How do you get a person with one leg up the steep hill to the visit the Citadel? On horse-back of course. Unfortunately, the horse handlers beat the horses with wooden sticks (switches) and this sometimes makes the horse move forward suddenly. One of our amputee players lost his grip on the saddle, and fell off the horse, hitting his elbow on the hard cobblestone road. He was not seriously injured, but it certainly was a scare!
Once in the Citadel, the players had to climb lots of stairs and fully exerted themselves just getting around to explore this vast fortress.
Then at the end of the visit, they sang to a crowd of several hundred, with me singing bass to round out the harmony.
As the tour guide told us the story of how "King" Henri Christophe committed suicide after he became handicapped because of a stroke, I could not help but reflect on the irony of that story when looking at the Amputee soccer team. Here were poor men who, even though handicapped, were living a courageous life and fighting to survive on practically nothing. Whereas Henri Christophe had riches, fortresses, palaces and everything the world had to offer at that time, yet lost hope when he became handicapped. Why do the players of the Amputee soccer team have hope, where Christophe had none? Because most of the players on the team are Christian and are trusting Christ to meet the daily needs of them and their families.
Enjoy the pictures!
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