It's sports Trev, but not as we know it

Robbie was selected for his school team for an interschool sports team. Puffed up with pride, Leo and I went to support him and his team. They were competing at a school called Qatar Academy, a most beautiful school with wonderful facilities in Education City, where the universities and research programmes are located in Doha.

The sports were very different to what we would have in NZ. Indoors, with a circuit set up and each individual school moving around the circuit doing an activity at each station. The points from each activity were given to the judges who added up the total from each school, and decided the winning school from the total points. So there was no actual competing between children from different schools in races. Leo and I were the only family support for the team - I don't think there is much of a culture of parents on the sports sideline here.

The "sports" included balancing skills, tossing little beanbags into a hoop, foam rubber "javelins", hop-skip-jump, dashing between two lines, and balancing on the spot. But it was active and the kids all gave it their best shots. So, different as it was, it was fun to see. Here are some photos of Robbie in action and of his school team: