海角大神

Phiona Mutesi, a 17-year-old World Youth Chess champion from Uganda, is traveling in a foreign land 鈥� like Norfolk, Va. 鈥� with her coach and a mentor this week, appearing at Newsweek鈥檚聽Women in the World Summit last Friday to play legendary chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. And recently she heard Disney chose Indian director Mira Nair to make a movie about her life.聽The only thing wearing her down is worry over her mother and siblings鈥� safety in the slums of Katwe in聽Kampala, Uganda. 聽

She is a game changer, a lesson to all parents that it鈥檚 not about what you can give your child, but that the gift of your presence has a greater, more lasting impact on their lives than material goods.聽

Phiona is the rarest of all chess phenoms, maybe not for her rating of 1800 鈥� children as young as six have attained master level ratings of 2,000 and up 鈥� but she is amazing because, despite coming from a home in Uganda with no running water and electricity, let alone chess resources, she is able to catch up to American child聽chess masters.

Phiona is succeeding via patience and prayer, and without obsessing over theory, titles, or ratings. 鈥淚 want to do well for my father. I want to take care of my mother and brothers,鈥� she says in the heavily accented but fluent English she learned alongside the game of chess in a program called Sports Outreach. After some prodding, she adds, 鈥淢y dream is also to someday become a medical doctor for children.鈥�

The first thing Phiona tells the groups she meets on her tour is, 鈥淚 lost my father when I was three years old.鈥�

Her father died of AIDS, and her mother quickly became unable to support herself and four children: 鈥淢y mother could not afford the school fees and the rent monies, so we begin聽sleeping in the street.鈥�

In the slums of Katwe in Kampala, 鈥渟treet鈥� is a loose term. Katwe is the area garbage dump and its dirt streets are lined with dug-out trenches used as latrines. When it rains, the trash, raw sewage, and mud form a toxic stew that floods shacks and triggers mudslides around the low-lying area, Phiona explained. Her mother and two younger brothers, ages 10 and 14, are in Katwe while Phiona spends a month touring聽the United States to promote chess with the United States Chess Federation (USCF) and Sports Outreach, a ministry using sports like soccer and chess to help children in developing countries.

When a child in an elementary school asked, 鈥淲hat inspired you to play chess?鈥� Phiona replied, 鈥淚 was hungry. I heard that when people went to this program to play chess they get a cup of porridge at the end. So I am thinking only about getting something to eat.鈥�

The program was set up by Sports Outreach聽and Rodney Suddith, who is the聽American mentor traveling with Phiona. She also travels with her chess coach Robert Katende, a missionary and refugee of Uganda's civil war who started the chess program in Katwe, offering a bowl of rice porridge to any child who would show up and learn.

"It teaches you how to assess, how to make decisions, obstructive thinking, forecasts, endurance, problem solving, and looking at challenges as an opportunity in all cases 鈥� and possibly not giving up," he told Joe Flanagan, a reporter here for WVEC-TV. "The discipline, the patience ... anything to do with life, you can get it in that game."

When Mr. Flanagan asked what her favorite thing about chess is, she said, 鈥淧lanning. I think to do anything in life you need to have a plan. You need to be patient and follow that plan. But planning is my favorite thing.鈥� She didn鈥檛 say anything about fame, money, Disney, ratings, getting stuff, or a trip to America, but rather about owning the ability to plan her life.

Phiona is a very natural, honest, painfully soft-spoken young woman and the only coaching she has received is in chess and not public relations sound bites. She does what my kids call 鈥渒eeping it real.鈥�

A child at the Tidewater Park Elementary School in Norfolk asked her,聽鈥淒id you always believe in yourself and that you鈥檇 get the money to get out someday?鈥� Phiona replied, 鈥淚 never think about money, only to survive and to do what is right in sight of God.鈥�

鈥淚s it hard being away from your mom while you鈥檙e here?鈥� a girl in high school audience asked.聽

Phiona answered, 鈥淚t is very hard because when it rains in Katwe people die and I worry my mother will die before I come home.鈥澛�

The room went utterly quiet as kids in the Title I school in a neighborhood where many students view themselves as impoverished and hard done-by.

For full disclosure, I run a tiny volunteer group called The (NICE) in Norfolk and volunteer as much time as possible teaching chess to children and parents in my community because I have seen it lift spirits and grades and open a door from poverty to opportunity.聽

Two weeks ago, Robert McLellan of the USCF, the governing body for chess in America, asked me if I would like to have Phiona visit my community and if I'd volunteer to pull together two days of events for her. Volunteer is the key word 鈥� I am not paid by USCF, the school system, or anyone else to do anything involving chess. Chess is my personal ministry and outreach to my community.

We took her to visit three schools, and then the kids in my program performed a living chess game in her honor with the help of the Art Outreach Program at Old Dominion University which provided costumes for our little聽children to wear.

At lunchtime we also introduced Africa鈥檚 鈥淐hess Queen鈥� to聽A-Mayes-ing Soul Food restaurant in neighboring Chesapeake, Va.

It鈥檚 a hole-in-the-wall place below an overpass near the schools we were visiting.

Phiona can鈥檛 get her mind around American food. 鈥淚f chicken has no bones it is not a chicken,鈥� she patiently explained.聽

When the owner, Sheila Mayes Eason, heard that someone had come into her place from Africa and didn鈥檛 know soul food, the place erupted with banging on pots, pans, tables, and the counter with the cry of, 鈥淔irst time! First Tiiiime!鈥�

She then hustled out in her apron, took Phiona under her wing, and explained, 鈥淪oul food is food made from your soul. There鈥檚 feelin鈥� in this food. This is something passed down from generations, mother to child. It鈥檚 not fancy, but it鈥檒l fill ya body and soul.鈥� 聽

This was the first time I saw Phiona completely let go, deflate, and relax. 鈥淚 like this. This is the real food. She should come to Uganda and cook there.鈥�

Mayes Eason聽laughed and replied, 鈥淲ell alright! I don鈥檛 know where it is, but I鈥檇 go cook in Uganda.鈥�

When Mayes Eason was informed who Phiona was and where she came from she said, 鈥淣o water? They got no running water? Well what鈥檚 it take to get it done? Let鈥檚 go over there.鈥� I do believe that Kampala is in for water and soul food, while Phiona quickly convinced Mayes to start running chess聽after hours聽in her establishment.

Phiona is a great chess sales person.

This may be because in order to survive, Phiona鈥檚 mom had no choice but to have her children in work beside her from a very young age. 鈥淢y mother and I sell maize-corn,鈥� Phiona explains.

I wish I could meet Phiona鈥檚 mother because this woman is a genius and an unsung hero. She came up with a risky plan to buy corn from a vendor on the day before it becomes inedible. She roasts the corn, and then Phiona and mom sell it. If they fail to sell all the corn, they lose. Phiona has become a very good corn seller.

I know we are celebrating the child and with good reason, but her mother鈥檚 tenacity, ingenuity, and courage is why this child is honored by Newsweek and according to a CNN report, Disney has optioned the rights to her story and recently announced a choice of directors to move forward with the film on her life.聽