Page - 23 - in Hanadi & Christian - English

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 23 pitch to the bridge’ because once the tournament is over, all the players have to jump off the bridge into the river.” Silvia keeps on talking. “But it will be late and the water will be very cold. I don’t want to jump,” says a worried Elena. “But it’s a tradition. They’ve been doing things that way since the old people in the village were children. If you won’t jump into the river, you can’t play.” Silvia looks worried because they might not take part in the tournament. “It’s a stupid tradition. It doesn’t make any sense.” Elena is still annoyed because she feels that no one is backing her up on this. “I’m sure they did it because there’s the dance after the tourna- ment, and since they didn’t have showers in the village, a swim in the river was the best way to make sure the boys were all clean at the dance.” José laughs – this village is full of traditions. That might have made sense then, but nowadays we’ve got hot showers so if they want me to get clean, I’ll have a nice shower. No problem.” It doesn’t look like Elena is going to back down. “Perhaps we could suggest that only the captains should jump into the river. We could choose a captain who won’t mind getting wet. We can try to respect the tradition but adapt it to our times,” suggests Danilo, trying to solve the problem. “That’s not a bad idea, but it would be unfair to pick a captain just because he doesn’t mind getting wet. The fair thing would be to choose the best player,” says Mohamed, who hasn’t really understood Danilo’s intention. “Or whoever we vote for, whether he is a good player or not,” says Silvia. “Come on. I bet that here, everyone will jump off the bridge, even if they can have a hot shower at home later. I’m sure they also do it because it is fun, and I don’t think they’ll want to change now.” I add, “Come on Elena, you like the river and it could be fun to say goodbye to the river by everyone jumping in from the top of the bridge. The tournament is the last day of camp.”“Mmmm, well, ok but if I get ill once I’m home, I will tell my parents that you are all responsible. All of you, the Bridge Team,” Elena laughs. She seems to have over- come her anger at having to do something she did not want to do. Everyone laughs at Elena’s joke and we start impersonating her parents and how they would react if Elena got a cold.