When we first got to Togo, Mr. Kate had one goal*, he wanted to play soccer. In between moving, A-100 and moving again, he hadn't played soccer in nearly 6 months, which was basically his worst nightmare.
Eventually he joined forces with a few friends and formed an embassy soccer team. The first few weeks were hard-- it was difficult finding places to practice and times that would work for everyone, but eventually they fell into a rhythm and started playing.
Word of the US Embassy team got out around town and was quickly followed by an invitation from the Minister of Foreign Affairs to have a "match amical."
Early one Saturday morning, we all headed out to the national field, where some of us played and others stayed in the stands, drinking mimosas, waving flags and loudly cheering our awesome team on!
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| The best cheerleaders EVER! |
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| Warming up. |
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| The Ambassador and Mr. Kate, ready for the kick-off! |
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| Me and my nanny, bein' awesome. |
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| Fofo, rockin it! |
It was a great game and we had a ton of fun, but in the end, the embassy lost. The teams shook hands, planned another fun game for next year and then we found some breakfast. We were all content with the day's events until suddenly, a few days later, one of our colleagues found this in the paper:
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| The Ministry of Foreign Affairs dominates the American Embassy! |
And now we know, next year, we have to win! We will dominate!
Maybe I should take up soccer?
*He also wanted to learn how to knit, scrapbook, make cake-pops and properly braise a pork chop, but this was also important.
Love that the article hit the papers - hillarious! Maybe had you played they would have won. ;-) Stephanie (Arlington, VA)
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