I am presently at my in-service training but I wanted to
write a post about last week and my adventures at Games! Last Tuesday at 7am 2
matatus rolled up to Sipili School for the Deaf onto which we loaded 30 kids
and 5 teachers. We drove for a long time, stopping for 5 hours at a nearby
school for the mentally handicapped where we had to wait for a school bus to
pick us up and take us all the way there, but we made it to Kerugoya at 7ish
pm. After a meeting with all of the teachers to discuss the next 3 days we were
on our way to a hotel in town.
Day 1: Athletics (Track and Field) Day! Our day started out
with all of the kids from the 7 Schools for the Deaf and maybe 5 Mentally
Handicapped Schools in our region meeting up at a track just outside of town.
We got all of the kids into a long line, some schools had banners with their
school name on it, and we walked about 30 minutes through town to the high
schools where we were competing. That was the last time we saw the kids from
the M.H. Schools until the closing ceremony because they stayed at the Girls HS
and our kids were at the Boys HS. We were trying to raise awareness for both of
our schools by walking through town and it was really neat. When we arrived at
school we had a short opening ceremony and then headed down to the track. They
had all of the usual track events plus the 3 throwing events and the long jump.
They also added speed walking, the 3K for the girls since only secondary boys
ran the 5K.The other main addition was of the childrens events. There was a
100m and 50 m dash along with an obstacle course for kids under 10. The
obstacle course consisted of running a 3-legged race for 30m then one kids
untied the rope while the other had to fill a water bottle using the bucket and
cup in front of them. Once the cap was tight, they ran 40m to a sack where they
hopped in for a 40m sack race. Hilarious to watch! They were all so cute and so
into it! Sadly my camera had run out of battery by the time they ran this race
but it was great. Overall, it was just a great day! It felt so good to be a
track meet, timing races and cheering on my kiddos! J
They didn’t place too high but we had six 3rd place kids and one
girl who got 2nd in the 3000 race, which was exciting to watch.
Day 2: Primary and Semi-final Ball Games. Thursday started
bright and early with games. The girls played netball at the same time as the
boys played volleyball and at the same time as the kids played 10 point. I kept
time and recorded the score of the netball game so I missed the boys and kids
but netball was a lot of fun. It was my first time watching an actual game.
It’s similar to basketball and something else. I think it looked pretty intense
but not my cup of tea because there was too much stopping and whistle blowing
like an American football game or something. Our girls didn’t win the game but
they tried really hard! The boys lost their volleyball game as well but said
they had a good time. The kids under 10 play a game called 10 point. You have
net similar to a badminton net and it’s 2 versus 2. They throw a hard circle
Frisbee-esque disk across the net to the opposite person and it keeps going
like that until it’s thrown out of bounds or it’s not caught. I never heard the
results on that but I did hear one of our boys missed his turn because he was
in the bathroom. Hahaha reminded me of when I missed my first XC meet because I
was in the bathroom J Then later on in the day our girls played
volleyball, best of 3 and we won the 1st game but lost the next two.
They played hard but didn’t make the cut. Lastly, our boys played Futbol. They
got into position on the field and looks-wise it already looked like it might
be a bit rough. We were in mismatched jerseys with some in sandals and some in
flimsy shoes playing against a team in matching orange jerseys with shin-pads,
socks and cleats. We also were a lot smaller in stature. The game started and
we just couldn’t get it down to their side. They played a 15 minute first half
and the score was 5-0. The second half was only 10 minutes long (I think the
referee felt bad for my team) because the final score was 11-0. The worst part
was when 5 minutes into the 2nd half when they were up maybe 8-0 and
the other coach yells to his team (not sarcastically) to his team to score 30
points. Thank goodness the ref cut the game early. It was a good day to watch
and my kids did look like they had a lot of fun even if they didn’t win any of
their games.
Day 3: Finals for Ball Games. Since today was finals and we
didn’t make it past primaries, we kinda just hung out and watched other schools
play all day. I rather enjoyed it. It was very relaxing and I met a lot of kids
from other schools as well who would just come over to hang out with the kids
from my school or they wanted to meet me. It was pretty awesome. In the
afternoon I hung out a little bit with Jay who stopped in for the day to see
his kids. He is a teacher at a Rev. Muhoro Secondary School for the Deaf. He
could tell me signing had improved and it was one of the best compliments ever.
Our day at Games ended with a closing ceremony in the rain. We got the 2nd
Most Competitive Team trophy. Hahaha my kids were excited, as was I, though I
still haven’t figured out how we got awarded that seeing as we didn’t make it
past primaries in any rounds.
After the ceremony all of the teachers went for a delicious feast served
by the host school.
Overall, it was great experience but very tiring. I also got
a lovely tan with my choco-type sandals, Capri spandex and a t-shirt every day.
I loved talking with my kids and meeting so many cool kids from other Deaf
schools as well. It was just awesome to be surrounded by so many people in
Kenya and be able to talk to all of them!
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