Today’s entry will be short and sweet.  I just returned to Morogoro, so between catching up with friends and sleep, there is not a lot to share.  However, tonight was the night of the student-teacher football match at the secondary school that shares a campus with our language school.  The field was packed with participants and spectators, and we could hear the cheering from the dining hall.  A few of us decided to wander over a take a look but were quickly distracted by the goings-on at our end of the field.  The football match was made up entirely of boys, but on a small, make-shift basketball court on the near end of the clearing, a group of girls and women were engaged in what at first glance looked like a pick-up basketball game.   I love basketball, so naturally my curiosity was peaked and I went over to watch.

Quickly I saw however that it was unlike any basketball game I had ever played.  There were too many players on the court.  The players didn’t move around the full length of the court, but rather seemed to stick to certain areas.  About half the girls were wearing soccer uniforms, so we determined that they were one team- the students- and that the teachers in street clothes made up the other team.  Many played barefoot.  Instead of dribbling (which would have been difficult on the dirt ground), the players would stop as soon as they received the ball and would not move until they could pass it up the court.  Once the ball made it to the end, the ball was passed to a player inside a small half circle outlined in the ground.  No other player entered the half circle, and the player, without jumping would throw the ball up and try to score through a metal hoop with no net.  At first, I was confused.  Was this basketball with concessions made to the limits of the playing surface and lack of a backboard?

Calling over to one of the students, we asked her what they were playing.  “Netball,” she replied.  I had heard of netball, but since girls in the States have played basketball for several decades now instead, I didn’t realize that it was still popular in other areas of the world.  She laughingly told us we should join in, but since we didn’t know the rules and it was really an event for the students and teachers to bond, we declined and stayed on as spectators.