You had to see it to believe it!

We have had the most amazing week here to date. This Saturday we saw the Angel International School Interhouse Sports Meet!!!!

...and they're off, the inaugural road race

On Saturday last week the “Marathon” race was run. A 6 km fun run through the town centre of Manipay and around the back streets. They ran through the traffic, bikes, cows, potholes and the general chaos of Sri Lankan roads.  You really had to see it to believe it. Firstly, the week before someone said, “hey let’s have a road race” and the whole thing was organised in less than 8 days. Students were told, “turn up to school 7 am Saturday” and you know what?... they did!!!! Staff were told “you are all working here on Saturday turn up at 7am” and you know what?.....they did!!!! There were police, some roads shut, staff in elegant sari’s at check points. They even had medical staff from the Jaffna hospital come to the school the Wednesday before the race and to medical checks on the students from Years 7 upwards. It was truly amazing.

On your mark!!!!

But this was only the opening act to the grand drama that was the SPORTS MEET!!!!!!!!!!! The phrase, “Bigger than Ben Hur” came to mind and it was an accurate quote. (I however had made the mistake of mentioning it during a staff reflection one morning and spent quite a lot of time trying to explain the reference and context)

Sarah preparing for relay race

One of Emma's playmates

The junior event occurred on last Friday and the middle school and senior occurred on Saturday. The students were told to turn up at 1pm and you know what?...... they came as early as 7am!!!!  The effort involved was absolutely amazing. There were the weeks of preparation beforehand. Students were just told one afternoon 4 weeks ago, “everyone is staying after school till 4pm for practice”.

Part time entertainment better than the Superbowl

 This occurred EVERY DAY for 4 weeks! An extra 1 ¼ hour after school each day. There was the huge fund raise efforts (no healthy food in the tuck shop here but gee it tastes good. Red days, what red days?? for non teachers ask a teacher friend), the march past practice, band practice, gymnastics and cheer leading preparation, making ribbons, pompoms, decorations sports uniforms and costumes.   This list of what happened is just too big to mention, and even now so soon after the event, is seems a bit of a blur. Jacinta was the “Chief Guest” for the junior event and I was for the senior. It was very formal with a grand entrance flanked by the school marching band. Jacinta was presented a posy of flowers and I was given a garland of flowers around the neck.

House decorations were deadly serious business

Jacinta stayed with the junior events and I was involved in supervision of other students in the hall. Before I left Jacinta in her official roll, I took off the garland and put it on her neck. Ooops! Good thing we were already married or it could have caused some major problems …. apparently it had the same formal meaning as the ring on a finger at a wedding!!!!

Tug of war in a sari is something to see!

As chief guests we judged the house tents and were bribed with ice cream, faluda drinks and spicy food. The house teams, Mathew, Mark and Luke went all out decorating their tents.  They put it all up by balancing on a chairs stacked on other chairs stacked on a table. Truely horrifying to watch It was all very important and formal. We both made speeches which were translated into Tamil and presented trophies to the winners.

How cool is the official chain!!!!!!!!

Jacinta was delighted to see lots of beautiful children doing the bunny hop, being ducks, playing ball games, running, jumping and having fun, but what she will never forget is the sight of the elegant 3+ teachers in beautiful blue and purple sari’s teaching the children to waddle like ducks and hop like rabbits down the basketball court.

The "Olympic" torch

It was my turn on Saturday and they went all out. The decorations for the house areas are a major event on the program and staff and students were in the school grounds till 10pm the night before making preparations under the lights from a ring of motor bikes. On the day of the event we had a formal oath taking by the head sports prefect and a lighting of an “Olympic” torch. It was very strange at the start as there was very little cheering and crowd involvement but by the end of the day the spirit of the event really took over. The big crowd pleaser was the staff versus student relay followed by the boys and girls tug of war. After that it just went crazy with the staff versus student’s tug of war. Again, the ladies in their sari’s hauling on the rope, was a sight to behold. In the male staff versus students I abandoned all dignity with my formal chain of office (you just have to see the photos!!! It would certainly be at home in certain establishments in Kings X) and hauled on the rope with the rest of the staff.

