The Ball 2010

The Ball’s been on the road for well over one hundred days now. Its been played in perhaps seven hundred kick-abouts — on streets, in parks, it even joined the mile-high kick club when it was kicked by pilots in the cockpit en route to Lagos. The Ball has been around the block and it’s starting to look a little worse for wear. Luckily, our partner Alive & Kicking has a stitching centre in Lusaka.

Sughra Hussein, acting Director Alive & Kicking Zambia at the factory in Lusaka

Christian hasn’t seen The Ball being operated on. And the anguished look on his face as The Ball doctor opens The Ball up is one that any worried parent can relate to. His eyes bulge, his mouth gapes… he looks white as a sheet (well, he always does — he’s English).

Before long, five panels have been removed.

5 damaged panels on A&K workbench

The Ball doctor still isn’t satisfied and looks to get cracking on the bladder. “Stop! Please. Now”, says Christian. She does.

Bladder what bladder?

We’ve brought a bladder and a few spare panels from Nairobi. Alive and Kicking provide a few Zambian panels too. The Ball is becoming more African by the day!

The operation is a success but The Ball looks very strange. Even stranger than it did in Nairobi after having 2 panels replaced. The Ball looks rather like the result of a serious head-on ball collision. Two balls have merged into one.

Alive and Kicking Zambia stitchers and The odd Ball

It is going to take a live kicking or ten before The Ball can bounce evenly again.

This post is filed under The Ball, The Journey, Zambia. Tags: Alive & Kicking, Behind the scenes, Lusaka, Project Visit, Zambia You can follow any responses to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.