Zonal Athletics - a lesson in patience

Saturday I traveled to the nearby village Berseba (40km away from Tses) for our local athletics (track/field) competition. Although the actual thing was great, my kids were on their best behaviour and I had a good time with them, it was one of those days, generally, where everything seemed to go wrong.

It started a few weeks back, when we started trying to arrange transportation. After two weeks of promises, the Ministry of Education finally told us that they couldn’t assist us – leaving us 2 days to make another plan. The school combi (minibus) had, at that point, two punctured tires and, unknown to us, an ENORMOUS hole in the exhaust pipe. Eventually we decided we’d just drive it anyway, making multiple trips to get all the kids there and back.

When we got to Berseba Saturday morning, things continued. Although my kids had been great, on time, and prepared, the other team was NOT. We arrived and there was nobody else at the track – in fact, although the school had insisted to me that we begin by 6:30 am, we didn’t start until nearly 11. Meaning it was now the heat of the day, in the desert, and the kids had to run in it.

Running the 1500 in the heat of the morning

To contribute to my frustration, the late start meant that most of the teachers from my school – meant to come to help officiate – got bored and started drinking. Not only did my kids think I had been excessively strict the whole season, telling them that if I catch them drinking anytime, anywhere, they are off of my team, but then the teachers rubbed it in their faces by drinking and getting drunk in front of them at the school event. GAH!!!

But all of those issues were with the grown-ups. My kids were wonderful, the whole day. They won, they competed, they tried their best. I am really proud of how they acted the whole day and how good they were!           

Even this one kid, who’s insanely fast but insanely cocky (he celebrated before the finish, tripped, fell, and faceplanted over the line) still won his race! I told him he was dumb, then helped him clean up the blood.