As the World Cup Finals approach, the competition is also brewing in Grassy Narrows! This report comes from Cathy:

On Thursday we arranged to meet people at the school at 4pm for the first game of the Grassy Narrows World Cup. It was quickly decided that the opening match was team Brazil against team Germany. This decision was made despite the fact that the only Brazilian player in the game was on team Germany, which in fact, had no German players at all. It was a hard fought match with goals being scored back and forth. There were some excellent plays in net and in the field as well. There was a mix in the age and skill level of players and for the first half team Brazil was dominating the game. Not to be outdone, team Germany recruited a few new players and we decided on ‘next goal wins.’ Team Germany scored the last goal but team Brazil scored more overall. Like in any good match, there was no real loser.

We felt that this event was important to our solidarity work in the community because it was neither about the forest nor about human rights issues. This was about getting out in the community, getting to know people, and having some fun with them. The game drew out a mix of adults, children and teenagers, and everyone enjoyed themselves, even those who didn’t participate in the game itself. This was a great opportunity to interact with the community as people, not as activists or as any other type of ‘workers,’ and it was a great experience. All the players enjoyed themselves enough that it was agreed that we would continue the World Cup next week.

Check out pictures from RAN’s Summer in Grassy Narrows here.