcohol to the kids there.  I was quite alright with that and excited to do it.

 

We did this in the morning.  I along with Amama gave encouraging talks (well I hope mine was....)  Here are pictures from that talk:

 

 

 

 

Myself with the agrupa ( he is tranlating for me)

 

Amama giving her talk with Father Stephen walking the aisles

 

 

After this there was again another match.  This time it was Bowe vs. Nkavilla.  It was a great match ending with Bowe winning 4-2:

 

 

 

 

The following day (Thursday) there was this great sister who game in from Blantyre (way down south Malawi) and I really enjoyed talking with her about many things.  She was very tough but easy going.  I could not go to her talk though because Timeyo and I had some roof work to do.  So we spent the morning doing that and then relaxing till futbol.

 

That day there was another match and this time it was Nkavilla vs. Nkamankuku.  At this point on the tables Nkavilla was tied with Bowe and if Kamankuku could score 5 goals then Bowe would go into the finals, if not then Nkavilla would enter the finals on Saturday.  The match ended with Nkamankuku winning 4-1.  Here are photos from that:

 

 

 

 

On Friday we took it easy.  There was not too much of a rush from everyone.  I could tell that it had been a long eventful week for everyone and they were getting tired.  That day, Bowe (3rd place) and Nkavilla (2nd place) came together and talked.  They both had the same number of points (3) and decided they should play that day to decided who goes to the finals.

 

So we were all very excited to hear this news.  we hoped that Bowe would triumph and get through to the finals.  Since they are they are the players from our village we cheered from the (except maybe Father Joe).  So the match started and it was a pretty tame match, until the last 15 minutes, the match was tied 1-1.  Until the last 15 minutes when Bowe came out and scored 3 goals!!!!!!!!!  It was awesome and the entire field was going crazy:

 

 

 

Then Saturday came......the final match was to start at 11.  Of course this did not happen and the match started at 11:45.  Here are Father Stephen and I posing with the trophy:

 

Well the match started and it was great teamwork and footwork.  It was quite a match to watch.  It was 1-0 Bowe when the half ended.  When we returned though it was quite a different story.  Bowe came out with no mercy.  They ended up scoring 4 more goals making the final 5-0.  There was quite an uproar.  Father Stephen called all the players over afterwards to hand out prizes.  Which included money and futbols:

 

 

 

Father Stephen with the trophy

 

Myself with the trophy

 

 

Handing the trophy to the Captain / Mr. Bowe

 

 

celerabing the win

 

 

In the end, reflecting back on all of this I see this week as accomplishing a great task.  After I (and others) have seen what suffering, pain and sickness happens in the villages.  Then seeing these kids who come from this villages, make their way to this youth rally.  The joy which they experienced and happiness.  I feel it was important point in their lives to have experienced this and realized the joy and happiness which exists in one another.  all of this was done by Father Stephen, and I thank him for all the hard work he did for this:

 

 

 

We head to the villages tomorrow for mass and then Monday we are heading to Kalembe (2:03:13) away and installing doors and ceilings.  The plastering is hopefully done and soon the priests can move in there.