Ri shinde!!!

This title means “We won!!!”.

Yesterday, as I’m sure many of you know, the US Women’s National Team won the World Cup!!! I personally am not a huge soccer fan, but if it involves women and the US that changes things.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to watch the match because my village hasn’t had electricity in months. I did know that sometimes men watch soccer matches in the big public place across the street from my house and contribute to the cost of gas to run a generator, but I thought this was a “men only” thing and didn’t have high hopes that they’d be interested in watching the Women’s World Cup. I turned out to be very wrong about this, which was amazing.

I told my friend Fayar that I wanted to watch the game and he got in touch with the guy aka the projector and cable owner who runs the public viewings. He immediately was excited about the match and started planning and inviting people, men and women, to watch! This involved tacking up a wooden sign announcing the game, which led to everyone I saw yesterday telling me “Danielle we are so excited for the match!!!”

My sisters and I made 60 paper American flags to pass out to people at the game. When we arrived at the public place we started handing them out and people were SO excited about this! We soon ran out of flags which means I think there was close to 80 people in attendance. Watching the game with that many people was so fun. We all cheered for Megan Rapinoe aka “Captain” together and when she scored that first penalty kick all the kids got up and ran around the room and in front of the screen. At the end of the game when we won we started a USA!!! chant and everyone congratulated me.

This was such a special experience and will probably stick out in my memory of the Peace Corps for many years to come. My village has become my home and the people have become my family and closest friends. To sit in a room with all of them cheering for the American women made me feel like my two worlds were connected in a very real way. I love being American, I am so proud to be an American woman just like the strong and incredible women on our national team, and I love that my village has accepted and embraced me for that identity. Last night a small Comorian village cheered for the USWNT like it was their own team. This is proof the world really isn’t all that big.