Sports Saturday!

After a slightly stressful week of planning the Sports Saturday was finally upon us. The day happens about four times a year, so is looked forward to by all the children in the local townships.

We headed down to the country club to set up at 8am. For netball this involved marking out a court with flour and string - a plan that worked very well until all the children from one of the local farm settlements (who had arrived VERY early) decided to join in. There was flour where it shouldn't have been on the court, on their clothes, in their hair and some of it even got eaten by a few (who hadn't had breakfast!). Chaos aside, I managed to mark it all out, with my floury little helpers in tow, and the end effect was quite impressive, considering we usually play with no markings at all.

Setting up goals

Flour aftermath

Drawing out lines in the rain

As this was going on, buses were picking up all the children from the townships and as soon as we knew how many had turned up (over 150) there had to be quick rearrangements of the schedule of play and the team managers. These comprised the German architectural students (who are currently building some volunteer accomodation at the Village of Hope) and Dutch students over from Holland. There were also all the boys from the local townships, who are  part of our mentoring scheme, either managing or  refereeing the football games. That left me with the job of refereeing the netball, which was much more than I bargained for! Juggling running up and down the court, keeping score, blowing the whistle, sorting out arguments, placing the girls in their positions on the court, running with the score to the score board and observing who the best player was throughout the games was no mean feat! By the end of it I felt pretty proud of myself and very thankful that the girls listened (most of the time!) and respected my decisions. Aside from a few fiesty outbursts (which required some stern shouting - not something I'm used to doing!), they all played with enthusiasm.

In the end, the day came together perfectly - without mishap, mistake or injury. The rain that had drizzled over us as we set up cleared away before the children arrived and we had a sunny day! After all the games we had prize giving - with sports tops for all those in the winning team. I gave the individual prize to a girl from the nearest township who is always there for practice and showed the most maturity during the tournament  - with no jeering, arguing and a willingness to compromise on position to allow others to play. Everyone got a chocolate prize and then lunch (catered for by the Round Table - a local organisation). The chocolate, the food and just the opportunity to play a tournament in a clean, spacious and organised environment meant more to the children there than I think we could ever quite conceive.

Once all the children had been sent off on the buses we stuck around and had a game of football (Holland versus Germany) with us English and the mentors split between - I feel the game for me established that I will never have an aptitude for football no matter how hard I try and I was probably more of a handicap than a help - but it was fun all the same and a nice way to spend some time together and unwind after a hectic morning.

...We all headed back with slightly sunburnt faces, but mostly a feeling of satisfaction and achievement that all our planning paid off and we could provide such a lovely day for all the children there.