The World Soccer Tour

On January 28th we jumped on a jetty and headed over to Fort Kochi in search of Rafi and a game of soccer. We had called Rafi, the guy we'd met on the beach about 10 days earlier, that morning, but his dad had said he was out, so we headed over to the "parade ground" (sports field) in the hope of finding him and, if not him, at least a game of soccer. We arrived to not only find the depressing sight of a bloody cricket game once again taking up a perfectly good soccer field (what'd we expect, really?), but also the awful spectacle of a couple of foreigners (who turned out to be Aussies of course) joining in and encouraging the young local guys in their sad and depressing waste of life. Just as I was about to turn and leave - cursing cricket all the way - I noticed a couple of guys off to the side kicking a soccer ball around. I went straight over and joined them and over the next half hour or so many others started showing up as well. It turns out they play there every evening from around 5:30. Not on the soccer field, which is of course reserved for cricket, but over on the side of the field.

Now, as promised, it’s time to tell you about “The 10 Days”: our full-on festival time from April 10th to 19th when we celebrated the many cultures of India. In those few short days we celebrated a 2-day Hindu festival, a Sikh festival, a Jain festival and a special only-in-Jodhpur local festival, which was the definite highlight of them all. There was no Muslim festival around that time (they didn’t have one until last week when they celebrated Mohammed’s birthday), but it was still pretty diverse, exciting and interesting. And, by the 10th day, it was a downright blast!

We've had a lot of amazing experiences here in Tibet over the past few weeks, but the undeniable highlight has been hanging out and partying at the home of one of the friends we made at Tibet University during our first week here in Lhasa.

On our very first visit to the campus to play basketball we met these three young guys, all of whom are students at the university. In total, I think I ended up playing hoops with them and other students at least 6 or 7 different times. I even got The World Soccer Tour rolling again for a few hours one day. The basketball was definitely great fun, but the most amazing times were all had back at our friend Tenzin's place, eating, drinking, talking and partying with him and his mom, brother, friends and neighbors. And, man, what an incredible experience each of those visits turned out to be!