:Another part of my memoire.--
"Souvenir d'Haiti" from my memoire". Continued.

I felt very important when I suggested a neighborhood championship the next summer. Why did they never think about it? They used to participate in two or three championships during summer. They have seen activities like that in other neighborhoods. Why did they let a young kid like me come first with the idea? They were probably afraid of taking responsibilities. I had the sense of responsibility and the vision. I went for it.

I envisioned a neighborhood championship with four or six teams; I did not want it too long for a first experience. As a comet traveling its indefinite flight path, the news went fast and far. Teams came from everywhere in a radian of 10 miles in that part of the city to register. Did I mention my mom didn’t want us to play soccer? Being the coordinator of that championship was problematic for me. I knew my mom would be mad when she finds out and I will get beat so badly that she would send me to the hospital, like she always promised us. So I don’t have to say that I had to hide during the games, just in case she is passing by. One day, during the 3rd or 4th game, my brother was playing for a team and I forgot to hide; suddenly a hand accompanying a familiar voice grabbed my shoulder, “what are you doing here”. God, have mercy; that was my mom. Thank you Lord to have spoken to her heart that day - she did not start to beat us right away in the street, but everyone knew what was about to happen when we got home. While we were taken away like we were under arrest I turn back and cried “continue the game don’t wait for us” you know, like a desperate stoic act as I was facing my fate.

On our way home or our jailhouse, as we were passing next to the local barber shop, the barber who knew us told my mom “you cannot stop the championship like that, what are you going to beat them for? He is a wonderful kid, he is doing a wonderful job, and everybody likes him for what he is doing.” And my mom looked at my brother and I inquisitively, my brother quickly said, “it is not me it’s Roro (my nick name), me, I just play for a team.” Mom then asked, “what did I told you about playing soccer in the streets? We did not answer. With my mom, in situations like that, silence is always your best answer, because anything you say will be used against you. So Roro, you are responsible for that mess in the street?” I still did not answer. Then another man in his sixties, who seemed to have lots of money, and would come to the barbershop very often in his long convertible Cardillac, and talks a lot about the things he has done and plan to do, told my mom “forgive him for me because a lot of us here cannot do what he is doing over there, he is the FEDERATION.” You cannot take the federation away without canceling the championship, and kids should play and amuse themselves. My mom did not say anything and she took us home. When we got home I was still waiting for the usual beating with the belt but instead she began a long speech. “You are doing something like that without telling” …, my brother quickly said “not me” ... “you could have been killed, anything can happen with those people, don’t you know in soccer games people stab and shoot each other? You Roro, who told you to do stuffs like this? Is it true you are doing this? How did you gather so many people in the street? People don’t have better to do, you know… and blablabla.” At that point I knew there will be no beating. Then I went under the bed, I pulled out a medium size can (half a gallon) of milk powder, I opened it and handed it to her and I told her: this is the money to buy prizes for the three best teams. And she went” oh my God and they let you keep all that money what if you loose it, who is going to refund it.” Then I asked her to keep the can of money for me. As the conversation became sweeter I asked her: can we go back now? She said, “huh … yeah but at the first sign of trouble run home.”

As we were returning to the “soccer field” people were clapping. At our sight the game stopped again and everyone was cheering and clapping, they come lift me in the air and I saw my mom smiling on the other side of the junction. They put me on top of a big and tall concrete wall that was on the sidewalk of the street for me to have a good view of the field. No more hiding for me. From there I wasn’t watching the game, I was looking over at my mom at a distance, talking to the other people (probably about me) and laughing and watching me and I made a victory fist to her and she replied the same way. I could see my mom was proud of me, even though she never told me directly. She still remembers that time because she often talks about it, until now, to other people. From that day my friends looked at me differently and I started to be more confident in making decisions.

I was a one man Federation of Soccer, as the matter of fact, every body called me “Federation” as in FIFA (Federation International of Football). Before I knew it dozens of supporters would gather every afternoon in that corner of the streets to cheer their favorite teams. The games were so pleasurable that I wish I could take part too. Unfortunately I was the Federation, there would be conflict of interest.

The Soccer Field-.
Regular dedicated soccer fields or even parks were unusual, as a result any non busy street or unused space could be transformed into a soccer field. The area where I used to live had mostly busy streets, so we could not have a championship in the middle of the street everyday. But one of the streets could have four lines of traffic and had a large sidewalk. I decided to use the sidewalk plus a traffic lane of the street. That left plenty of space for cars to pass and not disrupt traffic too much. The level difference among the sidewalk and the street created a gap, there were inconveniences, but the games brought more joy. At that time, I don’t think kids needed an authorization from authorities to gather in the street. My understanding was if you are doing something and nobody tells you to stop that means it’s Okay. At that point in time I lived near the soccer stadium and I was a big soccer fan. I knew the name of all the players of the national clubs as well as the national team, and understood very well the soccer games schema.

After the second match I quickly realized that I had an important problem to deal with, I did not know how to manage the crowd, and I needed help. Here came my friend Weber once again, he had the appeal of a diplomat. He was my advisor, my press director, and at some instances my bodyguard. I told Webber what I needed and he would quickly gather his little brothers and got it done.

Everything was going very well until one day one team did not accept the results of the game and a big fight started. The fight ran out of control and I had to ban them from the competition, needless to say they did not accept the decision. In fact, they promised to disrupt the upcoming games if they were not reinstated. Their threats were taken very seriously because there were gang members in those soccer clubs, some adults advised me to cancel the competitions, which I promptly followed. When that time arrived in a championship and you have to cancel the games like I did, people say the "Federation" is the winner, because the federation gets to keep all the money or trophies. In that particular case I was the champion. I had a cool summer. I had money to go to the movies with my brother, and buy some cool clothes which I wouldn’t be able to do if I wasn’t the winning "Federation".