They Came in Flat Bed Trucks

THEY CAME IN FLAT BED TRUCKS

            Stephanie and I attended the first of several “athletics competitions” (track meets) a few weeks ago in Goodhope involving eight schools including Goodhope Senior (Stephanie’s school – grades 11 and 12) and Lotlamoreng (my school – grades 8, 9 and 10).  It took place on the Goodhope Senior campus, a school built in 2008 with 2400 students, mostly boarding.  The school features an eight lane synthetic track.  The field events take place on dirt, mainly on the school’s soccer pitch.  I know many of the students, since I have been helping out with coaching the Lotlamoreng team every afternoon starting at about 4 PM.  Coaching in the hot sun adds two tiring hours to my workday, but it is for now the most enjoyable and stress free part of my day.

            We walked 30 minutes from home to get to the venue by 7:30 AM.  We were joined on our walk by athletes from Lotlamoreng, who had also walked from all over Goodhope to get to the track.  Over the next thirty minutes, teams from other schools in the Goodhope sub-district arrived.  Their transport was not what we are used to: yellow school buses filled with athletes in matching uniforms.  These students arrived in street clothes, standing, on the back of flatbed trucks.  The only safety measures in place were guardrails along the perimeter of the flatbed.  The arriving students were in high spirits, some singing songs in harmony as the trucks pulled up to the fields. 

            My school’s athletes (around 100) changed into their sports attire.  The school sports master brought along about a dozen uniforms, really just a blue and white singlet and blue running shorts.  They were passed to the top athletes for each of their events.

            The track meet resembled in many ways the high school meets we attended at home, when we cheered on our daughter, Kate, a jumper for Manchester Central High School.  They also triggered my distant memories of competing in track events in secondary school more than 40 years ago.  The main differences were the substitution of 1500 and 3000-meter events for the one and two mile events, and the absence of hurdle events.  Also, the meet took place over two days: Friday and Saturday. 

            For those two days fans from Goodhope Senior and Lotlamoreng surrounded the track, cheering on their schoolmates.  There was a loudspeaker announcing the events, and it projected lively dance music between announcements.  Entrepreneurs brought gas grills and sold Russians (South African hot dogs).  Others sold sweets and freeze pops. 

            It was hard to tell which athlete came from which school because of the dearth of uniforms.  Still, there was some good talent.  Most runners competed barefoot, some with athletic tape to cover a sensitive toe or two.  Male and female races for each event took place one right after the other, just like in the United States.  The girls from my school cheered for the boy and girl athletes, although I think that the boys got the louder noise.

            In the end, Lotlamoreng did well. We qualified many athletes to attend a further meet, which could then lead to regional competition, maybe even a trip to the nationals…

            Peace Corps’ primary goal in Botswana is to promote life skills in young people: the ability to think critically and make good decisions based upon a consideration of the risks involved.  This nation has the second highest HIV infection rate in the world, and the evidence shows that good decision-making can contain the epidemic.  Participation in athletics is certainly a way for young people to learn teamwork, discipline and healthy habits, and hopefully it will lead to lower HIV infection rates.  That’s what I am telling Peace Corps as to why I spend time with coaching, and Peace Corps thankfully is flexible as to how we meet our objectives.