Bag and Rag Soccer in Burundi

"we meet at our usual place and we do not have a ball to play football with; so off we go..

to the local rubbish pile to collect old plastic bags

you have to be careful where you walk, but...

soon we have enough

let's have a look what we got....

it looks good

you get some plastic together and...

you put it in a bag

and into another bag, I am sure you got the idea

meanwhile Paul has been to the place where they make dresses and...

via his mother, he got off cuts of material which he knots into long strips

because this we need to go around the plastic

it is a tricky job and you have to know what you are doing

but I have done it many times now and am really good at it

the last knot and than it is over to Paul

who will stitch little bits of cloth around the outside, while I do the second ball

all this takes time, I am sure you realise, but...

here it is.

just testing, and Paul says it is a good one

so here we go

can you spot the ball?

things are going well for our site

our goalkeeper is young but really good

and thanks to that new ball we won the match

oh, by the way, my name is Henri and I love football."