Jimal (continued)

I only alluded to the dust that is awakened at Jimal during a football match. It is formidable. When I drink water after exiting the dust bowl, I'm pretty sure mud begins to cake in my throat. A hefty fraction of Jimal is brought back to Stephens in our shoes and our shorts and our hair. Nonetheless, Stephens plays every Saturday and defies the dust and rocks (and in general the less-than-adequate field) to satisfy their football desires. Nothing can stop these kids from playing football.

Bibek Gurung kicks up some dust as he dangles an opponent

The poor field conditions, the lack of cleats, and the small nets make Jimal football different from the game played on green grass. No corner kicks, so the defense can clear the ball behind their own net. The field becomes polarized and midfield play is almost non-existent--it is played more like a basketball game with bouts at each goal and quick transitions between. I find scoring very difficult considering the nets are smaller than hockey nets and someone usually stands right in the goal, but Zuben clearly doesn't have an issue:

Zuben, in white, scoring a goal past a rather large 13 year-old

When Zuben isn't scoring goals, he can be found 

with his arms spread wide, air traffic control style, 

confounded by the fact the ball hasn't been passed 

to him yet

I am impressed by the students' football resilience and adaptability. They go from playing with a regular size ball at Jimal to their (even smaller) concrete courtyard at the school with a dented, pink plastic thing the size of a pool ball. But still, they are not getting proper practice because of these setbacks. Movement without the ball, field sense, long passes, and real shooting form, are all areas of the game these kids do not get to see. And they definitely don't get to taste my favorite flavor of the game--slide tackling (unless you don't mind skin grafts.) For better or, in my opinion worse, more emphasis is placed on offensive play and individual game/glory, as is highlighted by Zuben's consistent incredulity at not having the ball. It pains me to see such potential and talent forced into such a narrow view of the most beautiful game in the world. But at the same time I am amazed and proud of these kids who will find a way to play and get better at any form of football they can get their feet on.

Nepalese are very kind people. They may drive like crazy and plan things after they happen, but they are always willing to share field space at Jimal or help a strange American who is struggling with the Nepali language. However, there is latent sexism most places I look. It doesn't seem as bad as some middle eastern countries I have read about, but nonetheless, males still regard women as inferior in Nepal whether they realize it or not. And no where has this been more evident to me than playing football. The boys have all been brought up to assume girls can't play soccer at their level, and the girls haven't been given the opportunity to play and practice with the boys and have been told to be content doing something else while the boys play their sports.

For anyone that doesn't know, tongue out plus foot on ball
 equals the highest level of soccer concentration

My girlfriend, who is a bigger sports fan than me, remedied this at Stephens and got 3 of the 4 girls living here to play football with the boys. And now that they know they are "allowed" to play football, they do. At Jimal, though, the boys scoff everytime I put the girls in to play. The other people there see their playing as a joke, and this is very visibly internalized by the girls, who then don't take themselves seriously when out on the field. It's a cruel cycle. The absence of girls in sport activities at the schools and on public fields is negative reinforcement to girls who want to play, but find it impossible to play enough and be taken seriously enough to get better at the sport. For now, Aaditit and Unisha seem content on the sidelines jumping off of walls together, but I am trying to make sure they also take football and physical activity seriously where the boys can see them giving an effort. It is a tough lesson to learn for both the boys and the girls that gender is not factor in sport participation, effort, or skill, especially in a country where the sexism dangerously remains a social subtlety to many--pervasive and treacherously silent.

The wall is a metaphor for the gender division in Nepal.
Just kidding it's a wall to have fun standing on and jumping off of.

Overall, Jimal is a great place to meet people, hang out, and play a little bit of the greatest game ever created (futbol, not angry birds.) Soccer remains the most fun and amazing social phenomenon around the world, whether it lets American be invited to play on a pick-up team battling it out for Rs500, or two rival schools challenging each other on their only day off, or two young girls proving to their friends and the world something they don't even quite realize themselves yet.

Joga Bonito, Stephens and LRI!