{"id":1605,"date":"2010-05-01T20:00:56","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T19:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2020-10-26T13:13:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T13:13:18","slug":"beach-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/blog\/2010\/05\/01\/beach-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Beach Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Togo is safe, almost too safe. There is a police escort, ready to take me and The Ball to every event and there is a minder, sitting outside of my hotel room ready to protect The Ball from would-be thieves.<\/p>\n

\"Safe<\/a><\/span>Safe Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

The Togolese government has got heavily involved in the Ball’s journey; we have met top dignitaries including the Prime Minister, and everyone is very concerned to make sure that The Ball doesn’t go missing in Togo. I imagine that the concern stems from the African championships in Angola in February and the machine-gunning of the buses carrying the Togolese football team. That issue is still a hot one in Togo and very politicized.<\/p>\n

Losing The Ball in Togo on Togolese watch is not in their interests. Our philosophy is that The Ball must be played with as often as possible and by as many people as possible. The spirit of The Ball is about trust. Sure, the playing of The Ball to a stranger contains an element of risk. Yes, someone could try and steal The Ball but that is very unlikely. It is more likely that the person receiving The Ball will smile and play. The interactions we are having are overwhelmingly positive. These random encounters are what The Ball is all about.<\/p>\n

Against the best intended advice I take The Ball to the Coca Cola sponsored event at the beach. A man on horseback rides The Ball up and down the beach.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>Horse-back Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

Acrobats on stilts perform with The Ball<\/p>\n

\"High<\/a><\/span>High Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

A woman carries The Ball in a basket on her head<\/p>\n

\"Head<\/a><\/span>Head Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

The Ball is juggled in a Coca-Cola sponsored competition on a stage with a crowd in excess of 2000 people watching on.<\/p>\n

\"Juggle<\/a><\/span>Juggle Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

During the juggling competition The Ball ends up in the crowd. Where is it? Panic sets in. Ohhhh, there it is…<\/p>\n

\"Lost<\/a><\/span>Lost Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

And as the sun goes down young men and women dance freestyle with The Ball.<\/p>\n

\"Dance<\/a><\/span>Dance Ball<\/small><\/div>\n

Put your hands up for The Ball<\/p>\n

\"Hand<\/a><\/span>Hand Ball<\/small><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Togo is safe, almost too safe. There is a police escort, ready to take me and The Ball to every event and there is a minder, sitting outside of my hotel room ready to protect The Ball from would-be thieves. The Togolese government has got heavily involved in the Ball’s journey; we have met top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,232,214],"tags":[22,50,133,48,60,132],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-ball","category-the-journey","category-togo-countries","tag-freestyle-football","tag-honour","tag-lome","tag-peril","tag-serendipity","tag-togo"],"geo":{"latitude":6.1377778000000002833758117049001157283782958984375,"longitude":1.212499999999999911182158029987476766109466552734375,"description":"Lome, Togo"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2010\/04\/togo_beach_004.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3341,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/3341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}