Karl Lindgren-Streicher, a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Namibia, had played soccer - the world's game - for most of his life, but never quite like the way most of the world does it
An assist from afar: Middleton High School helps soccer team in Namibia
By Todd D. Milewski
May 20, 2004
Caption: Namibian children don their donated soccer jerseys from Middleton High School (contributed photo).
It was a simple request. Karl Lindgren-Streicher never anticipated the volume of the result.
The Middleton native, a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Namibia, had played soccer - the world's game - for most of his life, but never quite like the way most of the world does it.
Soccer shoes? Those are your feet.
Green grass? More like sand.
Soccer balls? Worn out within a month of first use.
Uniforms? Nope. Shirts and skins.
Find some teammates, set up some sticks as a makeshift goal and play. That's the way it's done, even in the poorest parts of the globe. A far cry from the organized games American children play.
But Lindgren-Streicher, 24, hoped some help could come from the Madison area.
Did it ever.
The 1998 Middleton High School graduate sent an e-mail to Ken Burghy, the Cardinals' soccer coach, asking if the school had any old uniforms or equipment it wasn't using that he would be willing to donate.
A few months later, the Epembe Combined School in Ondangwa, Namibia, had its first set of jerseys (no, that's not really the Middleton soccer team playing on the dusty fields of southwest Africa), a bunch of new soccer balls and some equipment.
"I was blown away," Lindgren-Streicher said, not to mention the reaction of those who actually would make up the uniformed team. "My mom and sister showed up in Africa with a whole duffel bag - I mean stuffed-to-the-gills duffel bag - filled with soccer balls and soccer shoes.
"Some of these are new soccer balls. People went out and bought a soccer ball, it wasn't just old stuff that their kids had grown out of. I was amazed at how much - I thought, 'Well, what the heck, I've got family coming over, they can bring it over.' They didn't have enough room to bring all the stuff over. I was just amazed at the generosity of people."
After getting Lindgren-Streicher's e-mail, Burghy went to the school district warehouse to look for his team's old uniforms, which are replaced every three years. He found about 30 shirts, added 30 new balls he had left over from his Cardinal Soccer Camp and gave them to Lindgren-Streicher's mother.
"To these kids who don't have anything, that's Christmas to them," Burghy said. "It means so much to those kids, and this is stuff we were going to throw away."
Ellen Lindgren was planning a trip to Namibia with daughter Anna to visit her son for four weeks last December and January. When they left the United States, they had about 140 pounds of soccer gear with them, including donations also made by neighbors and members of their church.
"Ken was just incredibly generous about this," Ellen Lindgren said. "It was just neat for him to follow up with one of his kids like that and for him to reach across the ocean and make a huge difference like that."
When the Epembe Combined School students found their new shirts, they immediately clamored around them to find their favorite number to wear. A picture Lindgren-Streicher sent Burghy shows the barefoot players wearing the shirts while goofing off in front of the camera. Smiles are everywhere.
A letter was part of the package sent to Burghy.
"I would love to thank you and all of your donors for the soccer jerseys that you provided for the Epembe Combined School," soccer coach Lucious Mukena wrote to Lindgren-Streicher. "The soccer jerseys are like a great fountain of treasure to us."
There were actually enough shirts to outfit two other schools at which there are Peace Corps volunteers, Lindgren-Streicher said. Namibia, a country of about 2 million people in a land area roughly 10 times the size of Wisconsin, is home to about 80 volunteers like Lindgren-Streicher, whose teaching contract runs through December.
He said he went into the Peace Corps after finishing schooling at Colorado College because he has had "a pretty lucky life," and wanted to give something back while making decisions on his future.
"We're really proud of him. He's an amazing kid," Ellen Lindgren said. "Obviously, a lot changes when someone goes abroad. Your world view changes. He's always been a great kid, but just hearing him speak about his experiences...people were just really amazed at the compassion that's really blossomed."
Lindgren-Streicher was in Madison last week to visit his family and give a presentation on his travels to his church. He was off to Boston for his sister's graduation from college this week, and he heads back to Namibia on Monday.
He'll have more soccer balls with him on the trip.
Soccer is one of the ways Lindgren-Streicher has bridged the cultural gap, and also how he won over his students.
"I'm the only white person in my village - you get used to the stares and all that - and I'm younger than all the other teachers, so the kids don't really know how to approach you," he said.
"But then you go out on the soccer field and you're pushing people around, scoring a goal here or there. It's nice for them to see, yeah, I'm really, really different, but, hey, he loves to play soccer and he's a teacher. That's not so weird after all."
E-mail: tmilewski@madison.com
Cards have a history of helping
Karl Lindgren-Streicher isn't the first former Middleton soccer player to take equipment to a Peace Corps position.
Ben Kollasch, who now is an assistant coach on the Cardinals' boys team and a volunteer with the girls team, took soccer balls with him on a trip to Panama during his volunteer work from 1999 to 2001.
"It was more of an informal thing," Kollasch said. "I just took them a few balls, which was one of the things they most needed."
Said Middleton coach Ken Burghy: "It's nice that kids of this character take from athletics whatever they got. If athletics helped these guys develop into the people they are, then that's a real plus for high school athletics."
Published: 9:18 AM 5/20/04
