Ian Simpson quickly drew the attention of the village kids. Bouncing a soccer ball down the airstrip near their huts did the trick.
After careful consideration, Simpson eventually gave the ball to a boy who was carrying a bundle of firewood on his head. The boy immediately started to play with his new prize and never did take the wood down from its perch.
In the weeks that followed, Simpson gave away four more soccer balls, as well as some whistles, a pump and inflation needles. In the village of Falea, located in Africa's Republic of Mali, he didn't just leave behind sporting equipment. He left behind a whole lot of smiles.
"It was pretty cool," Simpson said. "It was a neat opportunity to be there. Not one day went by that I didn't go for my walk, whether I was taking a soccer ball with me or not, and shake my head and go, 'Oh my God, I'm in Africa.' And that was part of the motivation in the first place for taking something with me. It's such a simple little thing to do -- to take something, and to try to think of what you can take that will benefit the most people. It was neat to zero in on the soccer balls because it worked so well. It opened up a realm of contact that otherwise wouldn't have happened. After the first ball went out, the kids were a lot more attentive to who was walking up and down the runway."
See Wednesday's Citizen and pgcitizen.ca for the rest of the story.
