Away Meet

AWAY MEET

            The athletics (i.e. track and field) team at Lotlamoreng JSS progressed in its successful season.  We have a new and dynamic coach to thank for this, although some parents insist that my presence somehow has inspired the team.  After two meets that each extended over two days, our team managed to qualify more than twenty of its members to attend the South Zonal competition, which would feature students from junior and senior secondary schools throughout the southern third of Botswana, stretching all the way from my southeastern corner near South Africa across the Kgalagadi to the border with Namibia. 

The competition took place over two days at the soccer stadium of the Botswana Police College.  The facility was every bit as good as one would find at an American college campus: synthetic running surface, grassy infield for throwing events and runways for jumping events.  The event schedule was similar to that of American high school track meets. 

There was one big difference.  Almost all of the athletes spent two nights sleeping over at area junior secondary schools.  Some overnights could be expected, since schools may be more than a four hours’ drive away from the police college.  But others, including our school, are less than a two-hour drive away.  In America, we would easily bus the students back and forth.  But not here.  Why?  There are two reasons.  First, public schools in Botswana do not provide daily transport to students, and so there are no fleets of school buses available to drive athletes to meets.  This lack of transportation can be a burden: I have students at my school who walk 10 kilometers or more every day, to and from school.  Buses are simply in short supply.  Second, even if there were transport available to and from a meet, the return bus would arrive at dusk or later.  Few parents here own cars, and so students would be left to walk long distances home after dark.  That would create an unsafe situation and our school will not tolerate it.

So, our male and female athletes piled onto a rare government bus mid-afternoon on a Thursday.  The bus then stopped along the way at two more schools to pick up athletes.  I know about this quite well, because I rode along.  The bus dropped us off at 6 PM at a junior secondary school in Lobatse, about 20 kilometers from the police college.  This school, like most in Botswana, has a collection of small classroom buildings, each with windows on two opposite sides.  Someone had written the name of one visiting school on each classroom door.  The doors were left unlocked.  Our students ran around the school, searching for their assigned classroom.  Ours was a dingy place full of metal desks, and the students promptly moved them outside to an outdoor passageway.  The electricity was not working in that block for some reason, so a student was dispatched to find candles.  The students unrolled their sleeping bags or pads on the floor, each choosing spaces near their friends. 

I was then surprised to see two of our school cooks arrive at the classroom.  They came in a pickup truck filled with supplies.  They promptly set up in the classroom a metal frame that sported four commercial grade gas burners.  The driver carried in a large natural gas canister and bags of food.  The cooks hooked up the gas, started boiling water and cooked a hearty dinner for our athletes: beef and vegetables and paleche (a maize meal product that has the consistency of mashed potatoes).  Apparently bringing cooks along is standard for our school’s overnight trips.  Several other schools brought along cooks and food; others (with more resources or less imagination) just ordered take-out. 

After dinner, the cooks boiled more water for bathing.  (The school had no locker rooms or showers.)  Students had packed plastic pails with their luggage.  The cooks poured hot water into the pails.  The students then grabbed their soap and towels and walked outside into the dark to bathe themselves discreetly on the edges of the schoolyard.  I followed along and did the same.  I had to borrow a student’s pail because I did not know enough to bring one with me.    

It was then time for bed.  I was alarmed that our male and female students would sleep in the same classroom.  But our two cooks, along with two female teachers, brought air mattresses and blankets and bunked down amidst the 20+ students.   There was no hanky-panky whatsoever.

So, where did I sleep?  I bunked with two fellow male assistant coaches in the empty next-door classroom.  We each arranged six metal desks to form rectangles on which we placed our sleeping bags and, shortly thereafter, our tired bodies.  It was not the best night of sleep for me.  Some athletes from other schools hooted and hollered for several hours.  The metal desks were not particularly comfortable either. 

Then, at 5 AM the next morning, the cooks awakened us.  They had boiled more water for bathing, and they were preparing breakfast.  Batswana in general keep themselves very clean: they insist on bathing twice daily.  I reluctantly bathed again, outside, in the cold dawn air.  Then I ate my breakfast.  It consisted of bogobe, a tasty sorghum porridge, along with hot Ricoffy, a chicory-coffee beverage.

Transportation on Friday morning to the police college was hit or miss.  The few government vehicles and buses carried whoever boarded first.  Teachers and coaches crowded students into their cars.  The few buses then made two or three runs back and forth until all of the athletes got to the police college.  Our cooks stayed behind, but a pick-up truck delivered them to the track about mid-day, along with several pots containing a hot lunch freshly prepared for the athletes.

The meet extended throughout the day on Friday, suspending just after dark, at about 7 PM.  Everyone then had to find their way onto some vehicle back to their assigned school in Lobatse.  When we arrived there, the cooks greeted us.  Once again they had prepared everyone a delicious dinner.  I was tired, so after bathing outdoors, I hit the sack (or more precisely, the school desk).  I slept like a log, until 5 AM, when the morning routine began again.

The Saturday program unexpectedly ended before noon.  Botswana’s serious water shortage had affected the police college, meaning that by Saturday there was no water in the stadium rest rooms.  The organizers therefore canceled the steeplechase event and the finals of the high hurdles. 

Our students did well overall at the South Zonal competition.  Ten of them placed either first or second in their events.  They qualified to compete in the national competition two weeks later. 

Postscript: I also attended the nationals.  They took place last Friday and Saturday.  It was held at a top-notch soccer stadium and the proceedings were very well organized.  Because only ten of our students competed, I did not spend the night with them at the local school.  Our cooks stayed behind as well, meaning that our students survived on take-out food and cold water for bathing.  Unfortunately, our highest finisher in the nationals came in third place, and so none of them will go on to the Southern Africa school championship, held this year in Harare.  I had hoped to get the chance to go to Harare, but since the United States has a less than friendly relationship with Zimbabwe, Peace Corps might not have wanted me to make that trip. 

Barefoot runners in a prior competition rounding the turn in a 3000m race.