Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Sports Days....

We are all aware of Fathers and Mothers Day in Australia but India goes one better, having a Childrens day in which children are celebrated as well. At the Farm they have a special day at school similar to our sports days. We were asked to organize the senior school events with kids ranging from 9-17 years. Considering the lack of equipment for events such as high-jump, javelin etc.. we decided to have the following activities – Boot Throwing, Frisbee Bulls-eye, 10-pin bowling, table-tennis, badminton and my favourite – an obstacle course.

At stake were a swathe of prizes, purchased in the nearby town of Khatima, using some money given to me by my uncle for the orphanage – this took almost an entire day to organize (nothing ever is easy over here). The kids were very excited at the prospect of so many prizes and equally in awe of these strange new games they had never heard of. All the staff reported back at the end of the day how much fun they and the children had and almost all of the kids got involved, having 2 or even 3 goes at each event!

Memories of my sports days came flooding back – whilst being a fairly ambitious and coordinated kid, throwing myself at almost every event, being half the size of almost every other competitor really made it tough. This desire to get a ribbon was nearly the end of me in year 9 when I jubilantly realized only 2 others had volunteered for the 50m butterfly event – my cherished ribbon a certainty…until I was disqualified for incorrect technique and a subsequent near-drowning. Miriam on the other hand has fond memories of sports days, every time we move house it bugs me that we have to lug such a large box full of her childhood trophies, plaques and ribbons around with us. I really think it’s high time she let go of such unimportant things……

3 comments:

  1. good work guys. I threw out my only trophy years ago. But then if you have a set, that's an entirely different matter...

    I want to see these as bigger photos... but I cant

    Sob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Novelty day sports days were the best. Mainly cos they were the only ones I was good at. My personal favourite was the hanging washing on the line relay. Though tim wouldn't attest to me bring any good at it all these years on.

    Glad that you're keeping the kiddies well entertained.

    Kate Bom

    ReplyDelete
  3. And you were/are the sporty one of the family...

    Didn't you get awards for baseball or tennis? You got some academic trophies in any case.

    Also, I think you've more than made up for it with your tales of cricket conquest over the past couple of years.

    ReplyDelete