Sports Event

My school decided to participate in a sports tournament at a nearby hearing school (about 1.5-2 miles away).

I joined the kids on the walk to/from the school which was kind of nice.  I got to see some parts of the village that I haven’t seen.  Nice view of the valley, saw some huts, and some scary looking plants with the sharpest thorns I have ever seen.

The kids also had to lug along pails of tea, plates, cups, and food for lunch. Once we got to the school, we sat around for a few hours.  No other school there wanted to play a deaf school.  Teachers were worried that their students would hurt our “weak deaf kids.”  We finally eventually got to play a couple of games but didn’t get to actively participate in the tournament.  We wanted to be sure that both the girls and boys got a chance to play because if they did not then the headmaster of our school may not let them participate next year.

Needless to say I was proud when our girls won their netball game and our boys won their volleyball game.  They definitely felt a need to prove themselves to their hearing peers (this happens all the time when it comes to sports in the States as well).

I had so many stares.  Being stared at, followed by, and gossiped about by hundreds of children sure wears a person out.

We headed back to the school and the students did a great job keeping an eye out for motorcycles behind us on narrow trails.  People have no right of way here so there’s a chance you may get run over or come pretty close to getting run over.  Every time one of the students saw a motorcycle coming up behind them they would run all the way to the front of the group warning us all to move out of the way.

You can tell it’s the end of the term and that kids are missing home to a certain degree (they have mixed feelings about going home because going home also means communication barriers).  Quite a few of them kept grabbing my hand to hold while we walked.

We also ended up having to walk in the rain on the way back which was nice because it was cool (it’s been in the 90s and dry).  However, it did not rain hard enough or long enough.  We still have water problems at the school.  This wet season is turning out to be fairly dry.