Sisi Tuko Pamoja
Sisi Tuko Pamoja (See-see two-co pa-muoy-ya) was the catch-phrase of our last adventure in Kisumu, Kenya. This is a powerful, simple phrase that has changed my life in many ways. It is a battle cry and yet a reedification of our call back to community, our connection to that which is great. It means “We are together, we are one.” It is usually followed immediately after by the word “brother.” Ringing in as “We are together, we are one, brother!”
Coaching soccer around the world, I have seen first-hand how “the beautiful game” can serve as a language of communion. A simple game that involves any rounded object as a ball and any target area as a goal can be played by rich and poor, male and female, religious and non-religious, young and old. In all of these experiences, however, I never recall experiencing a person playing the game unconnected to others, in a lonely place. The game, just as this journey, has a way of connecting you to something bigger, something that can only be explained as “sisi tuko pamoja.”
As I prepare for this second journey to Kenya, this time traveling for the first leg of the journey alone, it is important to remember “sisi tuko pamoja.” It is because we are connected, because we are one, that I am leaving one community to become part of another. It is a blessing that I am able to extend the resources of one community to another. But you may be surprised by which community is receiving the bigger benefit from the exchange.
Before going to Kenya for the first time, I was exhausted. The whole process of life in America seemed so drawn out. We have to fill out loads of paperwork just to sign up for things we don’t want to do in order to pay for things we don’t have the money to buy in order to be around people that only care about themselves…at least that is what it felt like back then.
It is easy to be drowned by the social media, Hollywood, capitalistic culture which seems only to care about the “gifted” individual. Here, you make over $100 million per year but you played so good in this 2 hour football game that we want to give you a $50,000 car. It makes me bitter, to be honest, that we value certain people so much that we have no value left for all of our brothers and sisters, and, yet, I and all of us included perpetuate the problem by the investment of our dollar. The problem is just as challenging for those who are receiving the gifts as it is for the giver because neither need the exchange. Professional sports do play a role in our lives as a way to bring people together, but the more somebody has at the top of a system, the less there is for those at the bottom of the system.
When a professional athlete making a certain large amount of money goes on strike, what are they striking for? Are they striking for equality? Are they striking for a purpose that transcends themselves? Have we given them the wrong message by telling them that they can make more money in one hour of playing a game than many people of this world earn in an entire lifetime? Is an hour of their time worth more than the lives of millions of human beings, or have we set up a facade, one that we all buy into yet none of us truly believe in once we see the truth?
After returning from Kenya the first time, I received a peace that had been long missing. It was a return to what I had known all along, sought with vigor, but had been hard-pressed to find. It was the value of each human person. It was the value of me, the value of you, the value of a stranger. In sharing this blog, it is my goal to show you smiling faces, adventures, the blessings which your generosity brings, and humanity, especially humanity as can be exemplified by a culture of “sisi tuko pamoja.” So, as I prepare, today, for this next Kenyan adventure, I meditate on how to best convey this message, one that has brought peace, hope, and joy to my own life in such a way that it has sent me around the world and back to find it once again.
Stay tuned for a journey of challenges, smiles, and new discoveries!
