rainy-day soccer

Today, we had a soccer tournament against 3 other international schools. We left at around 8:15 from Heritage and got back around 1:30... It turned out not to be exhausting for my kiddos (which is what I had anticipated), but only simply wet.

This past week, it rained for the first time in about a month. The rain is definitely needed in the area, especially since all of the drought that occurred earlier this school year up in the north. However, for me, the rain means all of my shoes turn to red mud :) It also meant deciding whether or not to play in the thunder and lightning this morning.

We got to ISU (I have no idea what it stands for!) about 9, and our first 'match' was supposed to be at 9:30. Now, the lady in charge was British, but still a mzungu, and she and I were discussing how we felt about the thunder and lightning that we could not only see and hear, but truly feel every time it boomed. I was a little disconcerted...

We were mostly talking about how none of the other Ugandan coaches or kids seemed to care... and one of my moms said, "They probably won't care until someone actually gets electrocuted," which is very true. Unlike in the States, where there are specific safety regulations and rules to keep kids safe (maybe overly safe?) there aren't many rules, and everyone kind of does whatever they want. This isn't bad, in fact, in some ways, it gives me some more freedoms as a teacher than I'd have back home. On the other hand, lightning is lightning!

We decided to play anyway, and went over to the 'pitch' (Yes, I'm putting all of these words in semi-quotation marks just to specify what I have to remember to call them. Cute little British terms :) ) Our first game wasn't very good. With my kids, I feel like how they play in the first 5 minutes is indicative of how they'll play the whole match. If my kids start playing hard and listening well, they play great. If they're off in la-la land, distracted, or whiny, they play not-so-great. The first game was the latter.

However, by the time the second game came, we had regrouped, had some bananas, and had our "good listening ears on." The kids played great. They spread out, passed, played good defense, and even used their heads to trap the ball - this made me especially proud! The third match went off without a hitch too. They played tough and fought through the rain and the cold (did I mention it POURED the entire time we played? All 3 hours!) and played as a team. Even though we didn't end up winning any of our matches, it ended up being a great day!

We had a little awards ceremony for the kids, and both the 7&U and 9&U Heritage teams came in 4th. It's going to be lots of fun handing out the little ribbons to the kids at assembly on Monday!

I have to say, though, today was the coldest I've ever been in Uganda. Since I was already sopping wet after our games, one of my boys, Wasswa, and I had some fun walking around... I taught him some useful skills for life, I think. Jumping in puddles. I splashed him with my jump, and then he'd try and get me back... but instead of jumping in the puddle, he kind of just stepped into it and wondered why I didn't get wet :) He is so precious.