Debate 11: Missouri Southern State University, Joplin, MO.

We drove south through Missouri to Joplin where we were handed over to our next host Kelly Larson who would look after us for the weekend. Our first stop was the University TV station – which is syndicated across the campus and the local area. The studio was very professional but they would not let us use the kitchen which is used for the cookery shows. The interview was conducted by a member of the faculty but some of the students help run the station. We both enjoyed the experience and hoped that it would stand us in good stead for our appearance on Oprah later in the year.

That evening we debated against the MSSU debaters; they had not done a huge amount of parliamentary debating and had a Lincoln-Douglas debate background. We debated scraping the Olympics, which got narrowed to whether or not America should boycott the Beijing Games until China stops Burma being bad. However we were able to prevail by poking fun at sub point 5b and charming the audience. Kelly and his charming wife certainly seemed to enjoy the debate and the audience were treated to large quantities of cookies after the round.

The next day Whitney and Cody who we had debated against the previous evening took us to Missouri Southern’s Homecoming football game. We were able to see the crowning of the Homecoming King and Queen, the 100 person marching band, the cheerleaders and the dance team. Fortunately this was a distraction from the football game, which went 3 quarters without a score, before Southern final scored in the 4th to win the game 6-0. Another American experience was chalked off the list. That evening Kelly took us for dinner at his house which is about 30mins drive form Joplin out in the countryside- we got to meet his family and the horses and throw the football around with his 10 year old, who has been playing tackle football since he was seven. His team had just made it to their local Super Bowl – this is a team of 10 year olds who have a playbook with 70 plays! Welcome to American sport…

On Sunday morning Kelly and his wife invited us to go to church with them, an experience neither of us wanted to miss. The church itself was beautiful (and came complete with a fantastic indoor basketball court) and had been built by the local community, everyone pitching in with their DIY skills. The Sunday morning service was certainly different from the Church of Scotland services that Alex was used to during his school days in Edinburgh. A 5-piece Rock band, Giant TV screens and a congregation 500 strong made this a truly unique experience. After all the rushing around and arguing, it was really nice to be able to have a few hours of reflection, clapping and listening to other people speak! The sermon was nothing if not thought provoking, as the pastor went through the songs of John Lennon, U2 and various Country and Western stars, critiquing their approach to life. He was undoubtedly a charismatic preacher, but lost us both when he asserted that evolution was a falsehood, because as a child he had thrown firecrackers into molehills and complete frogs had not emerged from the explosion… We had a parting pizza buffet lunch with the Larsons and drove westwards with Kelly towards Oz, Dorothy and the state of Kansas.