Derby Day (pronounced in the very English way -- Darby Day!) is a mini-tournament of multi-sports between ALA and Lebone II, College of the Royal Bafokeng and Maru-a-Pula, a college (means high school) in Botswana. This is the fourth annual Derby Day and a lot was on the line -- each school had already won once, so this would be a first time for a school to win two times. The competitions were in STEM, chess, basketball (girls and boys), volleyball (girls and boys) and soccer (girls and boys). I went as a soccer coach, Hans as the STEM coach and Nate competed in volleyball where he is the starting setter (and the first time in a long, long time that a Sowder has played a sport with their hands).
Lebone is in a part of South Africa of the Setswane tribe and it really does have a king. Apparently, with the help of Lutheran missionaries, they were able to use their wages from working in the diamond mines to buy some land in their area. This land ended up having 75% of the world's supply of platinum so they become quite wealthy. The more recent kings used the resources to refurbish an older school to become a beautiful college who hosted the 4th annual Derby Day.
Here are a few pictures and a video of the opening ceremonies:
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| Nate, playing volleyball. |
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| Me, Ms. Kofo (the head of student life at ALA) and Mama Angie (the nurse) |
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| Nate, in the main area of Lebone II |
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| Nate and his advisor, Mr. Joe |
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| The volleyball. Their coach, Tatenda, is rocking those pants! |
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| The girls soccer team |
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| ALA wins! |
Yes! After a great show at STEM (one of Hans' students won first place with her experiment on a baceteria acquired in hospitals and the effect of a local Ethiopian plant to hamper its growth), ties on the soccer sides, and wins on the volleyball court, ALA won the Derby cup back! It was really fun! Hans and I were laughing because the ALA cheer/chant was so infectious that even the other schools were joining in!! And while it was not the romantic getaway Hans tried to convince me it was (ahem, we were with 100 teenagers...), it was really fun to see another part of South Africa and to travel as a school. The kids are really great and it was fun to be a part of it.
