On Monday I joined a group of students and staff from Harvesters Christian School to attend the Inter Primary Schools Athletics Carnival. It turned out to be a much bigger event than I expected, with about 2000 students present. It is only going for three days this year, not an entire week like last year. We are one of the few schools that are still having classes and only let participating students attend.
Though who is allowed to participate is very difficult in a country with no birth certificates and in which you must pass an exam before you can go to the next grade and many parents cannot afford to send their children to school every year. So last week after school each day there had been weighing, measuring, photographing and face examining sessions. I was surprised to be told many students had been declared too old by the officials based on examining their face. There were no age groups, just one single category for students to compete in.
Our day began after assembly with the distribution of shirts and sports shorts to the participants. There were not enough shorts which meant some girls participated wearing their school skirts. This was quite common amongst all the participants, while most had a school t-shirt, that was their only sporting gear. Most students raced in bare feet or with socks on.
The warm up was the one hour walk into Yei, to the oval where the competition was held. Some students walk this way to school each day, so we meandered into town quite casually. It was extremely interesting to walk through the "suburbs" of Yei. Though the memory of the huge numbers of jerry cans and women lined up at the water pumps if still vivid. I hope I don't ever forget how lucky I am to have running water in my house.
In typical African style the day ran behind schedule, racing finally started about 12:30pm. There were about 40 schools represented and for the 100m they each entered two boys and two girls, so there was race after race as they went through all the heats. Apparently semi finals were to happen on Tuesday and then the final on Wednesday. There was javelin about to start when I left and the sawdust had been put out ready for the high jump participants to land on. There was also to be long and triple jump, shot put and races up to 5000m.
Lunch was also interesting, as some schools include lunch in their fees it had to be provided on location. Our beans and porcho (ground rice cooked with water into a solid mass) was sent on a motorbike from Harvesters, but other schools bought along pots and cooked on location. There were also local entrepreneurs taking advantage of the day by selling snacks such as popcorn and icey poles/popsicles.
Around 2:30pm I found out it looked like the activities would be going on until at least 5pm so combined with the lack of seating and toilets I decided it was time for me to leave. One of the teachers was kind enough to help me find a boda, a motorbike taxi, to come home on as I would have gotten lost if I had tried to walk back to Harvesters alone.
It certainly gave me a new appreciation of all the resources we have for our carnivals at St Patrick's College.
Lunch is served. I wondered what all the home owners thought of their homes being lent against by our students. We also sheltered against the house during a rainstorm.
Though who is allowed to participate is very difficult in a country with no birth certificates and in which you must pass an exam before you can go to the next grade and many parents cannot afford to send their children to school every year. So last week after school each day there had been weighing, measuring, photographing and face examining sessions. I was surprised to be told many students had been declared too old by the officials based on examining their face. There were no age groups, just one single category for students to compete in.
Our day began after assembly with the distribution of shirts and sports shorts to the participants. There were not enough shorts which meant some girls participated wearing their school skirts. This was quite common amongst all the participants, while most had a school t-shirt, that was their only sporting gear. Most students raced in bare feet or with socks on.
The warm up was the one hour walk into Yei, to the oval where the competition was held. Some students walk this way to school each day, so we meandered into town quite casually. It was extremely interesting to walk through the "suburbs" of Yei. Though the memory of the huge numbers of jerry cans and women lined up at the water pumps if still vivid. I hope I don't ever forget how lucky I am to have running water in my house.
In typical African style the day ran behind schedule, racing finally started about 12:30pm. There were about 40 schools represented and for the 100m they each entered two boys and two girls, so there was race after race as they went through all the heats. Apparently semi finals were to happen on Tuesday and then the final on Wednesday. There was javelin about to start when I left and the sawdust had been put out ready for the high jump participants to land on. There was also to be long and triple jump, shot put and races up to 5000m.
Lunch was also interesting, as some schools include lunch in their fees it had to be provided on location. Our beans and porcho (ground rice cooked with water into a solid mass) was sent on a motorbike from Harvesters, but other schools bought along pots and cooked on location. There were also local entrepreneurs taking advantage of the day by selling snacks such as popcorn and icey poles/popsicles.
Around 2:30pm I found out it looked like the activities would be going on until at least 5pm so combined with the lack of seating and toilets I decided it was time for me to leave. One of the teachers was kind enough to help me find a boda, a motorbike taxi, to come home on as I would have gotten lost if I had tried to walk back to Harvesters alone.
It certainly gave me a new appreciation of all the resources we have for our carnivals at St Patrick's College.
Lunch is served. I wondered what all the home owners thought of their homes being lent against by our students. We also sheltered against the house during a rainstorm.
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