Day 15 - Sports Day

Woken up by the alarm, unusually. It's usually the bells. Got up, dressed etc then slipped and slid my way to school. It had rained hard in the night and many of the pavements are made of brick or tile and are lethal if you do not take care.I signed in then headed to the school where I caught assembly. As the children lead into school from assembly they count in English, each one has a different number - a quick way to do the register. 

The noise level from the children was appreciably higher this morning and they were all excited. I hovered in the corridor for a while then stepped into class 2 where I attempted to entertain them with some songs. However, lack of language, sheer excitement that it was Sports Day and trying out a new teacher meant that this was not entirely successful. I battled on through a repertoire of Ten Green Bottles, 5 Speckled Frogs, Heads Shoulders, Knees and Toes, the Three Cornered Hat song and a new inventions of sit down/stand up to practice distinguishing B and D. I then gave up and the children quickly dispersed. I followed them outside and there we had sports day.

It was a wonderful morning, so happy and exciting. Each class had 2 different events and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd all got a prize. The parents had been invited to watch and all the school were outside, cheering each other on, singing and playing drums and generally being children. I took loads of photographs and I will let them tell the story:

Marble on spoon race!

Onlooker. She won the rings (hula hoop) competition later in the day.

Badminton finals

A singsong

Teachers adjudicating

Playing a clapping game (the boys kept annoying them!)

Hanging sweets game with the Kindergarten.

Musical Chairs finals

Rings (hula hoop) final

The nursery - burst a balloon by sitting on it game.

Musical chairs in the nursery

Books on head race.

Motorcyclist driving straight through the sports day - no-one batted an eyelid!

Watching intently

Lining up for the presentations.

Receiving the prizes - copy (exercise) books ,pencils, pens, colours,erasers, ludo and snakes and ladders (varied with age!)

After the prize giving the children went home 30 minutes early and the teachers were all extremely happy both with how it had gone and the extra long weekend due to festivals. I went to the school shop where I bought a lovely "rainbow" carpet and arranged for it to be posted home. I also talked with Kiran about the final arrangements for shipping all  the donated books and they should be here next week.

I went with the head teacher to her family home but to the ground floor this time as it is the festival of her Uncle's passing today and they were commemorating. In the morning they had had priests to do rituals to honour the dead (we missed this due to sports day) and I went in just as the eating had started. We had a wonderful lunch of rice, paneer curry, vegetable curry, aubergine, pickle, poppadoms and sweet rice pudding followed by curd. They are so very generous sharing their food and their family celebration with me. I left and walked back to the apartment where I relaxed and read on the bed with the breeze blowing through the room.

At about 3pm I headed out to Casa Pagoda for a drink. I started with lemon soda and an iced coffee and sat a read for a long time. I moved on to a cup of tea then the heavens opened and it threw it down with rain...

As the roads had flooded and I did not have a waterproof with me I decided to sit it out and read. I ordered a cold beer (Everest) and momos and carried on reading while watching the magnificent rain.

Moms (steamed dumplings stuffed with a variety of fillings - these were chicken and vegetable) served with a spicy dip and accompanied by Everest Beer. Well, there was no point in getting soaked!!!

3 hours later I finished and the rain had stopped. I splashed back through the streets to the apartment where I put on my jim-jams and the fan and had a lazy evening in. A thoroughly enjoyable day all round.