Playing Basketball with our kids

Saturday of the 2nd of March was a special day for many children of the lake. This holiday was dedicated to sports, basketball in particular. With 30 children from San Pedro and San Juan we came to Guillermo school, the principle of which a few days before kindly granted us a permission to use their basketball court, and started training. A new member of Vision Guatemala team, Yevgeny from Russia, was assigned the responsibility to organize the training. Some volunteers were appointed to help him while others had to go to volunteers' house and help to cook lunch for 35 people.

During the warm up it became obvious that the youngest children of the age from 4 to 10 could not keep up and needed a different activity. Laila, Nickie and Rafa did great job keeping the little ones busy for 2 hours, playing hundreds of games, running around, singing children songs including songs in German.

Meanwhile Yevgeny made a 40 minute warm up with the older ones, who also differed in age from 10 to 15, showed some basic basketball movements and positions, but after some time noticed that children were getting bored (some particularly independent boys were already playing with a ball separately at the other part of the court), obviously because they already knew all the information and probably from the beginning expected to just have fun on Saturday, and had no other choice but to ask if they wanted  to start playing. The children started jumping and screaming out positive answers showing their readiness and happiness.

Rafa went to control and play with the boys and Yevgeny stayed with the ladies, asked them if they knew the rules..Of course they knew; judging from what happens at least here on the lake it looks like basketball is an ancient traditional mayan sport and they start playing it immediately after they learn to walk! We split them into three teams and had good time watching them playing basketball, many in traditional costumes and slippers, of course breaking most of the rules, but dedicated and passionate.

The game continued until 1 p.m. when the food was expected. Though the boys` game didn`t last for a long time probably because they had only two teams which meant no time for rest, got tired much faster and after one hour of playing started doing their own businesses, playing different games and flirting with some of the ladies. Some were more dedicated to basketball and continued playing with Yevgeny and other volunteers.

The food arrived at perfect time when the children started showing interest in it. All 35 people were satisfied, even the less fit ones who needed a couple of refills.

After some cleaning up the children were put on the truck and taken to the office of Vision Guatemala from where continued back home. Before they left we asked them if they liked the activity and wanted to have something similar next week, and received a loud positive respond. That made our day.

This activity was a lesson for us too. Though it went pretty well and the kids were happy, it was a little random, because at the beginning we didn`t even know for sure how many children we would`ve had of what ages and abilities. Now we know better how to deal with children of different ages, know their needs and are ready to organize such activities in a much higher level. Although it was still lots of fun for all of us and we all we all enjoyed it mucho!

By Yevgeny