Skipping Ropes and Basketballs



At the firt visit to the village of Sampaguita when we delivered the toys from all our club members (thanks everyone!) we saw a few kids happily skipping rope with their new gift. And, the village also has a basketball "ring" - no net - and no balls. So we gave Badette, one of the spouses, some money to buy 100 skipping ropes and President Neil asked Linda to pick up some basketballs. Last night we went en masse to deliver the extras and it was just delightful.

There wasn't as much time to organize this event and while we had planned to give the skipping ropes to only the girls, some boys got into the lineup too and we saw no reason to discriminate so the first 100 kids got the ropes. It would have been nice to give one to each family and we started out that way, calling out the names, but there weren't always reps from each family there. So in the end, it just became a joyous free-for-all.

Hans, Neil B and our host Dave (a former professional basektball player in the Philippines) demonstrated the dribble (not the kind from your mouth!) and shot a few baskets. George, the village chief, will be the custodian of the basketballs and the boys and girls who want to play will have to borrow from him and return them. Sort of like a library book. The chief also has 3 additional basketballs and a pump so if the first 2 go missing, there are a few in reserve.

As we walked away, the happy squesls of children playing followed us home.

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