Olympics

I love the Olympics! What is it about them? The once in a life time, history making moments? Individuals who have worked so hard to be the best in the world at what they can do but yet are still like us? The inspiration, the competition, the challenges, the amazing feats? So many nations, cultures, peoples together? Ummm, I could go on like this for a while so let me interrupt myself. The point of this blog is that I was trying to share my love with Betty and Abella and was challenged a bit myself. It is a hard to watch the Olympics here. The internet is often too slow or expensive to stream anything and there are not a whole lot of TVs in Soroti and the necessary cable channels are even more difficult to come by.  But the day I discovered that Betty and Abella had no idea what the Olympics were  I decided to try to overcome these nearly insurmountable odds.  We drove around town looking for a restaurant that had a television, power, cable channels and were tuned into an Olympic sport other than football (soccer).  It took us more than 30 minutes but we did finally accomplish that goal. Only to discover speed walking. And track cycling.  "Why don't they just run?" "Well, Abella, the point is to be the fastest walker." "But running is faster." "True." And Betty: "Why are they just riding in circles?" I began to doubt if this was actually a good idea. But after a few more clips of other sports they seemed to get it. And when Track and Field came on, this is a sport they understand!, they really got into the competition.  They were silent while watching the women on the trampoline and couldn't stop talking about the man who ran with no feet. They are still asking me questions about women weight lifters and want to try table tennis for themselves. They were astounded at the swimming (they are like fish!) and can't believe the high dive.   I would love to have them see more. I think they would be fascinated with men's and women's gymnastics, the triathlon, and  pole vault. There are so few things that they know and have experienced in this little corner of Uganda. But at least now it is just a little bit more.