Game Room Rock Stars

The Cambodian team was the first team to arrive at the Football for Hope Team Village. All 32 teams competing in the festival are staying in a school complex which has dormitories, a dining hall, numerous fields and a main hall; it is like a mini-college campus, minus the beer and frat parties, surrounded with barbed wire, security guards and police patrol in central Johannesburg. The Football for Hope Festival team was on-hand to welcome us with open arms, big smiles and giant gear bags of adidas swag. Apparently, the Cambodian team has become both famous and infamous with the Festival organizers due to our many logistical issues and from following this blog.


As the team bowed and thanked every single person they met, without making a peep, they were instantly dubbed the most polite team, but possibly the shyest. The organizers were as concerned as we were about how the team would deal with the frigid temperatures, the food, the language barrier and the culture shock. After checking into our rooms and getting the campus tour, the team hit the game room. There are three game rooms at the Team Village and the Cambodian’s took over the nearest one, which is equipped with a foosball table, a pool table, computers, a TV and 20 soccer ball bean bag chairs – kid heaven!

Cambodians are good at pool and our team is no exception. Although the team had never seen foosball before, they took to the game like a fish to water. Within minutes, the group had split into two and was taking on the volunteers and security guards in both games as no other teams were around. There were many heavily accented, “Hello, I come from Cambodia. My name is _________.” We had practiced this phrase endlessly over the past seven months and this was pretty much all they had learned in our English lessons. This effort, their smiles and their ability in the game room won over the volunteers and security guards from the get go.

During the first breakfast in the dining hall, the organizing team and the kitchen staff, who had all been briefed on our team’s finicky eating habits, came over to make sure the team was able to eat the muesli and yogurt provided. The team was so polite and filled with smiles that they endeared themselves to the event and kitchen staff. Nice to get a little special treatment and it certainly didn’t hurt being the only delegation at the Team Village the entire first day.

Coach Heang and coach Kamsort joined forces with our new Kenyan friend, Henry, in the team’s first training session in South Africa. Henry is the delegation leader from the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) in Nairobi. Mathare is one of the largest slums in the world and has almost one million residents. MYSA has been running soccer leagues for 24 years and is a world famous organization. Henry is a product of the program and is now one of its most respected employees. As Henry’s team hadn’t arrived yet, he offered his wealth of coaching experience to our team. Henry is about 6’3” and very dark skinned. The team was intimidated by Henry due to his size and color. After an hour and a half under Henry’s wing, the team was just beginning to feel comfortable around people of African descent.

The practice was hard due to the 24 plus hours of travel, elevation, cold weather and the time difference. The team couldn’t believe they didn’t break a sweat during the training and prior to the start of the session, we had to send them upstairs to put on more clothes. It was about 65 degrees, just like a crisp, sunny Fall day.

While returning from practice, a group of forty odd African volunteers were making their way toward the Cambodian team. The team stepped back in fear at such a large group of dark-skinned people until the group started singing and dancing African style. The team was transfixed by the captivating music and the joy emanating from the volunteers. Before you knew it, the Cambodians were clapping their hands to the beat. This first taste of African dance and music helped the team break down more of their cultural barriers and it was good for the normally reticent Asians to loosen up around the lively Africans.

As teams began trickling in the second day, the Cambodian team kept position in the game room, meeting the other teams through the language of games and laughter. Although they couldn’t verbally communicate with the new arrivals, the Cambodians welcomed each new group with games of pool and foosball. Since they were the old hands at the Team Village, they had the run of the tables all day.


It has been a great start of the Football for Hope Festival and the Cambodian team is charming all who they come across. Stay tuned for more updates.