We are the champions, my friends...

Yesterday the Youth Olympiad at the Dar Chebab was a success! I couldn't be happier with how well everything went and how smoothly it all seemed to come together. I was so proud of my boys and how hard they worked planning this event. Two months ago, we started talking about it and it feels good to see an idea actualize into something concrete!

I woke up early to fill water balloons in my house and gather all the materials we would need for the activities. One of my boys came over at exactly 8:00 am (he is never late and would no problem fitting into American society) and I sent him to the hanut to get my half a kilo of bananas and four cantaloupes. I gave him 20 durhams and he returned shortly asking for more money. He thought I had said 4 kilos of bananas and that would have been rather expensive. Three other boys soon joined us and we hauled the tub of water balloons and other odds and ends to the Dar Chebab.

On the way to Dar Chebab, we met up with a fellow PC volunteer, Shanna, who had brought 9 youth with her to the event. The kids were riding on a donkey cart and singing the wedding song, very excited to be there. When we arrived at the Dar Chebab, we weren't shocked to find the moudir MIA so we got things started on our own. The kids made name tags and started singing songs. Soon, Ian, another PC volunteer, showed up with his youth. I had a good chuckle when he walked in wearing his bicycle helmet on his head! I had asked him to bring it over for an activity and he wore it throughout the day as a joke.

Dan showed up a little late and due to my poor instructions on how to get to the Dar Chebab, he got lost in my town and ended up wandering around by a mosque on the edge of town. I told him to "walk toward the mosque" and he did. Just, not the right one. I went out looking for him, found a kid I recognized on the street and asked him to go look for a lost American and bring him to the Dar Chebab. The boy immediately took off in search of Dan.

Somehow Dan made it to the Dar Chebab on his own and we started the opening ceremony. I had prepared my list of rules written in Arabic so I wouldn't forget anything and of course, I forgot that piece of paper at my house! So, I winged it and the kids helped me when I couldn't remember certain words. After splitting the kids up into groups, each group created a group name and chant. One group called themselves "the Farmers." The next group's name was "Infinity," then there was "Dragons" and finally the team "Adventure," which was my team.

Our first round of activities were sports-related. We started with an egg relay and surprisingly, no eggs broke at all. Then, we had a banana relay which consisted of the kids putting a banana under their arm and hopping on one foot. Even after telling the kids that they should jump carefully, they took off in a mad dash and within seconds all the bananas had been smashed. A lot of the kids had banana stains on their armpits! We also bowled with cantaloupes, had a three-legged race and water balloon toss. I made sure to fill up extra water balloons so the kids could play around a little. I got bombed in the back of the head with two large balloons! But, it felt really good because it was so hot.

The next round was an English competition. The first activity was a word scramble and then we played Hangman. I had also prepared pictionary and charades but the time was running down, so we had to cut a few things.

After English, we moved on to GGLOW activities. GGLOW means Guys and Girls Leading Our World and encourages youth to learn good leadership skills. We played blindfolded tag, which required one person from each team to wear a blindfold and play tag. The blinded person would listen to the directions given to them by their teammates. It was hysterical. We made the kids wear our bike helmets in case one of them ran into a wall or fell down. Then we played a game where we pretended we needed to cross a river and only had five pieces of paper to walk on to cross the river. The kids had to work together to get across the river without "falling in."

After tallying up the points, each team sang their chants again and then the results were given. My team "Adventure" actually came in first place and they were all very happy. But, the most important thing was that all of the kids had fun and even the kids in last place had smiles on their faces.

By this time we were all starving, so we all had lunch together. We ate fish and bread and drank pop. Then, the kids with Shanna left. And some time later, the kids with Ian left. Ian and Dan stuck around, helped me carry my stuff back to my house and then stayed over. We made pizza and played "catchphrase music" which was hilarious! It's like catchphrase, except you have to guess songs and we played it for a few hours, sitting on my balcony, trying to keep cool.

Today Ian stuck around for a while and then Leslie came over for lunch. We ate some really yummy watermelon and then just rested and listened to music because it was too hot to move. I checked the temperature at 6:30 and it was 96 degrees. Two hours have passed, but it stills the same. I might take a shower now and continue "resting" until tomorrow!

Make sure to check out the pictures I posted.