Saturday night I went to the airport to 1) see if my missing carry-on had arrived and 2) pick up Kyle! My luggage was (and is) still M.I.A. so I sat down to wait for Kyle to exit customs. I had arrived around 8:40pm and I figured he would finally be through customs since his flight was supposed to land at 8:05pm. After waiting a few minutes, I realized I should probably check the arrival board. Sure enough, his flight was delayed two and a half hours.
Since it’s a pretty expensive ride to and from the airport, I decided to just wait there for the next two hours. I sat on a bench and played a game on May’s phone. I realized the battery was almost dead, so I decided to spend the next hour and forty-five minutes sitting in silence. If only it was that easy…
One thing I half love and half dislike about Ethiopia is how everyone wants to talk to me. I don’t mean me. I mean: anyone who looks like they speak English. I don’t know if they want to practice their English or actually be friends, but people like talking to me here. Not that people don’t like talking to me in the States – just that people go out of their way to have a conversation with me. Kind of flattering, some good things come out of it, but then it can also be bothersome and sometimes they end up asking for money or a job (neither of which I can give them).
So as I was sitting on that bench, waiting in silence for Kyle to arrive, the guy next to me asked why I stopped playing the game I had been playing. Apparently he had been watching me; apparently I was completely absorbed in the game and had not taken notice. Somehow, I was sitting there in the Bole airport talking to this young Ethiopian man (24 years old, as it turned out) who actually played on a National League soccer team! His name is Joseph, his father’s name is Assefa; Joseph Assefa. We ended up exchanging numbers and he said he would invite me to see a soccer game at the stadium.
“What stadium?” you might ask. Well obviously THE stadium. Come on, everyone knows the stadium. I’m not sure if it’s the only one in Addis, but it’s definitely the one that is really well known and has its own public taxi stop (and taxi stand). Anyways, while in the airport Joseph explained the different soccer levels in Ethiopia. There is the Premier League (which May pointed out is the EPL – Ethiopian Premier League), the National League, and then there are smaller clubs. The Premiere League is made up of 18 teams from all over Ethiopia. The best ones are St. George and Kofi (Coffee? Bunna?) and those are both in Addis. Joseph was waiting in the airport for his brother who was arriving from D.C.
In actuality, the gentleman he was waiting for was not his biological brother. I can’t remember if I’ve said this before, but people who live together and/or are close friends end up calling each other “brother” or “sister” or “cousin”, etc. Joseph’s brother was his soccer coach and was supporting him in his time between teams. Joseph’s contract had ended and he was looking for another team to play with.
Joseph called a couple days after our encounter in the airport and I agreed to go to a game with him on Wednesday. Tuesday morning, our day off school due to the Ethiopian Epiphany, a man called me who had much better English than Joseph (to give Joseph some credit, he actually had really good English – especially for someone who didn’t complete grades 11 and 12). His name was Tam (but I heard Tan…and his full name is actually Tamire) and he was Joseph’s friend and coach. They wanted to switch the game to Thursday because that is when their favorite team – Kofi – was playing. Since our devotionals are on Thursdays and I was starting a Ruhi Book 1 refresher that night, I had to decline and we kept our Wednesday date.
I haven’t watched live soccer in quite some time. Even my senior year at Case was pretty soccer-less because of my graduate courses being inconveniently at the same times as the mens’ soccer games. All in all, I was very excited to get to watch a Premier League game at the stadium. May was pretty happy about our opportunity as well.
Kyle and I went home after school on Wednesday to drop off our things (and May’s since she had to teach typing class for the teachers). We then hopped in a contract taxi to pick up May at the school and then head to the stadium. I was pretty impressed that the driver only asked for 80 birr because Kyle and I had thought it would be more like 100 birr. I am not complaining. When we got to the stadium, I called Tam and he had Joseph meet us.
