Athletics Day; Girls Rule

November 25, 2010

Today was a great day. It was athletics day for all the school’s in the area, so there were masses of students in their school uniform, cheering on (and I mean “cheering”, running around the field chanting school chants, running onto the field in a frenzy when their team scored) their teams. The sports were netball (similar to basketball, but no dribbling, as, I assume, it is played on a dirt court where dribbling is impossible), football and table tennis (this surprised me).

Today was all about “girl power”. The two teams that won for our school were the junior girls’ netball and football. I was also taken good care of by a group of older junior girls (ages 14-15) and followed around, and amused by, a group of some of my grade 5 and 6 class girls. They were all so caring about me, wanting to carry my backpack, put their handkerchiefs down for me when I sat, asking if the sun was too hot, if I was tired etc.. it was such a treat. The music was blaring over the loudspeaker so we danced quite a lot as well and the announcer even mentioned the white woman dancing in the crowd! The girls can really move, especially one young thing, I do hope she continues, she has a gorgeous natural ability. It is so wonderful to see how girls here are raised, to be conscientious and responsible. You can tell they are just by how aware they are of little things, holding something for you when your hands are full, getting water and food for each other etc..

 I realized today just how cheap to eat here if you stick to the traditional fare like rice and ken key or fried plantain and yams (with hot pepper sauce!),  a meal for 2 of us was about 50 cents from a vendor! These and rice and sauce, ken key , or even salad, are the main fare, all served in bags (non biodegradable unfortunately at this point) and eaten with the right hand (thank goodness for hand sanitizer wipes I brought). I was able to buy some quick snacks (their version of meat pies, kind of like samosas) for some of the other children who didn’t have any food. The athletes’ food was supplied by the school.  Water and frozen yoghurt and ice cream in closed rectangular packs are popular refreshments with this heat; you suck out of the cut end (sold in 1/4s or ½) or a corner if whole.

Tonight Abigail (grade 5 pen pal) and Martha came by for a visit. Martha came first, on her own. She is such a sweet kid. She confided in me that she lives with her aunt who does not love her as much as she tries to be good and does not know where her mother is… oh God… today we were so filthy, walking around in the dusty red packed school yard. When I asked if the girls had running water, only ¼ of them did, while the other 3/4s have to buy their water, lug it home in buckets and wash their clothes, themselves etc… from the buckets. Reality check as I came home to my shower and then was visited by girls for who even a glass of water is a treat from the tap.

The link to the pictures is: http://picasaweb.google.com/kpedicelli/AthleticsDay?feat=directlink