Another goal

Saturday is always a little bit unpredictable. This morning my plan
included finishing a book, french toast, coffee, laundry, maybe some
time on the Internet and a little school work. I woke up, stayed in
bed to finish my book then made my breakfast and started washing
clothes. Then the boys I play soccer with came and asked for $30 to
cover the rest of the $50 entrance fee for the mini tournament that
was going to happen this weekend. We play soccer a lot of weekends but
somehow I never manage to find out until its almost time to start. No
problem though, I only have two blisters from my latest attempts at
running. Our first match was against the best team at the school,
Never Lose, captained by my fellow teacher Mr. Mbaukua. Mbaukua is by
far the best player on the pitch and his team is the most disciplined
so by the end of every weekend they are in fact the winners. My team
is strong though and after I netted the second goal of my career we
had a 2-0 lead going into the half. I decided to stick with my
pre-game plan of letting another boy substitute for me at half time,
after a frigid week it was hot this afternoon and my lungs were
burning. Unfortunately the second half didn't go so well and we ended
up with a 2-2 draw. Now we have two more matches tomorrow to try to
offer up the bitter taste of defeat to Never Lose.

The other thing that I really want to do this weekend is to read. One
of the treasures I've found in the school library is novels by authors
from this region. I indulged my curiosity with a small book written by
a Namibian set in 1988, after the farce of an interim government had
been established. The story follows leaders of the student movement as
they evade the police and then decide to go into exile to avoid
capture. Not a great work of literature but it is an interesting piece
of history. Next I read a book by a Zimbabwean author about a woman
who spent her adult life working on a white man's farm until she went
searching for her son who had left the country to return and fight for
independence. This one is a great work of literature, replete with
Zimbabwean idioms. These books have been an intermission in my
endeavor to read a 680 page history of the "Scramble for Africa."
European colonization of Africa from 1886 - 1910. The difficult thing
about this book is that most of the imperialism was justified in the
name of Livingstone's 3 Cs: commerce, Christianity and civilization.
The colonial period is technically in the past but it seems that the 3
Cs are alive and well. As good as the Millenium Challenge Fund seems
like the answer to the troubles of development it is squarely focused
on bringing civilization (and better commercial prospects) to the
continent. The question I ask myself is if the economic policies that
spurred the parceling out of Africa have changed at all in this era of
international aid. That will have to be explored further. The chapter
I'm reading right now is about the revelation of widespread abuse in
the philanthropic venture of King Leopold in the Congo, abuses that
were not revealed by the over 400 missionaries on the ground at the
time. Next chapter is about the Germans in Namibia so I'm planning to
make some coffee when I get home and read that one close.

Since when did Tony Snow become the White House press secretary?
Straight from being the most boring person on Fox News to the
President's mouthpiece???