The children of Boulembe

Children are children in every part of the world.

At first, it may not always seem so: when you get to Boulembe, a village in Eastern Cameroon, where Sport and Cooperation Network is working, and you see 6, 7 or 8-year old girls selling fritter or fruit instead of going to school; or when you see their worn out clothes, or their broken shoes (if they have any). They just don’t look like what children should.

 But today is Thursday.  And they know that Thursdays is “ball day”, it’s sports day. As soon as Sport Network monitors appear, their faces change and they run out to the school court, where they usually play. They jump, they shout, they wave, they push each other, they fight, they hug…

About 100 children are watching, impatient to start playing. They take their broken sandals off and start running after the ball, barefoot on the reddish dust.

The girls form their teams. Today they are 4 teams of 5, enough to play a mini football championship. Not all of them understand the rules yet  - one grabs the ball with her hands, another runs in the wrong direction. But they all participate, and they all want to participate.

Like in every school ground, sometimes the boys get in the way of the girls’ games, pulling their hair and laughing. The older girls defend themselves with a kick or a push. “This is the girl’s team!”

And like in every school ground, you can find the shy ones, the leaders, the funny, the daring, the competitive or the curious.

“Everyday before going to school I wash the dishes, sweep the floor and clean the house”, an 8-year old girl tells me, with a smile on her face and the ball in her hands, ready to play.

Although it doesn’t always seem so, children are children everywhere.

Most of them don’t have shoes, but running doesn’t hurt their feet. They don’t cry when they fall, and don’t complain about the uneven field that gives a clear advantage to the other team.

Soon they’ll have a real football field to play on, as well as a volleyball and netball court. But until then, they make do and enjoy.

More information on our project in Cameroon.

Maira Cabrini is a Sport Network collaborator. She is currently working on a cooperation project in Bertoua, Cameroon.