ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
June 30, 2005
Peace Corps volunteer returns to village with passion for
soccer
Virgil Wright
When a former Peace Corps volunteer planned a return
trip to the African village where she had spent two years planting
mango, acacia and cashew trees, she chose to bring a gift to cultivate
pride rather than plants.
Within moments of stepping off a bus after a bumpy 12-hour ride
from the capital of Guinea, Meaghan Dunn pulled 13 soccer uniforms
from an overstuffed bag and distributed the gear to the Kamaby
village team, who cheered and chanted her name as they eagerly
pulled on the new Reebok kit.
The barefoot athletes, rich in skill but limited in resources,
received the uniforms just in time for the Koundara province’s
annual tournament. For the first time, they competed in matching
gear — sunflower yellow jerseys, black shorts, and red socks
— as they advanced through the tournament rounds.
“When I knew I was going back, I wanted to bring a gift
for the entire village,” said Dunn, a South End resident.
“Everyone in Kamaby would come out for the Sunday soccer
games and cheer on the team. Because that was the one time there
were such large crowds gathered in one place, we would use the
break at halftime to educate people about health and environmental
issues.”
Dunn underestimated just how much the soccer congregation would
appreciate the uniforms, which were received like manna from Massachusetts.
“They were ecstatic. I showed up on a Friday in May and
they were preparing to start the big tournament on Monday and
they were stressing out, once again, because they had to compete
in whatever mismatched shirts and shorts they could find.”
Dunn, 28, purchased the uniforms with donations from individuals
and companies, including Citizens Energy Corporation of Boston,
where she worked last winter helping to run the company’s
oil heat program for needy Bay State families.
“I never expected to return as a hero,” said Dunn,
laughing as she recalled having her name chanted before the matches.
Guinea, a former French colony on the west coast of Africa, is
largely rural, a land of coastal jungle and inland savannah, especially
in the north close to the Senegalese border where Dunn served
out her Peace Corps stint.
Like many agricultural villages, Kamaby has a high rate of unemployment,
with the men working furiously during the growing season and then
remaining mostly idle, with little economic activity. Many young
men leave the village for Conakry on the coast or Dakar, the capital
of Senegal, where work is more plentiful.
Trained in French, Dunn spoke mostly Fulani during her two-year
stay. She had no choice but to learn it — no one spoke English
and the colonial language rarely penetrated the veil of agrarian
life.
Dunn lived alone in a beehive-shaped mud-and-thatched hut in a
family compound in the village. Her adopted father, Omar Diallo,
presided over the sprawling residence, which was occupied by his
three wives and 20 children and grandchildren.
Raised in Manchester, N.H., Dunn studied anthropology at the University
of California at Santa Cruz and worked several summers on a Granite
State farm.
Peace Corps work “was something I’d been thinking
about since high school,” she said. “I spent my junior
year in college at Dehli University in India, where I learned
Hindi and caught a permanent travel bug. The Peace Corps made
sense for me because I wanted to live in a different culture rather
than just travel as a tourist — and be productive and help
people at the same time.”
Starting this fall, Dunn will study for a master’s in international
development at the University of Amsterdam. She plans to return
to Kamaby for the research phase of her graduate studies in Holland.
And, she hopes, to play a little soccer.
“I played in high school and started a girls team in Kamaby.
They were really surprised to see I could play,” said Dunn.
“I’m looking forward to going back,” she said.
“Kamaby will always be a second home.”
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