All quiet on the eastern front

The sun was beating down and the expansive complex of football and basketball courts was nearly empty except for those playing. Normally there are people filling the spaces in between courts, kicking stray balls around or practicing their dribbling, waiting for a court to open up or just hanging around. Not the case this Sunday.

Again, GAM3 saw a drop in attendance. For the third week in a row militants battled the Lebanese army in the north, and final exam season was in full swing at the local elementary and secondary schools. The heat, fear of an escalation in violence and testing kept over half the regulars at home this week. Big Mohammed called three of the teenage guys who usually come. Only one answered. Luckily, he came.

Unfortunately, only three of 10 the teenage guys showed up, so Big Mohammed didn’t run any drills. We stood on the sidelines while he let them play a game of three-on-three with some other guys who were at the court. They were drenched in sweat by 10:30, but had a good time.

“It’s really disgusting,” Big Mohammed said of the situation keeping people away. “We started with 50 people who where coming for two months. We were having a really good time here.”

The number of younger boys was also on the low end.

“Some of our boys here are from Burj al Barajneh. Because of the situation in the camp their parents might be afraid to let them leave,” he said. “It’s a really bad situation and their parents might be afraid.”

Like everyone, he hopes things will end quickly and peacefully.

There were enough of the youngest girls to arrange a small, half-court game. They were fun to watch because they could barely toss the ball high enough to get close to the net. It’s funny to see little kids putting all their weight and muscle into something you think of as simple.

The older girls got a few dribbling drills. They’re looking good. The girls had great control, and the drill didn’t turn into the frenzy of stray balls bouncing around they way drills did earlier in the season. They practiced dribbling from behind the net as they ran to the free-throw line and then switched to two bounces with the left hand and a pass for two bounces with the right. But, you can tell they’re not 100% comfortable. Their movements are still a bit stiff and awkward.

When the coaches blew the whistle at the end of the hour and a half, the courts quickly cleared and Qas Qas was even emptier.

Mac talked with Mohammed about sending SMS messages to all the older guys with mobiles. Not just the regulars, everyone on the list, he said.

“Next year, I think we’ll start a little earlier,” he told me, to avoid the final exams and the heat. He said starting earlier in March might help, but it’s the end of winter, a very rainy time in Beirut. The courts, with less than perfectly flat surfaces, are really best when they’re dry.

“The key is to get in between the rain and the heat,” Mac said.