Équipe Brest 2017: Sports and activities day

Wind? What wind?

le 13 juin 2017

Mad sky skills, Joseph!

Today was our first sports and activity day. This is something we will do once or twice a week after lunch to get the kids active. In France, sports are not part of school. They are sponsored by what we would call youth or rec centers. We can’t be affiliated with any of those, so, we have to provide our own opportunities.

We have a rag-tag bunch of balls of various sorts, a badminton set, and a mindset for fun. Évie used to work as a summer camp counselor, so she can create an activity out of nothing.

Watch out for this girl!

We went to a park that overlooks the opening of the port to the Atlantic Ocean, the mediaeval château on another side, and the busiest commercial port in northwest Europe on another. Sounds like a great place to play, right?

I expected them to play soccer, but no one did. There was badminton and Frisbee. They invented some game that involved throwing a soccer ball while in the air. There was another game I didn’t understand that involved moving very quickly, smacking another person’s hand then freezing in place.

Then Évie introduced the French version of dodgeball, which involves much less pain and much less shame than I remember from dodgeball. It took the kids a while to understand the rules and pacing. It is supposed to be a very fast game, but the lack of understanding slowed it down. Once they got it, things went very quickly.

It's all about the form, right Sydney?

It was a great afternoon. We have been blessed with so much good weather since the first day. Last year, it rained for the first two weeks and it was always cold! Now we have chilly mornings and evenings with spectacular afternoons.

I shot some video and am putting together a montage. Look for that to be posted in the next few days. I’m still learning the software.