My Manager Mikael and I have been meeting with a local
school to start our softball team here in Kitgum. We luckily were able to get
the school that has a lot of OVC that my org sponsors, so I get to keep it all
in the family. The first few meetings with just coaches was me trying to
explain softball, the love of my life that is second nature to me, to
individuals who had never heard of the game before. Every time I said things
like, “field the ball,” “grounder,” or “pitch,” Mikael had to remind me that no
one knew what the heck I was talking about. It was like teaching them a new
language that I had been speaking my whole life and it was really, really hard.
Afterwards, I sat down for about an hour and wrote out definitions to things
like “out,” “safe,” “basehit,” and “strike”. And even then, Mikael had to read
through my definitions and say, “Ok, but what does that mean?” Mikael was able
to find a good youtube video that broke down the game pretty nicely, and after
about 15 minutes of watching it buffer, we were able to show it to the bored
Ugandan coaches. By the look on the female coach’s face, I though I had
completely lost them both. But then the male started asking questions and I
could see they were both picking it quite nicely.
Mikael and I then met with the male coach for a small
demonstration with a bat and a tennis ball. I was super nervous because all the
kids were at lunch and therefore watching our every move. And as they saw us
with the tennis ball and bat, aka novel toys, in our hands, they all slowly
started gravitating toward us in the field with their eyes on the prize. It
took all of 30 seconds for the small field we had laid out to be surrounded by
the entire school. The male coach went first and whiffed big time, causing a
huge burst of laughter from the kids. After a few swings he made contact and
ran the bases according to the rules I’d showed him. We all took our turn,
Mikael of course popping a homerun out of no where, and the kids quickly found
their spots in the infield and outfield and got in line in hopes of taking a
cut. And as soon as the bat hit the ground and out of our hands—bam. The
demonstration was over and the game was on. Although they didn’t really know
what they were supposed to do, they all had a great time taking some swings and
running after the ball. And dude, my Acoli friend was right—these kids can
throw. Back at the camps, he told me, “You go and start a team in Kitgum, I am
telling you: you will find players there. They know how to throw spears and
they are strong. You look there and you will find players.” Dude was on point.
I had to take a break from working with the coaches as we
traveled to different districts, but I was very happy with the quick progress
made by my coaches and more importantly their enthusiasm to learn more and
start teaching kids. After the demonstration, the guy told me, “Eh, I like it.
This game is easy.” Oh, just you wait, dude. Just you wait.
This past week, we visited two different softball schools to
help train them in the sport. The first spot was Soroti in eastern Uganda,
which is absolutely beautiful. I was able to see one of my favorite girls from
the camp, Judith, and thoroughly enjoyed watching her light up as she taught
the other girls what she had learned from us. The second school was in Lira,
which is in the northern region of Uganda. The team is very new and still
learning the game, but the coaches had attended the camp earlier this year and
have done an amazing job in just a few short months. We had about 20-40 girls
there and I know I’ve said this before, but really—I could not have asked for a
more coachable group of girls. And my catchers. Dude. I have this young girl,
Kevin (ya, I don’t know but here that is a female name), who is the tinniest
little thing but can buck up and throw down. Literally. We were working on
footwork to second, and she was acting all shy during the breakdown and drills
but showed all the older girls up when we threw the ball. And with blocking. I
can’t believe how they just do it. I say drop like this and they just drop like
this. I even had a girl blocking in a skirt—that’s how awesome these girls are.
My favorite though was Becky, who stood out as a leader and took every chance
she could to direct her team. I had to leave the last practice a couple hours
early, and when I said bye to Becky, she put her arm over her eyes and wouldn’t
let go of my hand. She started getting tears in her eyes and I hugged her and
promised I was coming back but she was not having it. It was the cutest, most
flattering thing ever and I am so thankful for it because it reminded me that I
am actually doing something here and my time away from my family is worth it. Also,
I’m definitely gunna get me some catchers out of these two years and I can’t
wait.
So, I thank the universe every day that I was blessed with
softball here in Uganda. Without it, I don’t know what I would do. Probably, nothing-lol.
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