Track Meet

Today I experienced theeee most incredible things in the world. Today was Christian Davids Track Meet that they’ve been preparing for over the last couple of months. It was against two other schools and it was just the greatest experience ever. This is how it all went down…

            We all arrived at the school around 7:45a.m. which meant leaving the house at 6:30 a.m. (it’s a really long walk) and I must say that getting out of bed was a challenge and I almost decided not to go :-/ but boy am I so happy that I went. At about 8:30 three really large buses, you know the charter kind, not the school bus kind cause they don’t have those here in South Africa came and we loaded about 200 kids up. Some dressed in their track uniforms ready to compete, others dressed in their school uniforms ready to be supportive spectators. After a 45 minute bus ride filled with lots of songs being sung in Afrikaans and SOO many SUPER excited kids yelling out their excitement we made it to the university! Yes that’s right our track meet was held at a University in Cape Town which was so exciting for the kids. You see today was their first time doing the events on a real track and not just around the school yard where they had to run 10 laps to equal 1 normal lap! So really if you think about it they were really coming in as the underdogs..

            Upon arriving we got everyone in positiong.. spectators in the stands, athletes on the fields, teachers at the tables ready to record times and volunteers standing on guard ready to conquire the world aka keep the kids in control and 100% ready to smash anyone who was gonna cause any problems. Before the events started the athletes did a wonderful parade around the track, marching with flags and such while music played and got everyone excited. Then they formed a nice 75 in the middle of the field because this year is the 75^th birthday of their school. Then the different events started and that’s when I got all emotional. WHY? Because I’ve never seen kids look so incredibly happy despite their circumstances. This track meet today really was such a huge opportunity for each of them, an opportunity that kids at home take for granted and don’t even really think about as an opportunity. WHY ELSE? Because these kids ran barefoot on a hot track around and around and they didn’t complain a bit!! They were just so excited for the chance to compete. And turns out they were DANG GOOD!! Needless to say we WON by a whole lot!!! Like over 100 points!! Such a success for the kids. A great ego booster and just a really happy ending to such a great opportunity. I am so happy I got to be apart of such a great experience like that!