“What do you think is the most important value of street soccer?”
“Street soccer is a sport which is only played on the street mostly by teenage boys. Sometimes they are from less stable families. Not only does the sport keeps them busy it also teaches them a lot of life lessons.”
“Could you give me an example of one of those life lessons?”
“The most important lesson is that sometimes losing is even more important than winning. Winning is fun and maybe good for your confidence but losing a match makes you deal with a lot of emotions such as humiliation, anger and sadness. It motivates you to be stronger and fight back within the boundaries of the game. That is what makes you a stronger player as well in the game as in real life.”

A few days ago I was walking down Rembrandt square when suddenly I noticed this little girl with bright red shoes being completely hypnotized by two street musicians. I got to talk with her father who told me they were from South Africa and her name is Barbara. I asked him if I could take her picture. He said it was no problem but I would need to get her attention by myself. ‘Things that move tend to hypnotize her’. I kept calling her again and again without any success. I wasn’t going to give up and after a few minutes she gave me this look.
After I took her photo, I sat down and I kept observing her. Then I saw her father encouraging her to take a big step.

Check out what happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOtOmdBR9TY&feature=youtu.be

Small step for mankind, big step for Barbara.

“What do you admire most about her?”
“She is a tough one, No matter how hard the situation is she never gives up”
“Can you give me an example of her being tough?”
“She is 91 years old and a few months ago she broke her hip. The doctor said the injury was so bad, she would probably never walk again. But my mother didn’t take no for an answer and now step by step she is walking again.”

“I live by the philosophy of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. My favorite quote of Sartre is : Man is condemned to be free because once thrown into the world. He is responsible for everything he does.”
“How does that apply on you?”
“I don’t believe in being a victim. You can’t control which difficulties cross your path but you are able to control your own reaction to those obstacles. The way we deal with tough situations is something we have control over and that reaction truly says something about our personalities. In my last year of high school I didn’t pass all my exams so I had to start all over again. Which meant an extra year of school and leaving my friends behind. In the beginning it was very depressing to be in a new class and having to make new friends. After one week I decided to make the most out of the situation. By the end of the year I had good grades and I was even tutoring my fellow classmates.”