Dear Simsbury Soccer Club Players, Coaches, Family, and Friends:
Hello! Hujambo? (How are you?—in Swahili) Habari za mpira wa miguu? (How is soccer going?)
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Laura Saucier. I’m what I suppose you’d call a
Simsbury Soccer Club “alum.” I write today to tell you about an incredibly exciting partnership
between the Simsbury Soccer Club and the Bagamoyo Sisters’ Soccer Team.
Bagamoyo is a small, coastal town in Tanzania where I spent a few months in 2009, and to where I will
return this summer. Going alone and without any established volunteer-abroad program, I was afforded
the independence and flexibility of making my own opportunities. Once in Bagamoyo, I found students
who needed a science teacher, a local hospital that needed another set of hands, and (here’s where you
all come in…) a soccer team that needed a coach. The Bagamoyo Sisters are one of the only girls’
teams in Tanzania; these inspiring young players are bravely pioneering women’s sports in a society
that does not accept the soccer field as a proper place for any girl or woman. These girls are tough,
strong, and extraordinary. But, they are also a whole lot of fun. You’d love them; I know you would.
When I arrived in Bagamoyo, few of my players had cleats and none had shin-guards. (Yet, they went
into every tackle harder than you’ll ever see at Curtis Park.) As most of the girls owned only a couple
skirts and a few shirts, no athletic clothing meant that they simply weren’t able to practice any day
when they couldn’t borrow shorts from a brother or male cousin. While still in Tanzania, I shared this
information via email with Mr. Garlick, my former coach from the good old days of Simsbury travel
soccer. He, along with Mr. Newell and Mr. Hayden, organized a drive in Simsbury that sent hundreds
of pounds of soccer uniforms, gear, and equipment to Bagamoyo. (Generously covering, might I add,
an absurd sum of shipping expenses). Every girl on the Bagamoyo team now has cleats, shin-guards,
practice clothes, and uniforms. There are Simsbury Soccer shirts all over Bagamoyo, and everyone
there feels the presence of our beautiful little town half a world away. Crowds began showing up to
watch our practices and games, men and boys started to support the team, and I even saw one male
teenager wearing a “counterfeit” jersey—He had written “Simsbury” across his plain white tee-shirt.
Coaching and playing with the Bagamoyo Sisters has been among the greatest privileges and most
humbling experiences of my life. Nearly twenty percent of Bagamoyo is HIV-positive, and each girl on
the Bagamoyo team has watched this devastating disease take the lives of family members and close
friends. It is their parents’ generation (Africa’s ‘lost generation’) that has been hit hardest by the AIDS
epidemic, leaving many of the girls with broken families. Imagine for a moment that you are twelve
years old, orphaned, and responsible for raising your four younger brothers and sisters. Most of the
girls live on less than one dollar a day, and few are able to attend school. Needless to say, these young
women from Bagamoyo are living in a world very different than the Simsbury world I knew at their
age. When you look at one of these girls, too often there is a certain unsettling incongruity about her
face. It is her eyes, eyes that seem years older than her other features. A woman stares at you from
behind a young girl’s face. I often wondered exactly what they had seen, what had stolen the innocence
and wonder of youth from those eyes. As a child, my mother read to me every night, and my father
never missed a soccer game. I had books to read and sports to play, and teachers and coaches who
cared. I never went to bed hungry. It is no wonder that my eyes are still young. Yet, in Bagamoyo these
young girls with old eyes still smile often, laugh hard, and love one another deeply. Their resilient joy
stems both from their culture of living in the present and from a certain strength, fullness, and intimacy
of human connections exceedingly more profound than I’ve ever witnessed in the States.
The Bagamoyo-Simsbury Soccer partnership is an opportunity for you to become part of soccer on a
global scale. I encourage you to take this chance to connect across the globe with a group of young
women who may not share your language, culture, or beliefs, but who do share with you a love of the
same beautiful game. Swahili culture defines self-actualization as developing commonalities and
becoming part of a community, whereas American culture defines self-actualization as developing
uniqueness and becoming true individuals. Therefore, while personal growth in Tanzania means
growing toward other people, too often we pursue personal growth by growing apart from others. In
doing so, we lay the cornerstone of constraining microcosms that we build to separate our lives from
the lives around us. In Madagascar, where I studied abroad, they believe in Fihavanana—a
transcendent connection between all people. Fihavanana does not invoke quantum entanglement to
imply an invisible physical connection; rather it simply expresses the impossibility of extricating the
experience of one life from the other seven billion on our planet. What ensues is a responsibility to
share with those to whom you are connected—your brother in his room across the hall and a stranger in
her country across the globe.
Eighteen years ago, in Squadron Line Elementary School, there was a poster that read: “Sharing Makes
Everyone Happy.” Back then, the notion of sharing was limited to Legos, playground balls, and
crayons. But in a seemingly entropic march toward increased disorder and complexity, the concepts
that were once simple and concrete in kindergarten have an uncanny tendency to become more
complicated and abstract. As we mature, the concept of sharing widens to encompass the intangible; we
learn to share our time, ideas, experiences, and culture. Today, the idea of participation in cultural
exchange is trendy; but too often, this exchange, which by definition should involve mutual sharing,
becomes unidirectional. When Americans seek to engender positive change in a place like Bagamoyo
without demonstrating a corresponding willingness to be changed themselves, they communicate an
assumption of cultural superiority. Though far more subtle than the “White Man’s Burden,” these
actions unwittingly retain some of Kipling’s condescension, perpetuate a legacy of imperialism, and
exacerbate racial and socioeconomic tensions. Without allowing reciprocity, sharing becomes
patronizing. The Simsbury-Bagamoyo soccer partnership is about sharing; it’s about a give-and-take.
