Our staff Antolín Pulido has just returned from the Sahrawi settlements in Tinduf (Algeria) for a two-month break. He writes to us about our sport project and how people manage to survive under extreme heat.

“After some few siroccos (sand storms) here comes the HEAT, tough and merciless. Little by little, in the Sahrawi settlements people get ready for the annual hell of furnace-like living. Schools wind up their programs and we finish up the youth tournaments of soccer, volleyball and athletics.

With 50 Celsius degrees in the shade, midday times are endless. Ever since the holidays began on July 10, a legion of boys and girls took the “streets” and when the sun begins to set dozens of balls bounce in the sand amidst a buzz of kids, laughter and games. This is also the time in which young students come for break from their schools in Algeria, Libia, Cuba and Spain, to spend their holidays with their families. In the wilaya of Smara we have prepared a team of sport monitors to organize the summer games during the months of June and July. In August all activity comes to a halt, since the extreme temperatures make it impossible to organize any sport (temperatures at night seldom drop beyond 35 degrees!). Also, this year August coincides with the month of Ramadan, when followers of Islam do not eat or drink anything during daytime.

This is how the sun marks the rhythms of life and how we try to dodge it and take the desert for sport, games, friendship and peace. In September we shall resume the tournaments, the training of sport monitors, the traditional games and more training activities. In conclusion, the merciless sun that shines unabated in this “Hamada” (stone desert) can only be conquered with the strength and the smiles of children.