Enough volleyball for a lifetime?

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I was invited to go and watch the Mamilla Kindergarten Institute (where I teach on a Saturday) playing in a volleyball match yesterday, but missed the game as it had finished by the time Hannah and I got there - based on the experience of today, I have no idea how!

They were playing again today, so after a Sunday breakfast of eggs (the best in Robe) at Welmall Café, we went to Robe Stadium. The volleyball was taking place behind the actual stadium, in the grounds!

The first match, between Robe Teachers’ College and Agafa College, was supposed to have started at 3am (local time, i.e. 9am) but had still not started when we arrived at 4am. Buno, one of my friends, was the RTC coach and Kuma (an HDP candidate from last year) was playing, so I was pleased that I was there. The match was very close, but even the late arrival of Balaka for Robe CTE (he is a university student and had to attend a class) could not win the game for them. The spectators loved him. They went wild when he arrived and whenever he touched the ball. However, the crowd was fickle and soon switched allegiance to Agafa, and their number 10.

The various arguments that seemed to erupt, especially when one side was close to winning a round, mainly involved Kuma (who is very competitive) and the opposite captain and was usually about some rotation rule.

The match we were there for finally started. Mamilla were playing in Norwich City colours (according to Hannah) so we nicknamed them the Canaries. Again it was a close game and went to five rounds. The opposition finally won by 15 points to 13 in the fifth round. This match was quicker than the previous - mainly because they didn’t argue with the referees. But 5 hours of watching volleyball is probably more than I have watched in my whole life before.

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