The “give” is Simsbury offering material, financial, and moral support for the pioneers of women’s
soccer in Bagamoyo. The reciprocal, equally important “take” involves accepting what the
extraordinary young women of Bagamoyo have to offer and allowing it to enrich our understanding of
the world and its people. In sharing their culture, experiences, ideas, beliefs, hardships, and dreams, the
Bagamoyo players will inspire the minds of Simsbury players to think critically about global problems
and their hearts to feel empathy for people they’ve never met. Girls will be challenged to step outside
the confines of Simsbury’s cozy microcosm to reexamine their values and preconceived notions,
broaden their minds, change their perspectives, and expand their worldviews.
If you are a player on any girls’ Simsbury Soccer Club team, here’s how you can get involved:
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Fill out an “About Me” page. While in Tanzania this summer, I will help the Bagamoyo
players (some of whom cannot read or write) to complete similar autobiographical sketches. I
will then match each of you with a Bagamoyo player, translate between English and Swahili,
and exchange the “About Me” pages between Simsbury and Bagamoyo. This way, you can get
to know your Bagamoyo “sister” and she can get to know you. The worksheet includes
questions about your interests, hobbies, goals, and dreams. It also includes space for a picture of
you and a short (remember, I have to translate all of this!) autobiography about your life,
family, and home.
Keep in touch with your Bagamoyo “sister” pen pal. Keep learning from one another and
developing your friendship. Email me any letters you write, and I will translate them into
Swahili and send them to Bagamyo.
Organize a lemonade stand, bake sale, soccer juggling contest, or other small fundraising
project for your Bagamoyo “sister.” As I mentioned before, Simsbury Soccer Club has
already graciously donated equipment, gear, and uniforms. However, now two years later, there
are some new players and a few veterans who will need new cleats and practice clothing. In
addition, I want each girl to have her own soccer ball. We take it for granted that we can grab a
ball and go kick around whenever we want to work on technique or just have some fun. But,
there are just two soccer balls between all twenty players on the Bagamoyo Sisters soccer team.
With a small fundraising project ($10-$50), you can buy for your “sister”: soccer ball ($10),
cleats ($20), shorts ($5), tee-shirt ($2), really sweet pro jersey ($15), etc. Because of exorbitant
airport fees on checked baggage, I can’t take much with me, but tell me what you want me to
buy for your “sister” and I will do so once I arrive in Tanzania. I also have trustworthy contacts
in Bagamoyo who will make purchases for the team if you complete a fundraising project after I
leave Bagamoyo in August.
Apply to be a Simsbury player representative of the Simsbury-Bagamoyo Soccer
Partnership. I will be way out at Stanford Medical School for the next 4+ years, and will need
your help to keep this effort going in Simsbury. Coaches Garlick and Hayden will help me out
quite a bit, but this partnership is about you, the players. So, if any of the older players (U-13
and up) are interested in helping organize and sustain this project, let me know and I will give
you more details.
In the future, there may be the opportunity for a couple Simsbury girls (high school age
players) to travel with me to Bagamoyo for 1-2 months as an assistant coach and guest
player.
For all the coaches, friends, and family of the Simsbury Soccer Club here’s what you can do:
Fundraise, Fundraise, Fundraise…because in a few years we hope to bring the Bagamoyo Sisters
soccer team to Connecticut for a tournament!
I really encourage you to become involved in this opportunity to share and connect through soccer.
You’ve probably heard our sport called a beautiful game. Ostensibly, this beauty lies in the elegant
union of agile speed and powerful strength, grueling tenacity and seemingly effortless grace, masterful
playmaking and abrupt changes in momentum. But, the true beauty of the game is more than what is
happening on the field. I believe that the beauty of soccer is its power to bring people together in a
world where everything else seems to tear us apart. Soccer is a shared language for those who speak
different tongues and common-ground for those of different cultures; it is a level playing field for those
who have everything and those who have nothing.
If you are interested in getting involved
with the Simsbury-Bagamoyo Soccer
Partnership (especially if you are a player
and would like an “About Me” sheet),
please email me. Also, if you have any
questions to ask or ideas to share, I’d love
to hear from you! My email address is:
[email protected].
Enjoy the spring
season. And, best
of luck to all the
Simsbury teams!
Sincerely,
Laura
I know that some of you may know me only as the person behind this ridiculously long letter. So, here’s a bit about
me: I’ve lived in Simsbury since I was five and have two younger brothers (Chris and Jon). I graduated from
Simsbury High in 2006 and from Duke University (where I studied neuroscience, biology, and chemistry) in May
2010. I am currently completing a year-long research fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Next year, I will be
attending Stanford University School of Medicine, and plan to train as a pediatric surgeon. As for my involvement
in Simsbury soccer: I was a member of Coach Garlick’s Simsbury Explosion team (two State Cups…whoop!) from
U-10 to U-12. I then played premiere and ODP from U-13 through U-18. In high school, I was on Coach Tor Fiske’s
varsity team (2005 State Co-Champs!!!) for four years, captain for two, All-State for three, and all-New England for
one. More about me: I would rather go camping than to a Broadway show, and would rather ride in the bed of a
truck than in the seat of a limo. I hate shopping, odd numbers, and the color orange. I love the feel of freefall, the
stories of country music, the enigmas of quantum theory, and peanut butter. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, and a
glorified stick figure is all that I can manage with a paintbrush. I mud-slide and cliff-dive. I am a Charles Dickens
enthusiast and a reality TV hater. I prefer the excitement of a thunderstorm to the calm of a sunny day.