Ethan Plays Around the World

You wouldn’t think there would be much opportunity to play while traveling with only your parents and a sister, but there has been lots. I’ve played with many different people in many different places on this trip around the world. My family has been for almost 11 months, and I've played with kids and adults in most of the 32 countries we've visited. It has been in some unlikely places.

In Egypt, we were waiting at a bus station for a bus to Hurghada, a town on the Red Sea. The bus station was in the middle of no place. It was almost completely empty, and the parking lot was just dirt, not paved. My father and I decided to play Frisbee. An Egyptian boy was watching with interest. My father threw the Frisbee to the boy. He did not catch it, but he picked it up and looked at it. Then, he threw it to me. It wasn’t a bad throw but it was clear he had never thrown one before. The Frisbee went to my father and then onto the boy again. This time my father showed him how to throw it properly. The next time he threw it to me it was a perfect throw. Soon, my father stopped playing; the Egyptian boy and I played until the bus arrived. When we got on the bus, I saw him pull out the lid of a plastic container from behind a shelf. He threw it to his friend. It did not work as well as a real Frisbee, but it wasn’t bad. They may still be playing Frisbee today.

The next time I played with children was in Zanzibar, Tanzania. We were at a beach and there were a lot of people standing in the water. We were the only foreigners there; everybody else was a native Zanzibarian. Again I started first playing Frisbee with my family until I could see everyone was interested in this flying disc. We threw it to one man, who laughed, and threw it back. I was standing on land and would throw the Frisbee into the water and everybody would dive for it. Once somebody had the Frisbee, they would throw it back to me. There was another boy, about my age, on the beach with me who was trying to catch the Frisbee, too. He was fast and agile. We joked he could be in the NFL. I caught some of the throws, but I would say he caught most of them. I was only guaranteed to catch the ones that were on an angle because he was ready for the Frisbee to drop straight down but I, because I had played more, knew it would curve, and positioned myself so that it glided back to me.

One day when we were in Myanmar we walked past a field where school kids were at recess. I gestured that I would like to play soccer with them. They nodded yes; I had a big advantage. I did not have flip-flops on and I wasn’t wearing a longee (a skirt). The other kids on the other team was teasing me by passing the ball back and forth between each other and making me run like a mad man. After a while I finally got the ball and almost scored, but I didn’t because of a stupid rock in the middle of the goal. After that, recess was over so everybody went back into the school.

In India, I played cricket with a couple children on the street in the front of our hotel. The street was cobblestone and very narrow. A small car could barely fit through. Because of this, cars were infrequent, but a lot of motorcycles raced around the blind corner at the end of the block. Not only did we have to jump out of the way of the motorcycles, but, we also had to avoid the ditches of sewage on the sides and the cows standing in the way. The smells were odiferous. I would bowl the ball, then run and catch the ball and dodge the cows on the way. I had to wash my hands well after playing, because the ball landed in the cow manure and the sewage ditch a few times during our game.

Sometimes, it doens't matter so much about the game itself, but the view is so memorable. In Thailand, I asked if I could join a game, in English this time. All the people playing worked in the hotels and restaurants, so they all spoke English. They played every evening, at low tide, when they got off work. The time frame was very strictly limited. If it got dark, or the tide came in, the game was over. Most of the players weren't Thai, they were Burmese (from Myanmar). They were working in Thailand because they were refugees from Myanmar.

Another amazing setting for a game, was playing on the cricket grounds in the middle of Singapore. The cricket grounds in Singapore was a regular sized cricket pitch right in the middle of the "big" city. It was surrounded by skyscrapers. I again asked if I could play in English because everbody in Singapore speaks English. It was only a man playing with his son at first. When I joined, we played two on one, both of us kids against the dad. Then, another boy came and joined us. It was never a full game, just two on two, but it was an unbelievable time.

It has been great playing with people around the world. I’ve played in many countries and many continents. I've made friends, and had lots of laughs. It was interesting to watch how people react to playing with a foreigner. Most of them laughed and giggled at me when I asked. After I asked, it has been so much fun.