Last weekend (5th/6th Feb) the PTA of one of the international schools here in Kathmandu held a fundraising basketball tournament. For the first few days after we arrived in Nepal we kept meeting people who would take one look at Tom and ask if we were free for the tournament. So the weekend arrived and Tom was due to play and referee some of the other matches. Lucy who after too many years of netball finds it impossible to run with the ball was down to be a scorekeeper. Early on Saturday we made our way to one of the city’s private schools that has three courts, only to discover on arrival that we had somehow passed through an invisible magic portal and rather than being on the playing fields of a Kathmandu high school we were now in America!
Tom and team mate Nico preparing for battle!
There was a marquee, food stalls, game stands, printed t shirts with local sponsors logo’s on, and a make shift tannoy system had been set up using trees as speaker stands playing pop/rap music. On closer inspection you realised that the marquee was not white but rather made of beautiful multi coloured local fabrics and the food stands whilst selling some traditional baked goods also sold local snacks such as momos (similar to dim sum but tastier!) and samosas. It made the stereotypical English school fete look like a jumble sale.
There were over 50 teams from schools and clubs across Kathmandu valley all gathered to play what is one of the nations favourite sports. Despite the average height of the country’s population only being 5’7” many players far exceeded this average and all of them showed a phenomenal level of skill.
Over the two days we had a lot of fun getting to know people from the local community and further a field. There are so many differences between the different nationalities represented here and amongst the Nepali’s themselves but for two days we all enjoyed the same spirit of teamwork, fun, excitement and anticipation, all be it with an American edge!
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