After a good nights sleep, and a great breakfast, a wiser group headed back up to the 3 local schools (Mandela, Azimio & Kalolemi) – to get them ready for Saturdays inter-school sports competition.

This time, there were no balloons or giveaways at all, but we were still not quite ready for the enthusiasm of the kids and their teachers, and their competitive spirit  – which was again a little overwhelming.

The plan for the sports day was to run events for boys and girls in junior and upper primary – so 4 races for each event.  We had traditional sprint and relay events, but also a few novelty races (koala pussy cat relay, kangaroo dinosaur hop relay, Aussie relay, and of course the thong throw).  We also had tunnel ball and leader ball…  a few Mzungu and Teacher events, , and a War Cray competition as well.

Here is one (of several) Mandela war cries :

Ooh, a Lae Lae, Ooh, a Lae Lae
I Tikki Tonga, I Tikki Tonga
Weely Weely Ossa, Weely Weely Ossa
Ooh a Lae, A Lae Mandela

The students were VERY enthusiastic about the chants and war cries… and very competitive as well… at one stage leading to another near riot between the Mandela and Azimio schools (which share same the same campus).

The training was held on the local “sports oval”, a large dry, dusty block of bare earth, overlooked by the majestic Kilimanjaro.

It was  a long, hot, dusty and VERY tiring day, but with the enthusiasm of the kids and the support of the teachers, we all survived and managed to actually teach the students something along the way as well.