Special Olympics

The day before the typhoon hit, 3 PCVs did an incredible and impressive job of organizing the first Special Olympics in our province. They gathered over 200 athletes, 100 Filipino and international volunteers, the US ambassador to the Philippines, the Governor of Albay, teachers, parents and onlookers for a packed day of opening ceremonies and track events. As you can see from the smiles in the pictures, it was a huge success. 

The organizers gave me the job of managing the track event-the set up, athletes and volunteers. It was quite the task, but the Special Olympics staff and volunteers made it easy. 

During a time when I was able to sit down and cheer on the athletes,miss sat next to one athlete waiting to run.  She was shy, had a scowl on her face and I could tell that she was nervous about running her race.  Although she didn't verbally respond I made small talk, introducing myself, encouraging her and commenting about the other athletes running. After a while she scooted closer to me, put her arm around my shoulders and squeezed me into a side hug. She then leaned in, cupped her hand around my ear and whispered 'pstststst pstpstpststst...' After she finished sharing her secret message, she leaned back and broke into a huge smile and side hugged me again. 

We sat there for about 5 minutes and she shared some more secrets, smiles and side hugs. When it was time for her to race, she got up and ran hardest.

Even though I was so happy for how well the track even went, this interaction took the cake.