World Cup and Community Tragedy (Part I)

We've had two weeks of World Cup soccer, watching as many games as possible with our fellow teachers and the students and passers-by who crowd the windows and door of our teachers' lounge trying to get a glimpse of the world sporting event. Most people have little knowledge of the countries involved, but that doesn't dampen their passion for the game. Our colleagues have kept up the enthusiasm despite the disappointing performances by the African teams. Clifford, our school's other English teacher is a particularly avid fan - we suspect he's watched every game that hasn't conflicted with classes. However, as the first round of group stage play culminated and teams began to qualify for the knock-out stage of the tournament, our school suffered a tragedy which eclipsed the footballmania. One of our 9th grade students, the son of our chemistry teacher Niquisse, died unexpectedly from illness. As soon as we got the news, just after second period, the entire
school shut down. Everyone walked to his house to sit with him in solidarity, as is the custom here, crowding the home, porch, and yard with hundreds of students, teachers, and family members. The student, whom everyone called Van Dam like the Belgian action star, was only 14 and he did not have AIDS, malaria, TB, or a history of bad health. Janet thinks he might have had meningitis. Although it is unclear what caused his death, he most probably would not have died if he had recieved modern healthcare, but that is not available here, even for the families of relatively well-off professionals like teachers. So we were not watching USA's exciting last-minute goal against Algeria that put them through to the round of 16 on TV with the others; we were listening at home on the radio, waving our flags and cheering in our yard to celebrate. The other teachers were taking shifts helping our grieving colleague make arrangements for the burial of his son
(continued in Part II).