Written by Valts Rozentāls
There is something bewitching about mornings here. Sun is up quite early and once you wake up you get this weird urge to get out and into the sunlight. It’s warm. Inviting. Pleasant. Energy – this is what the rays deliver, even if you are a bit tired. Tiredness, slowly but surely week like this gets to you. This is what the sun is for, in the morning – giving the body energy to go on.
This is the second day where we skip the morning practice, which would also be the last. After breakfast Sandy and Nadine took some kids and went to Kisgalambfalva to adhere some lines on the court. Thing is – there was nothing that resembled the basketball court. So they had to create something out of nothing. Keep in mind – options are limited. Outline was the easiest job, you basically made lines around whatever field you got. Where it gets tricky is “the Zone” and “three point line”. There’s explicit measurements to that, in Europe – regarding FIBA rules. We do not want the kids to learn “something”, but learn rules as close to regulations as possible.
This is what Sandy experienced:
“We measured and glued a few times, our hands clumsy but eager. The zone looked strange, so we peeled it all away, at least on one side. I placed the three-point line three times over, unsatisfied with the curve. We repurposed the wooden blocks from Viking chess, pressing down the lines with quiet determination.”
Nadine adds.
“It was very nice that both the Germans and the Romanians cleaned the hall together. The Germans had expected the hall to be in worse condition.”
So, after lunch it was time to make it to the train stop. I guess it’s as good a time as any to explain why it’s a “stop” instead of “station”. I am sure we have suitable pictures for this. There is no station. In the sense – there is no building, no roof, no counter. There is a sign and some concrete blocks to signify a platform. So, it’s a stop. And regarding the official time table, the train should be here at 14:55. Not really to our surprise – this is not the case and Google said – it’s coming around at 15:12 instead. We were not sure, but we needn’t be – when in Rome, do what Romans do. So, we observed the people coming to the train stop and they were coming at nothing short of 15:12. So that had to be the correct time. Then again – we could not move without a train, could we?
Once we arrived at the stop of Kisgalambfalva – we made our way on foot to the gym of the school we had fixed up to serve as a basketball court.
We would spend our evening playing games on and off the court, together with the Roma kids. It was a new kind of way of communicating for the German kids and took some time to get used to. We had had a briefing the previous evening, so this was an interaction they would/could expect.
We were pleasantly surprised and touched how the German kids could adjust themselves to the playfulness of a more childish kind. For them already reaching their teens, even thirteen and fourteen year olds, they could play with the younger kids and create so much fun. Either with basketball games, dribbling and giving high fives or with the Viking chess – despite being way bigger and stronger, they played with the younger Roma kids – not for them, not separately from them. Everybody was included. It is indeed a trait, a quality to be mature enough and rediscover the seriousness one had as a child by playing. To be competitive, but stay gentle and create games together with others for others. Purely joy to watch from the side.
That’s a wrap up. Sandy takes some kids on a VW bus along the “Wild-Kisgalambfalva”. Rest of us take the yellow bus over the regular route. Which turns out not so regular after all – the road has been closed! So we have to move through some smaller streets and end up asking for directions as there are no traffic signs in place. Somehow we end up on a gravel road on the side of the village, but it gets us around the closure.
Just right after that we remember we were supposed to pick up three kids on our way back and bring them to the evening practice. So, the issue is – we can’t really communicate with the driver who has route A to B in his mind. Miriam quickly calls Sandy and through phone call we are able to communicate with the driver to turn around and drive back to the closure. In our favor, we were not far away and could return in a couple of minutes. Nadine took in on herself and ran down the closed road to get all the three kids on our bus. Comically, they didn’t realize that they can’t be picked up on a closed street.
We close our evening almost routinely – practice, dinner, shower and feedback circle. Once we are done, all we can do is go to sleep. Heads are heavy, hit the pillow and we doze off in the dream world.
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