After three months in Peru last year, I have decided to come back to South America for more! This time I will be spending my time volunteering in Santa Marta, Colombia, with this organisation: http://fmacolombia.weebly.com/

Saturday, 16 April 2011

Sports Day - otherwise known as complete mayhem!





The weeks are passing quickly here, and I am getting more and more attached to the kids in my class. They have quite tough shells, so the longer I stay the more they open up - when I first arrived it was actually quite hard to feel as connected to what I was doing (in comparison with Peru). Everyday I learn something new about these kids lives that makes me feel even stronger about the work that we do here, so with this in mind the last day of school before Easter became Sports Day. The idea being that we just do something fun - I want to cram in as much as I can before I have to leave. It is also a great way to just be friends with kids when you do things like this - instead of just always trying to teach them facts!


We were prepared - very prepared. We estimated the amount of kids we would be working with (30 - at the most), picked team colours, bought face-paints, boiled eggs for egg and spoon race, had medals for the winners and prizes for the best team, plus all kinds of other equipment for the different races we would do. We also bought lots of food to share out at the end.  


It was a boiling hot day and the sun was beating down on us as we headed to Oasis. We had 20 children arrive for sports day, so we divided them up and gave them a colour each - they could paint their faces and tie ribbons round them in their team colour. Each team was about five or six kids. When we were finally ready we walked down the street to the campo - less than a three minute walk. Somehow, in this short space of time, the children multiplied. The green team suddenly had twelve little green faces instead of six. The reds were growing by the second, and throughout the afternoon more and more kids appeared, asking to play. It was for the Oasis school kids - but when a little child comes up and asks you if they can play, I defy anyone to say no and make them watch! 

This meant that we didn't have enough prizes, or food for that matter. The relay races couldn't work as no team was equal and nobody could keep track of who had or hadn't run. When we gave them water they sprayed it everywhere so some people were soaked, and we didn't have enough medals to give to any one team! We decided to just pick a 'best team player' from each team and give them a medal, which I think worked quite well. We gave a few sweets out, but the absolute crazy begging, pushing and shoving that takes place when you do this on the street is so horrible that we kept the fruit and juice for another, calmer day.

It's kind of an example of how things never really go how you want them to here. You can plan and plan and plan but it won't turn out how you imagined it - sometimes it is better and sometimes it is worse! I guess the main thing is that you have had fun with the children - way more important than it being precisely executed! All in all, I was happy with the sports day - they all were smiling and had good team spirit. I think the end result may have sent many running for the hills, but all of us painted and sweaty volunteers went home with smiles on our faces, as did the kids.




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