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MAKING HER PITCH Volunteer teacher brings 'America's pastime' to the children of Rwanda
dbachman@observer-reporter.com
Baseball has long been known as America's favorite pastime, and now, it's becoming a big hit with Rwandan youngsters in Southest Africa, as well, thanks to a Washington County native.
Christen Smith and one of her colleagues, Scott Murray, of Canada, are serving as volunteer teachers with WorldTeach, a nonprofit educational organization that reaches out to developing countries.
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During orientation at an AIDS orphanage in Butare, she and another volunteer, who also thought to bring some gloves, started to play catch.
"After throwing for a couple minutes, two kids walked over, curiously watching ... then a few more ... then a few more," Smith, 26, wrote in an e-mail. "They indicated they wanted to try it, so I ran up to the motel and grabbed the other glove and the Steelers whiffle bat and ball that my mom had sent with me.
"Before we knew it, there were 20-plus people standing around watching and waiting for their turn to play. You wouldn't believe how quickly they were able to throw, catch and bat. ... We were completely blown away."
Smith, daughter of Margie Smith of Claysville and Cleason Smith of West Middletown, and Murray, a 47-year-old computer science teacher, encountered a similar experience once they arrived in the village of Kiziguro, their home base until their teaching assignment ends in December.
"When Scott and I got to Kiziguro, we decided to decompress and throw the ball around for a while. Just like in Butare, we were swarmed with an audience," said Smith, a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania who is teaching math at Kiziguro Secondary School in the Eastern Province, which is considered the model school of the Gatsibo District.
Murray, however, was a bit more colorful on his blog in describing the scene, which occurred near a primary school that was still in session.
"The effect of this was stunning, as an electric current appeared to pass almost instantly from one end of the field to the other - and a sea of young bodies began to move in our direction," he wrote. "Being the dopes that we are, we decided to just start walking, hoping we might find some space where we could throw the ball, although the possibility of this obviously vanished immediately, as three or four sets of small hands grasped each of ours, while others hung on our arms.
"In the space of barely a minute, we were totally surrounded by probably 100 children, who were all chattering away to us and laughing at us as we started to make a slow circle around the schoolyard. The crowd grew larger and larger as we walked, until we finally stopped in the middle of the field and turned to look at each other with a combination of giddy elation and uncertainty."
Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa with nearly 10.1 million people, and is still rebuilding from a brutal genocide in 1994 that killed between 800,000 and 1 million of its citizens. Although the country has experienced rapid development in the last 15 years, 90 percent of its population relies on subsistence farming, and financial resources are limited.
As a result, Smith and Murray have witnessed Rwandan youngsters spending their free time either running down the streets pushing a rusted bicycle wheel with a stick; swinging a hoe twice their size in the fields and pausing only to look up when they pass by; carrying large gas cans filled with water from the local pump; or simply standing around in groups, hanging off of one another, talking and laughing.
Perhaps that's why the kids have become so enamored with the game of baseball.
"Any time that we went up to the playing field to throw, the students were fighting for the gloves. Unfortunately, we only had two at the time," said Smith, who played softball for two years at Bishop Canevin High School and recently began playing again in co-ed summer leagues in Phoenix, Ariz., where she was living before her missionary trip to Africa.
By the time Smith had written the e-mail, they were up to four gloves and an aluminum bat, courtesy of their roommate's brother-in-law, who is employed at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
"We've taken the bat up a few times now when there's not a huge crowd, and they've gotten the hang of it within a few minutes. Their athletic ability is unbelievable," Smith wrote. "We still need more gloves, especially a couple lefties and a lot more softballs."
Murray has been promised some gloves from his friends in Canada, and some friends in Washington planned to ship gloves to Smith as well.
"Once those arrive, we can start explaining the game to the students," Smith said. "For now, the students think that baseball consists of people throwing a ball to each other. When they see the game in its entirety, they're going to lose it.
"Once we teach the actual game to the students, we hope to start a league-type organization at the school. We have over 700 students, so I know we won't have any trouble getting a number of teams organized."
To inquire about sending baseball or softball equipment, contact Christen Smith at christenjane@gmail.com. To read more about Smith's experiences, visit Scott Murray's blog at www.swmurray.wordpress.com.
