Willem Boekhoven and Tieme Dellemann are members of the executive committee of Hajraa. Hajraa is one of the oldest sports clubs in Eindhoven. In 1957 the first lectures were presented at TU/e, and in the same week four students decided to set up a student volleyball club. In the year 2010 Hajraa has 150 members, with about 20 from foreign descent. Dellemann: “Nearly all foreign members are united in the recreational team. This team does not play in a league, which leaves the weekends free. It is a bit more informal.”
The remaining five foreign members are active in the league. Dellemann himself trains a team with two foreign members. “The whole team easily communicates in English, so there is no problem at all. Everybody needs to adopt an open attitude, and they all do.”
At Hajraa you can start as a beginner, but if you have more experience you can also find a suitable team there. It is an active club. Boekhoven: “We train on Fridays, so after that we often hang out in the canteen, we go and play darts, make a trip to the Ardennes, organize tournaments, a bingo night and parties. The outdoor tournament is one of the biggest activities.”
For the outdoor tournament teams from Israel, France, Germany, Belgium and Great Britain have registered. Boekhoven: “We hardly generate publicity for the tournament abroad, so there is a lot of advertisement by word of mouth involved.” The only thing that has been a slight setback for the tournament in the past few years has been the weather. Still, the organizers say that this is going to change. “Every year the tournament committee pays a visit to the nuns, to pray for good weather. They used to take sausages along when they went there. In the past three years they decided on cheese, because they had found out that the nuns are vegetarians. However, since they have started taking cheese to the convent, the weather has always been bad! So this year we are back to sausages again, and everything will be fine”, is their conviction.
On Friday June 18th and 19th there will be a big party in the TU/e grounds. This year’s theme will be ‘a racket in the tent’ and there will be bands playing and DJs. Every year the parties thrown by Hajraa attract over five thousand visitors, and to make sure everybody has a good time the World Cup match Holland-Japan will be shown on a big screen. Space box occupants do not need to worry about noise nuisance from partying crowds this year: the campsite has been moved from the TeMa field to the PTH site, and the party tent will be pitched in LaPlaceplein. (HB)/.
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