..with this lay, I thee wed.. apparently

 This had two effects, 1: they were really amused to see one of the “senior staff” get his hands dirty, and  2: I had forgotten about the shoulder surgery a little over 12 months ago and very quickly blessed Jacinta for the foresight in bringing lots of Panadol.  Oh, and the teachers wiped the floor with the boys in the best of 3 event!

Ms Arani, Emma's teacher getting into the spirit

 When it was over a party atmosphere continued and the senior boys let off fireworks.  The students where pre-warned they couldn’t stay at school all night and had to leave by 8am. Now it is over we will find it a lot quieter (most of the school was yelling outside our apartment each afternoon during the 4 weeks of practice) and a lot more learning can occur in classes. 

All in all it was an amazing time and we think it will become one of the really treasured memories of our time here.

A short thesis on Jaffna traffic. Part III On the use of Brakes

When drivng in Jafna and considering using brakes....

DON'T !!!!

....the drivers, riders, cows following  behind certainly will not, and you are just begging to have the people following you ending up sitting in the front seat of your car with you.

A short thesis on Jaffna traffic part II: The effect of Wet Weather

An unusual phenomenon on Australian roads is the tendency for drivers to think they are formula one drivers at the first sign of a spit of rain on the windshield. It is incredible that the more the rain, the more the speed limits seem to increase. It seems for every ml of rain, the top speed of most
Australian roads increases about 5km/hr.

The same it is refreshing to say, cannot be said for Jaffna drivers. It seems here that when it rains the road traffic chaos seems to disappear to a degree. That may be, in part, to the fact that the road itself disappears. Even under the smallest of showers long lakes appear where the road apparently was. There are no gutters or drainage of any sort other than the natural lay of the land.

What is really impressive however is the way the locals take to the road after rain or in the rain itself. Every bike rider hoists an umbrella! I really don't know why though. If any of you have experienced the joy of riding a pushbike on a wet road, it is not the rain coming down, but the spray from the tyres shooting up that produces a really unpleasant wet patch in the groinal region. No wonder the serious bike set wear tight chamois  pants.

Imagine with the minds eye if you will, what an awesome sight it was. The only thing I could liken it to was the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race, umbrellas straining out in front catching the wind like the Hobart fleet, spinnaker's unfurled all the yachts sprinting for the heads.

The loan vehicle, out on a trip to the park

I also have to inform you all that I have offically taken leave of my senses. Pastor Sam had made repeated offers for us to make use of a vehicle currently sitting idle while we are here (the vehicle is a neat little Honda CRV that belongs to a relative of the school principal). Pastor Sam arrived one day at the school with the car and his driver and said he needed to go into Jaffna to visit the new primary school and I was to drive so he could see if I had the nerve to cope. Pastor Sam appeared to have great confidence in me, or quite possibly God, given the 5 minute prayer he lead the driver and myself in before we took off. We made it to the school with the car and my nerves intact. After that I was directed to go through the Jaffna city CBD. It had its good and bad points. Good was that I was told, but had trouble believing, that the traffic was very "light" that day. Bad was that the reason for the apparent, but not really obvious to me, decrease in traffic (and quite possibly cows). The president was visiting Jaffna that day. It does not do a nervous drivers' disposition much good when at every, and I do mean every, intersection, heavily armed soldiers turned to look with what I considered too much professional interest at our car passing. I apparently did OK as Pastor Sam translated a comment from his driver sitting in the back seat that he quite enjoyed the ride and would be happy for me to take him for a drive at any time.

Oh.. did I mention the cows?

We went for a drive yesterday into Jaffna to visit Rio icecream parlor. Apart from getting totally lost for a short period of time. (A bit of an exageration I suppose but I am always use to being able to find my way almost anywhere, even in new teritory. What was really unnerving was that Jacinta knew exactly where we were with reference to our small lonely planet map, I just did not believe her! I will know better next time, and it only took 15 years of marriage!!!!!!)

But please, don't anyone tell Jacinta's mum Pam we have driven here, she already have some doubts over my sanity as it is I think.

