LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD

Last October, not long after I began teaching at Maranatha Mizigo several days a week, I noticed that every day a small group of men spent a few hours digging on the grassy playground area between the primary school and the boy’s dormitory.

Curious, I asked some teachers what was happening.  “We don’t know.  They might be building something.  Maybe you can ask someone, maybe Daddy (Patrick), and find out for us.”

So I asked and found out that they were leveling the playing field.

This large grassy area, now owned and fenced by Maranatha schools, had long been used as a futbol (soccer) field by several schools, as well as by neighborhood children, both for practice and for competitive games.

The field had originally been partially leveled using a bulldozer, but it was definitely far from level.  The whole area was covered with potholes, and the entire east side was several feet lower than the west side. Although all teams playing on the field might appear to be affected equally by the disparity, this factor frequently made huge and significant differences in both the scores and strategies of games.

Every week for two months I noticed the tedious but steady progress.  First, the problem areas were defined.  Next each area was dug into large pieces.  The large pieces were then raked into small pieces, leveled, and joined together. Finally, in December, new grass was planted to be ready when the next soccer season began in February.

Today, in the summer of 2013, the improved field is used every day by hundreds of children for futbol and other games.  It is still far from perfectly level, but it makes for a much better game both for teams and for all the individual players.

Leveling the playing field can help in all areas of life, in all parts of the world.  It is in some ways similar to what we call equal opportunity, but it is not quite the same.  The more level the playing field is, the better the game is for everyone.  

Both Uganda and the USA have some large disparities between the personal resources of the rich and the poor.  Uganda has a lofty national goal of having over fifty percent of the population belong to “the middle class” a few years from now.  In America we are already there, but differences between the extremes in the USA continue to increase.  

Children in Uganda and elsewhere learn to read and to use computers and smartphones, just like children in the USA do.  Both groups can learn more easily, and can build a better world for all of us, when their basic needs for food, shelter, health, and love are met at an early age.  And children in all countries sometimes need help from others to make, and to keep, this playing field level.