Sports Day

For the past several weeks at school lessons have been concluding an hour early so that the kids could run around and “exercise” for the duration of the school day. Early last week I discovered there was an aim to this: practice and preparation for Sports Day. Sports day, in essence, is a glorified Field Day (everyone had that at school, right?) when for a whole day the students participate in mostly running events while their families come to watch. I discovered the particulars when I was asked last Tuesday to coach the Red Team, so for three days I lead half the school in warm up runs, stretching, jumping jacks (hilarious to watch 5 year olds try to do), tuck jumps, and anything and everything I could think of from my 18 years of playing sports. Adorbs.

There is a big emphasis in Tonga on speed, and the fastest kids are looked up to by everyone, but not so much on endurance. I found out it’s perfectly acceptable, mid race, to announce “Hela ia!” (“I’m tired!”) and sit down…typical. On Wednesday after school the class 5 and 6 boys had to stay late and, using a lawn mower, they helped Le’o create a circular track with five lanes around the entire school field and a shorter straight away through the center. It looked amazing when they were finished, and it actually worked really well!

Sports Day itself was on Friday, and I got up at sunrise (6am) to make some coconut milk and subsequently some curry for lunch to eat with my neighbors and who ever else wandered by. Every family comes to watch their kids compete, and everyone brings an inordinate amount of food to picnic around the school grounds after the big races have been run.

Each class competed against itself (red team vs. blue team- I was for team red and wore the t-shirt to prove it) with a boys race and a girls race- they ran short sprints and long(er) relays and there was even a sack race and mini obstacle course. Classes one and two were particularly adorable, especially in the sack race. Lots of cheering and trash talking took place in the early hours of competition, but as the day wore on, and the sun grew hotter, the two teams eventually melded into one under the shade of the giant tree in the school yard. I was the official "card hander outer", which meant that I stood at the finish line for each event and handed out the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place cards for the kids to take to the scoring table, manned by the local fifekau, our guest of honor, so the results could be recorded…although I never figured out what the purpose of that was- each team got the same prizes at the end: candy and chips.

It was a wonderful, if exhausting, day, and I loved meeting all the families and seeing everyone come together to support their kids, even if they were the slowest one out there, or won by cheating horrendously (not so much of an issue here). But don’t worry, it’s not back to school in earnest yet…we’re still going to continue breaking 45 minutes early every day so the fast kids can practice for the island-wide sports day at the end of this month. All the school on Lifuka and Foa (the next island) have “try-outs” and their best athletes will compete at Ha’apai High School in Pangai on March 28th…I’ll keep you all posted on how Koulo fares!