 On another a totally different note, we need to add to our list of additional inhabitants to our home. Over the last few nights we have had the company of the most amazing little fire fly.  At about the size of a large flying ant, this little creature gives out the most intense green light I have ever seen from an animal. You are in no doubt the little creature is in the room with you it is very visible. When sitting on a wall it even produces enough light to cast  a dim shadow! Our other visitor was one of the group (family, pack, herd, plague????) of local squirrels who had apparently taken up residence in the airconditioner unit in our bedroom. Jacinta noticed the otherday pieces of, apprently, insulation being flung out of the main vent from the unit into the room, accompanied by lots of scratching noises. Not knowing what to do, my caring, considerate, animal loving partner promptly turned on the airconditioner! I do not know what she intended to achieve, but the end result was a squirrel sized furry object, rocketing out of the outside of the airconditioner in a fuzzy terrified blur. As Jacinta quite firmly stated to an upset Sarah. "Cute squirrel or not, it was not going to eat MY airconditioner!!!"

Take care eveyone until next blog.

Home Sweet Home

It has been a quieter week this week, but all in all, we still did a lot. Independence Day in Sri Lanka was celebrated last Monday with a public holiday. We had a quiet and relaxed long weekend and it was WONDERFUL. On advice, we avoided any parades or large gatherings that could attract political themes. We did house work and the main outcome was Jacinta rearranged her kitchen. She is very happy now in that there is (to a greater or lesser extent) a place for everything and everything in its place (sort of, mostly, generally ….well anyway she is a lot happier!).  The animals can do longer steal our food.

Home away from home

What I would like to do this week is to invite you into our home. We have a wonderful little haven set up now. Amongst the chaos that seems the everyday life here, this is the place that we have control over (well mostly, can’t do too much about the daily blackouts), but we are very thankful there is a backup generator on the school grounds. In most cases recently the power is back very quickly. The girls have a game of counting down from 10 to 1 and it is usually online by the time they get to 3 or 4. It is hard to express the sense of peace we have in our little hide away.

We live towards the back of the school grounds in what is called “the principal’s bungalow”. It is a two story building and we are upstairs and downstairs is vacant. We have set up daily and weekly routines that seem to work well for us.  One of our major tasks is cleaning. The house is always dirty, and by that I mean the school grounds is made of a very fine grained sand or powder that blows about with the slightest of breezes. We have often done a really good sweep of a room and less than 2 hours later do another and sweep up just as much dirt.

Gourmet kitchen

Lounge / dinning/ general purpose room

The main residents of the school (other than our very caring and diligent security guards) are the two dogs Rexi and Rexi, (don’t ask me why...... I have tried to find out and still can’t get an answer I understand!). We also have a huge population of squirrels. It has got to the point that when the girls get a photo taken the say “squirrel” not smile or cheese. Squirrel spotting is the main entertainment on afternoons and weekends

Girls room

Our room

Study / Wardrobe

shower / loo

The neighourhood

Sarah had a visitor in her room during the first few nights of our stay here with a squirrel coming in through a hole in the roof, running across the ceiling and out a hole on the other side of the room. This did not, to my surprise, upset her or Emma as I would of thought and she is only disappointed now that it has not been paying regular visits. Much to Sarah’s and Emma’s delight, a squirrel also paid a visit to Jacinta’s and my room. While sitting on the bed one morning I felt water dripping onto my hand and wondered, not another hole in the roof!  On looking outside and realising that it was not in fact raining, I then came to understand that I had in fact been pee’d on by a squirrel! Not the nicest way to get out of bed in the morning. The girls have even come up with a song they break into every now and then to celebrate the event. The other regular house guests are the frogs, which we gently but firmly evict each night as we lock up for the evening. I must not forget to mention the metre and a half yellowy green snake I almost stepped on when on the way to collect a wayward ball from the basketball court where the girls and I play every afternoon before bathtime. I think I'll ask if the ankle high grass can get cut back a bit. I don't know who got the bigger shock, the serpent in fast retreat or me. It certainly is not good parenting to say those kinds of words in front of a 9 and 5 year old.

One of the locals

Rexi..or was it Rexi????

No, no, I'm sure this is Rexi.ummm???

Emma in the "front yard", amazing how much fun a stick in the dirt can be!

Notice the family resemblance?

A tough nut to crack

By what we have seen here we are very lucky with our little home. We are living and what would be considered absolute luxury in comparison to those around us. We have a large amount of space by local standards, a functional kitchen, running water inside the house, hot water system and good security. We are very grateful for the accommodation provided to us.

Fresh cocnut milk...Yum!!!!

Years at Toogoom pay off, thanks Grandad!

