Champions: Going All the Way to Kenya!

Maybe you'll recall that I have been coaching some of my students in basketball and that last July many players from Songea Girls participated in a Tanzanian national basketbally competition and finished in second place. So of course it has been our mission for the last year to prepare for first place. A couple of weeks ago my girls made me proud by winning the championship game at this year's cometition! As a result, at the end of August they will travel to Kenya to represent Tanzania in a tournament for all of East Africa!

Rather than select the best teams to compete in the national competition, because many schools do not have sports teams, Tanzania chooses the best players from many each zone to form a zonal team that competes in the tournament. I thin there are nine zones. The Iringa and Ruvuma regions formed the Southern Highlands zone. Like last year, seven of the nine players on the girls' basketball team from the Southern Highlands were from Songea Girls. As it was not officially a Songea Girls basketball team, I was not their coach at the tournament. Unfortunately, because things were so unorganized this year within the committe putting on the tournament, after my players left to compete, I didn't get any information about it and so didn't get to go see them play. But they know I was rootin for them from Songea and will continue to as they travel to Nairobi, Kenya!

The national tournament hosts all sorts of sports from track and field to table tennis. Apparently they even had a handball division (I think it is like field hockey). Since pretty much nobody in Tanzania plays handball the Southern Highlands girls basketball team entered the handball competition and won that as well.

Also, last week I had the chance to meet the Women in Development/Gender and Development (WID/GAD) coordinator for all of Peace Corps, who was visiting from Washington, D.C. to lead our framework development meeting. She wants to put a picture of my basketball team on the cover of this year's Peace Corps WID/GAD brochure. My girls are going to flip when they find out they will be world famous!