Joseph took us inside the gates and purchased our tickets. I felt really bad, but he wouldn’t let us pay! I was also secretly hoping that he wouldn’t get us bad seats (which means cheap tickets…which also made me feel bad…). As we walked up the steps to get into the stadium, we were searched by the guards (as per every public building or event in Addis). Apparently we weren’t allowed to bring cameras. That stinks. Kyle took a couple pictures with his phone for me, so hopefully I’ll be able to get those from him and post them. Joseph said he’d take care of our cameras (May brought hers too) and for some reason I totally trusted him. [I hope mom and dad aren’t reading this right now.]
Once we were past the guards, Tam motioned for us to come sit with him and some other guys. The stadium was fairly empty and the game had already started. Correction, it had started about a half hour before we arrived. Joseph had said that the game was at 11 (which means 5pm), but the game actually started at 4pm. But I guess then the game also started late because we got there at 5 and there were only 10-15 minutes left.
When Joseph came back to our seats, I asked him where he put the cameras (so I’d be able to pick them up after the game). He said “I gave them to my friend” – Jasmin starts to think she was insane for letting him take them – “he’s a player, you’ll have them in a few minutes”. AWESOME. Sure enough, a few minutes after half-time, Joseph brought our cameras to us and we snuck them into May’s purse.
It turns out Tam is not only a coach, but he also does recruiting for some of the Premier League teams. The first game of the night was Insurance vs. Diredewalk. Insurance is an Addis team and Diredewalk was from another state in Ethiopia. Number 13 was a guy that Tam recruited for Insurance. Number 13’s parents paid him 15,000 birr to stay in their hometown and play for the local team. Tam then brought Number 13 to Addis and St. George ended up wanting him. He plays for St. George now and was on loan to Insurance Wednesday night. While we were waiting for the game to begin again during half-time, several people came over to say hi to Tam. There were a couple women from the womens’ National and Premier Leagues. We shook their hands and said hello! Seriously, it felt like I was at a Columbus Crew game and Landon Donovan had come to watch, and he just walked on over and said “hello!” I’m not a fan of any MLS teams, much less Landon Donovan….so that was just an illustration.
I don’t know if it is because I’m not a fan of solid bright orange kits, or if it’s because Number 13 had an influence on me, but I found myself cheering for Insurance. In the 65th minute, Insurance went up 1-0, and then miraculously clobbered Diredewalk at the start, scoring within 45 seconds. 2-0, Insurance. In the final moments of the game, Diredewalk was awarded a penalty kick; 2-1, Insurance. Somewhere in the midst of the fun there was a yellow card for Insurance’s goalie. The game ended after four minutes of stoppage time: 2-1, Insurance.
May and I have decided that we need to choose a team to follow so we can be real fans. St. George is the most well-known and most heavily funded (the 74th richest man in the world is an Ethiopian who owns the Sheraton, St. George, Pepsi, you get the picture) team in Ethiopia. They have some professional players that play for them, and guess who got to see the number one team in Ethiopia during her first stadium outing. That’s right – this girl!
It turns out they have double headers, and the second game of the night was St. George vs. Sidama Bunna (Sidama Coffee). It was a pretty good game, but we were anxious to get to Bambis for groceries and didn’t want to stay at the stadium until 9pm. We thanked Tam and Joseph for inviting us and showing us a good time. We’re going to see at least another game before Tam heads back to the States in the next two months. If May ends up staying longer than her original 3 months, I’ll be going to many more games in Ethiopia. The tickets run from 3 birr to 100 birr. That’s less than 10USD maximum for a Premier League game. Awesomeness. It was really relaxing to watch the game, it was entertaining, and we got to be outdoors enjoying the beautiful weather. No skin cancer for me – we were in really nice seats under the cover thingy (wow, I forgot the technical name for it…).
Basically, if you’re in Addis and you’re a soccer fan, you should go to a game just to get the Ethiopian soccer experience. Ethiopia isn’t known for its soccer; it’s known for its runners. Therefore, the teams aren’t all that great, but it’s still entertaining and you get to see how professional soccer is in a Third World country. I can’t wait to go again!
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