A little taste of go2bless France 2011…

The coffeeshop teemed with colour and life and over spilled into the street. Children toed-and-froed from activity to activity. Adults basked in the summer sun enjoying coffee and cake.

Faces were painted with meticulous love.

Hair braided with passionate perseverance.

Bracelets made with new friends.

We played basketball with children and local drug dealers.

We doodled on the pavement with chalk.

We scrawled prayers on the soles of our shoes.

We entered a cake competition.

One afternoon the local youth challenged us to a game of football; France versus England. We gathered on a dusty 5-a-side pitch surrounded by high rise flats a stone’s throw from the coffeeshop.

There must have been 25 or more players on the pitch when we kicked off and another 30 fans leaning over the pitch side railings cheering on their respective nation. The excitement and noise reached fever pitch. People came out to watch from their balconies. More and more players joined from the sidelines. Football turned into pinball. The pitch morphed into an amphitheatre. Everyone United.