Zenith Sports Day

The Sea Snake I caught on the fishing trip.

Zenith Sports Day

On Wednesday it was Zenith’s sports day which was being held at the stadium. I had managed to get the day off work so at 8 o’clock we walked to the stadium making our way to the front entrance. Most of the children and teachers were already there waiting to enter the stadium. Paul went off looking for the PE teacher as he has been helping to organise the day’s events. Finally at 9.30am all the children were asked to get into their team houses, they then walked into the stadium behind their house banner singing the Zenith song as they went. They then had to do a small circuit of the field singing their house song as they marched. While this was happening Paul was busy putting out equipment around the field for each of the events. Eventually over the loud speaker the teachers were asked to get their classes assembled ready for their first event. Paul had organised eight events so each class would be participating at the same time before then moving onto the next event. Also Vicky had organised some of the stadium staff to help collate the event results with the teachers. Bradley’s first event was to throw a tennis ball underarm as far as he could. As the children were throwing I helped to take measurements and return some of the balls back to the children (whilst one teacher stood doing nothing). We then moved onto the next event which for Bradley’s class was the sack race. It was now after 10 o’clock and starting to get hot, I quickly ran back for my bag to get some water for Bradley who was saying he had a headache. Luckily I just made it before it was his turn for the sack race. He was doing really well until the two other boys decided to cut across the lanes and head towards the teacher. So Bradley decided to follow them however he was in the lane furthest away so had further to run hence he came last which did upset him a bit. Bradley moved onto the next event where they had to sit and throw a football over arm as far as possible. At this time I decided to check on Abigail only to find she was in between events and standing around. Paul was busy controlling the high jump as one of the stadium staff had disappeared, I quickly gave him a drink. I was then shocked as I watched a teacher giving some children glucose powder. Paul spotted this and took the powder off him saying it was not good for them. This became a heated debate with them saying it was bought by the head for the children. The next event for Bradley was a team event where they had to move a ball from a cone and then run to the next cone and swap over balls. Bradley enjoyed this event and his team managed to finish first. At the same time Abigail was doing the seventy five metre run I just managed to catch the back of her as she ran passed. She then had the high jump whilst Bradley had another team event where they had to pass a ball through their legs to the back and then run to the front. It was now past midday and the children were hot and thirsty so we broke for a quick lunch. Up to now everything had gone really well with all the children involved in some activity, most of the events after lunch were running events for the older children. The last two hours were pretty much like last year very disorganised with children running around dropping food and annoying Paul by standing on the track whilst he was trying to organise a baton race with the best runners from each class. I could see him getting very wound up this resulted in him shouting at the teachers asking them to organise their classes by getting the children off the track and back to the stands. Finally the day ended at around 2 o’clock with the house team steadfastness first, quality second and excellence taking up the rear. Abigail and Bradley enjoyed it much more than last year however it was still very tiring for them in this heat. I think it would be much better with less events for the children then maybe they wouldn’t get so hyper.

On Friday I had my hair highlighted at Yok Salon by Miranda who is Suelle’s sister, I was very pleased with the end result. Suelle had flown to Germany with his mother as she had fallen and broke her hip so needed a hip replacement. Paul on the other hand was due to play a rugby game at MRC with his Gambian team. The Gibraltar regiment are currently out here training the army so he had managed through the British High Commission to organise a game with them. He arrived home just before 7 o’clock saying it had been a very good game and all seemed to enjoy it however no one from the commission had turned up.

On Saturday morning I went with Lynn to Serrekunda market. She was looking for material as after borrowing my traditional dress she decided she would like the same style of dress making for herself. We had a good morning also managing to buy some material to make trousers and tops for her son and boyfriend who are due out here in the new year.