Saturday and Sunday, (June 7 & 8 ) we held our first ever sports competitions. They were incredibly fun and fabulous two days filled with screaming kids, soccer, volleyball, and tennis table competitions. Each of the sites had at least one team in each type of competition– with Zeway having a few more. Kids came out of the woodwork to watch these competitions– with the smaller towns cheering with their cohorts against the big bad teams of Zeway. Jiddo and Bulbulu had their own competitions in Bulbula where Bulbula took all five trophies– but graciously gave a trophy to Jiddo for good sportsmanship. In the Zeway competitions, Tilahun’s soccer team took the cup in a final against Geleta’s team. Abossa women’s volleyball took the cup in the final against Zeway and Adami Tulu’s mens volleyball took the cup against Hanna’s girls (Zeway). After each team won their event all of the kids from that site took off running all over the fields chanting about being the winners and how the loosers only eat spinach. I don’t think I have ever seen such an exciting event in my entire life.
These events are great for these children as it builds up their self-esteem, teaches them about team work, communication and competition. For the children who competed in Zeway, for those coming from other sites, it was some children’s first time to visit Zeway or to take a trip with a bunch of other kids. Just the fact that these children were there and competing was a once and a lifetime opportunity.
