May 17, 2009
Once again, this was a typical week for the most part. It was nice weather for most of the week, but started raining late on Thursday and didn’t stop until this morning. The team I coach started to play our game (even though most games in the area were cancelled because of field conditions, ours was not) and played about 15 minutes before the refs called the game because they couldn’t see through the rain. Luckily, we had had once chance to score at that point and did, so it counted as a win. The team I was supposed to play against decided they didn’t want to travel in the rain, but in order for us to win the forfeit, we had to wait until game time. We normally meet 2 and half hours before game time to eat a light meal and get ready, so we had to sit around that entire time, even knowing that the other team wasn’t coming. The refs checked our registrations, made us get completely dressed in our uniforms, and even walk out of the locker room together at game time, before they told us we could go. At that point I had been sitting in wet clothes for a couple of hours and was ready to go home.
I had invited the team I coach over for dinner though, and they had already been waiting at my house for a couple of hours, because there was no game for them to watch, (they were going to watch the game I was playing in), so I didn’t really have time to do anything other than get home, change clothes, and start cooking. Because of the rain, only a handful of girls were able to make it, so I’m going to have them over again soon.
I’m going to try to post a picture soon, but in the meantime, be praying for a girl here named Ode (pronounced like Oddie). She plays on the soccer team I play on, but she is also the foster daughter of Joelle, a woman who works for Ambassadors. She has been in South Africa for 15 years (she is 19 now), but she does not have any identity or documents, like a birth certificate, for citizenship in any country. She came from the Congo and her father is in Angola, but she has no links to either country and no proof of her past. Joelle has been working for 2 years to get her citizenship in any of those countries (although South African would be best for her) and has been unsuccessful. Right now she just continues to renew her refugee status in South Africa every few months, which isn’t the best solution, but has no other choice. Without any identity she can’t get a driver’s license, vote, or get a passport to leave the country to visit Joelle’s family in England. She is also a very good player and could play for the South African national team, but can’t do so without citizenship. Her dream is to come to the US to play college soccer and she is studying hard to take her SATs in June (I tutor her in Math once a week), but she won’t be able to see that dream through without citizenship. That’s a long story made not so short, but please be praying for Ode’s citizenship, for the right contacts to be made to move the process forward, and for encouragement in the meantime. One other thing, the refugee office where all of this takes place is not very safe. I went there on Wednesday with Joelle so she didn’t have to go alone after someone attempted to rob her there on Monday. There are hundreds of refugees trying to force their way in through the gates outside and a couple hundred more waiting inside each day, just hoping to be seen. Many of them have been waiting for several months and are desperately seeking refugee status in South Africa. Most of them are told that life in South Africa will be so much better than their home countries, but after months of waiting, just want to return home. It was very sad to see them all there and a little scary to see their desperate state. One man saw that we were given special treatment (Joelle and I couldn’t decide if it was because she called the right person ahead of time to let us in the building or if it was because we were white, and the only 2 white people anywhere around; maybe it was both, which made us feel bad), but this man was pleading with us to take his papers in and just give them to someone inside to look at. He said he was a chess coach and had left Malawi to come to Cape Town to play and coach, but had been there for 6 months waiting for refugee status and was ready to give up. There wasn’t anything we could do for him though. We didn’t get anywhere that day either. Joelle just wanted to get Ode’s refugee status renewed, which has expired again, and after almost 3 hours and 3 meetings, she was told to come back later with Ode, because the process was being changed and she had to be there. She should have an ID instead of needing to renew her refugee status, but after two applications and several follow-ups, it still hasn’t come through. In one office, we watched 2 men flip through about 200 IDs looking for hers, but of course it wasn’t there. I just wonder where those 200 Angolans are whose IDs were sitting in that drawer. It has been frustrating for both Ode and Joelle, and Ode will graduate from high school in December, so for her to start college in August 2010, things need to move through more quickly than they are now.