Look at this scenery and these colors! We were truly blessed to visit such an idyllic place as North Tarawa. On June 26th, men’s football teams from different North Tarawan islands came together for a parade to welcome The Ball. Their different coloured uniforms made for a beautiful play of colors. Arriving by boat often means an unknown arrival time. Depending on factors like high tide and the boat not breaking down and anyway, Island time rules. While we waited for the last teams to arrive, the first teams signed The Ball and pledged to end violence against women.
We then met with the North Tarawan Council, Mayor Francis and the elders, who were very appreciative of The Ball visiting North Tarawa and “bringing the world to us” as the Mayor said.
The Workshop:
After the reception and lunch, we held a 3-hour workshop with 25 players of several North Tarawan football teams. Most impressive for the players and the representatives of the Kiribati Islands Football Federation (KIFF), was the Fairplay Football method and especially the ‘rubbish handicap’. During the warm up, we asked the players to do a quick clean up, and within 30 seconds 2 huge trash bags were filled just from the immediate surroundings. At some point later, after several games of FairPlay Football, we fromze the match and tipped the rubbish onto the field of play. Martin from KIFF told us later that it was very visual and he believed this method left a deep impression for the participants as well as those watching. The players reflected that the trash was ‘disturbing’ and they were also afraid to injure themselves, as many of them had been playing barefoot.
