A Field Day in Banta

Last month, we hosted Chris and Debbie Clark and their son Bryce when they visited Sierra Leone. It was a fast week completely packed with meetings, programs, tours, etc. During this visit, we traveled upcountry to COTN’s ministry site in the village of Banta Mokelleh for two days. While there, COTN’s school was having their annual Sports Day. The sports day is like a glorified field day, but the children get really excited for it and everyone turns out to watch it.

The school kids are divided into four teams which they call “houses.” Each house represents one of the countries COTN ministers to. There’s Blue House (Dominican Republic, Red House (Malawi), Green House (Sierra Leone), and Yellow House (Uganda). Sarah Saunier (another COTN Associate Teacher serving with me here in Sierra Leone) was in the Green House, and I was in the Blue House.

Some of the races are the typical track and field races (1,500 meter or the 200 meter race), but there are also races where the kids balance things on their heads, and for the little ones, they have a race where they carry a baby on their back in they typical way that the mothers carry their babies.

The end results were Yellow House coming in first, Blue House second (yeah!! they normally lose), Red House third, and Green House last (sorry Sarah!). It was a beautiful day and the kids all had a great time!