Tournament Time

Could have been anywhere, lots of teenagers cheering on their teams with enthusiasm and gusto. Except it was here in Papua. Basketball is becoming a big sport or has been and I am just seeing it for the first time. We had a tournament this past week, players playing to the crowd, tight scores, injuries, bad calls and exciting games. There were some differences though, we had bats flying in the gym, the calls were made in Indonesian, the audience was markedly young and Asian, the westerners were outnumbered but not out yelled. It helps when you have musical instruments. We wanted to do the wave but it never went beyond our section. We had quite a few stares when we attempted to have them join us.
The tournament started on Wednesday afternoon and ended on Saturday night. One of the games our girls team was playing quit playing in the third quarter. The coach was incensed that both his key players had fouled out. After much talking, waving and gesturing his team packed up and walked off the court. Not only did his team play mean, his main players had been shown much grace not to have fouled out sooner. That was interesting. The boys team showed as much drama. There was some exceptional players, especially this one little dude named 3lly..I have no idea what that stands for but that is what he had on the back of his shirt. He could not have been any taller the 5'6 but man he could move and man did he know it. There was much confidence and arrogance in his play. During the championship game he was hurt about 5 times, hurt so much so that he had to be carried off the court. AMAZINGLY though, in about 3 minutes he was ready to play again. I think he had forgotten what sport he was playing. Soccer injuries to delay the game works in soccer, in BB it just looks funny. He was fun to watch but oh so very irritating. We lost to that team twice...unfortunately. The girls won first place in tournament and the boys took second.
Scott has gone to Merauke for a few days. It is way down the south coast and in swamp country. He is doing a welding project for MAF.