Second impressions

The last few days have been amazing! Driving was a main feature, which means observing the Middle Eastern style of driving...erratic signals, veering far over the lines for lanes, and generally a different understanding of the space between cars, the road, and humans.

More importantly, Ultimate Peace hosted their biggest ever hat tournament on Saturday! Like a million kids (175 or so) showed up for four-five games of ultimate, seemed to have a great time, and left with another UP jersey and more friends from across the Middle East. I coached the neon green team into the semifinals, and more importantly through some tough issues.

The main challenge that came up in the afternoon was which language the players chose to communicate in...that Hebrew speakers were a minority meant that the Arabic speakers could almost reach everyone on the team with that language. But one player of mine approached me about the discomfort there - especially knowing that the Arabs were proficient in Hebrew. With this, I approached a particularly capable player and natural leader between points. I asked her to see if she would help me include the other players by speaking partly in Hebrew. She listened well - and acted in little chunks on the request. When I thanked her later, she smiled in a great way. Two more things: (1) I asked her later if she would be interested in the CIT program (read below on what that is); (2) she won my team's spirit award at the end of the tournament!

Just before that, on Friday, UP facilitated a bunch of meetings with the Coaches in Training (CITs)...these are basically the cohort of kids who have played ultimate the longest, and practiced Ultimate Peace values the most determinedly for the last few years. I'll be working with a small group of them who want to become coaches themselves.

Last night I visited with the former Ultimate Peace Middle East director. We hung out on his deck leaning back into our chairs talking about the good ole days - and the opportunity I have right now. One great thing he reflected back to me was from camp in 2011. He remembered me coming up to him and Linda (the chief operating officer based in Massachusetts but at camp like the rest of the staff) -- and me saying enthusiastically "this [coaching ultimate in the middle east] is something I want to do a lot more of!"

So cool that I'm getting that chance. Below is a picture from the UP practice in Tamra, one of the strongest ultimate villages in the region. Abe is coaching and Shada demonstrated marking/defense.