From Paris with Love to Indonesia - PART 1

Paris, it is a dream city for many people. The romantic view of the Eiffel Tower, the calm Seine River, Notre Dame, Mont Martre, Champs d’Elysses, L’Arc du Triomphe and, of course, the famous Musee du Louvre we know from The Da Vinci Code book and film (that has the painting of Mona Lisa). For many people, Paris is a “must visit” place before you die. And it is too for the Rumah Cemara team. Of course the most important thing is to participate in the Homeless World Cup 2011, but the fact that the competition will be held at Champs de Mars, under the Eiffel Tower, is very intriguing too. So, this team, once again, hold their hopes high that they will be able to participate in the competition in Paris since they have to let go their dream for the very same competition in Rio de Janeiro previously. The Homeless World Cup is a street soccer competition, played 4 by 4 with unique rules similar to indoor soccer. The team members consist of people from marginalized group whose issues are intersected with the homeless issues such as drug use, HIV/AIDS, poverty, etc. As for Rumah Cemara, the team consists of people living with HIV and former drug users. They use this event to raise awareness regarding drug abuse and HIV/AIDS as well as to prove that people from such group are no different with others. They are healthy, productive and capable in sports.

After a long search of support, Rumah Cemara has finally able to send its team to participate in the Homeless World Cup 2011 in Paris this year. Unfortunately, the main and biggest financial support does not come from the government despite the fact that this team is waving the national flag in Paris. Ginan, the captain of the team committed himself to walk from Bandung to Jakarta (approximately 125 km) in order to raise funds. Sadly, the attention given to his commitment was also very low. Only a handful of media actually covered his story and there was no welcoming ceremony once he set foot in Jakarta. But for him, the most important thing is to prove that he, as a person living with HIV, is upholding his commitment and at the same time show it to the public that even a person living with HIV can do a long walk. Endless support for him was channelled through text messages, twitter and facebook messages. He finally arrived in Jakarta 2 days earlier than it was scheduled.

As I expected, after his story of long walk was published in some local media, Rumah Cemara team started to get more attention. Suddenly, the Mayor of Bandung wants to meet them before they go. And then the Governor of West Java, and after that the Minister of Youth and Sport gave a farewell meeting. The team humbly accepted all the invitations, despite the fact that none of those entities ever paid attention to their previous proposal for support. As someone who is a bit critical to the government, I see all those as nothing but credit taking activities. Branding, using the achievement of Rumah Cemara, as if they have always been very... very supportive to Rumah Cemara. But that was me, this team is different. They were just happy to finally recognized and get the moral support from these government entities. The team finally departed for Paris on the 19^th of August 2011.

The team was assigned in group G. Sixty countries are participating in the competition. Their first match was against Romania, where Indonesia won 7 – 4. The supporters in Indonesia were ecstatic! Endless twitter and facebook messages are flowing. Everyone is praising and praying for the success of the team. The next day, the team has to play against Kyrgystan, which they won 9 – 4, and Scotland, which was a tie 8 – 8 and finally the Indonesian team won by penalty, gaining 2 points. On the following day, they met tougher competitors: Germany and Ireland. Still, with such high spirit and full support from the community in Indonesia, the team won tightly 6 – 5 from Germany and 8 – 7 from Ireland. With all these winnings, the Indonesian team is made the champion of the group and they are getting ready for the next round.

The hopes are still high, but the team keeps their heads low and not to underestimate their next opponents. They understand that winning comes with great responsibility. They will be playing against other teams who won their group. It is going to be a lot tougher. However, their dream to wave the flag of Indonesia in Paris is still on...