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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| August 7, 2004 |
Massawa, Eritrea – North African The Peace Ball |
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| Fishing boats departing the port in Massawa |
More than forty soccer players from Peace Boat helped kick off the 46th voyage's first Peace Ball
soccer exchange. Eritrea is the spiritual birth-place of the Peace Ball project team, when a group
of Peace Boat participants years ago watched a group of Eritrean youth playing 'soccer' with PET
bottles. The group was inspired by the idea that soccer could be a means of communication where
language or other differences created a divide, and they decided to collect soccer goods in Japan
and deliver them around the world.
Before the match, they visited Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selasie's
bombed out former residence and the North Sea Museum, where they learned more about ancient Eritrean
culture and more recent battles around Massawa during the independence movement. |
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| A young boy in front of the bombed-out former palace of Ethiopian Emperor Haile
Selasie |
Pulling into into Massawa's dusty soccer stadium, the Peace Boat squad were greeted by an excited
crowd of Eritrean youth. Donning their soccer gear, they took to the ptich against a strong Etritrean
youth side. The first game resulted in a 0-0 draw. Peace Boat GET teacher Sam Knight slipped in a
point blank goal to win the second game. |
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| Despite mid-day sun in one of the world's hottest regions, the action on the pitch
was intense |
The Massawa youth battled on in a third mixed game, converting a penalty kick to win the last game.
Afterwards Peace Ball captain Harachi Harada presented the Eritrean youths with soccer balls signed
by the Peace Ball squad along with comemmorative shirts and 40 soccer balls collected around Japan
for Eritrean youth. |
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