I grew up playing soccer with these plastic balls.
We called them “Toop Do Laayeh” — literally, Two-Layered Ball.
One ball was too light; so you had to buy two, make a small incision in one (the smaller the incision, the more revered you were), and use ALL OF YOUR LIFE FORCE to shove the uncut ball into the cut ball — without making the incision bigger.
Some people would get really fancy and stitch the incision back up. That solved the problem of the inside ball flying out mid-air during a heavy kick …. and the outer ball spiraling down to the ground; like a poorly-made paper airplane when it spirals down to the ground.
I didn’t own a real soccer ball, or play in grass, until high school in the US. I couldn’t believe that every corner high school had a full grass field. Wow!!!
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This Giving Tuesday, I’m supporting two fantastic organizations, and hope you consider them too:
- Malala Fund, brainchild of the supremely inspirational Malala Yousefzai, because of the fantastic work they do to improve lives in areas of the world I grew up in.
- Pars Equality Center, brainchild of the incredible community leader Bita Daryabari, because of the amazing work they do to improve the lives of immigrants and their families, and to help them integrate into our beautiful society.
Much gratitude to everyone working hard to make the world a nicer place 🙏🏼♥️
