SAN ANTONIO — A few minutes before the U.S. men’s national soccer team kicks off against Slovenia here Saturday afternoon, Bernard Kamungo will stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner” and think about his extraordinary path to this monumental point.
He said he will reflect on life in a Tanzanian refugee camp, from birth to age 14, the son of parents who had fled civil war in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
He will remember his childhood, wrapping cloth around inflated condoms and medical gloves to make soccer balls and, in doing so, create diversions from the hardships of living in poverty among some 150,000 other displaced souls.