Sports at Dusk
Last week on Thursday evening I went with Vaughn to soccer practice out in the village that the guys originally fell in live with, Kapampa. It was my first time playing soccer in any serious way in quite a few years and though I was really rusty I had a great time and it was a feet time to be with a bunch of the guys we are working with out at the farm and in our bike facility. The connection that work ‘associates’ have when they play together in an informal way is great. I knew their names but I did not know them in any way more than their work.
It’s so important to connect on this other level with people that you are working with (especially in the development context). To know our workers in a personal way and to connect with them is to value them beyond their work’s worth. It is a validation of them as holistic humans and is instrumental to preventing them from being alienated from their work… The last thing we want is to fall into a Marxist alienation.
And so we value our men and women in our company. We ply soccer together and we laugh. We always laugh. And after soccer we go visit our men’s houses and tell their wives and children that they are loved. This was the best part of the night. Vaughn and I were invited into two houses and spent time in the soot-filled living room of Rabson, a man with a beautiful family and candle light to see each other by. It was a perfect continuation of what started on the soccer field and i’m sure it will be one of my favorite times spent here in Zambia.
Wankfry McNutt (March 21, 2009, 4:21 pm).
yeah bro. way to listen to marx. teri merrick would be proud. that’s so sweet that you got the chance to visit in that dude’s home. what a sweet way to get a better understanding of the people you are serving. keep on keeping it real homie!