Muzungu Allstars

A football pitch in the middle of nowhere. Around it only red, dusty sand, the occassional tree and lots of bushes. Yet the Muzungu Allstars (muzungu = white guy) managed to draw a crowd of ca. 300 villagers that must live somewhere around here. The game of the muzungus against a local selection of soccer players has been announced on the local radio and it is the radio which is the most important source of information out here. After 90 mins under the scorching sun, it's 4 to 1 for the expats' team. But the local crowd is partying anyway.

The Muzungu Allstars and local fans

The local team attacking

The local crowd partying after the game
(For some strange reason, the kids really loved our empty plastic bottles.)

On my first night in Lusaka, I have met some of the players for the Muzungu Allstars. It's a group of consultants, development workers and volunteers from ten different nations that meet regularly in Lusaka to play soccer together. Some time ago they started to play local teams throughout Zambia. That weekend's opponents came from somewhere near Lake Kariba. So for me it was a good chance to have a first look at the Zambian countryside, spend the weekend camping at a lake and to watch a really unique soccer game. Sandy Beach, the camping site we stayed at, is owned by "Herman the German", a guy from Germany that has been living in Zambia for something like 40 years - that is, since relatively short after Zambia became independent (that was 1964 - on Wednesday this week 48 years to the day) and relatively short after the man-made Lake Kariba (one of the biggest man-made lakes in the world) came into being. But that's a different story.

View of Lake Kariba from the camping site