It has also reminded us in so many ways of just how much we do have at home and has given us a whole new sense of appreciation of our lives in a country as blest with so much material wealth as Australia. It is so easy to reflect here on the relationship between how much you have in a material sense with your degree of happiness. It does seem true that in many cases the more some individuals have the less satisfied we are. I hope this is a lesson we don’t forget too soon on our return to Hervey Bay.

Sri Lanka adventure continues

Hi everyone and greetings from Sri Lanka.

This was our first full 5 day teaching week and we were pretty wiped by the end

The first official month has come and gone and seems quite a milestone. We are still wondering where the next 7 or so weeks will see us. Officially we have to be out of the country by 25^th of March and we will need to start planning in the next month for our possible departure. If we do have to go we will be sure to have a holiday here and see the country before we go. It is expected that we will be summoned to Colombo sometime in the next few weeks. We are hoping it is only me that is required and Pastor Sam and I will travel down by the overnight bus for the interview. Pastor Sam had the church congregation in a frenzy today praying for a positive outcome. Quite impressive to see but the only words we understood were “visa” “ Australia” “Garty” and “Allehluiah” yelled out a lot.  It seems Sri Lankan sound systems only have one setting. The volume is well beyond the threshold of pain and in some quiet calm waters on the other side. It is something akin to an internal organ massage and reaches some frequencies and pitch that makes certain body systems feel quite distressed.

Deneesh and daughter Ashley

Deneesh's family home

Saturday last week we went for a meal at one of the staff’s home. His name is Daneesh and wife Ronni.  It is something we need to sort out but when people invite us to eat, they don’t eat with us. We mentioned it a couple of times at the meal before Daneesh would sit with us at the table and eat but the rest of the family were spread round the house. Daneesh is a very kind and capable individual who looks after the support staff at the school. We ate at his uncles house where he lives with his wife’s family but walked a short distance to see his family home (not liveable now) and to meet his mother. His mother is very frail and unable to walk. Daneesh’s father passed away last year and she has gone downhill rapidly since. 

All houses in the area get water from wells like this

 Her home had bare dirt floors and an open fire for cooking. We stayed with her a short time, she just clasped our hands and rubbed our hands gently while swaying back and forth. We did not say a word that either side understood, but the communication was still strong, there and clear. It was a humbling experience and just a little sad.

Wide load!

On Sunday last week we went “western” again at the Green Grass hotel. This time we walked the few hundred metres to the hotel from the church service (an act of defiance on our part perhaps, but we need to do things for ourselves without our “body guards”) and swam and ate (got to remember when we order hot chips to say not to put very hot chilli powder on them, Oh what a waste!!!) and were picked up but the driver at 3pm to come home.

A swim made us feel less home sick.

See, we really are in Manipay!

During the week I decided to make a break for it! I told school staff I was going for a walk. This was the first time I had been unescorted in Manipay. I only went up to the bakers and back, probably less than 1 km round trip but was significant none the less. As I returned with all limbs attached, the next day Jacinta and I and the girls all went for a walk up to where we do our weekly shop. It was a wonderful experience of freedom and it will be a start of more short excursions by ourselves.

the thriving CBD of downtown Manipay

Yesterday we had some retail therapy in Jaffna at the “Fashion House”. Does not sell clothes but it must sell nearly everything else. A virtual Alladin’s cave. It did a lot to lighten Jacinta’s mood. She now has an egg whisk and a wok but it appears that measuring jugs are non existent in this part of Asia. Quite an interesting experience given I know exactly 8 words in Tamil, which consist of Hello, thank you , mother, father, grandmother and grandfather on mothers side and grandmother and grandfather on fathers side. Not a lot of help as I don’t think they had a sale on elderly in-laws, but we did not make it up to the upper floor so you never know? The miming for egg whisk was really good I felt but I to draw the line a pantomiming a chicken.

"Children Park", a real oasis in a scarred city

We also spent time in a pleasant area called “Childrens Park”. Girls had a ball. Cost equivalent of 50c to enter and worth every Ruppee.

Jacinta’s main worry now is cooking. She is really frustrated with cooking healthy meals all the family will eat that is not brown! She is starting to really miss her own kitchen back in the Bay and I am concerned she is starting to even have fantasies about her much disliked oven from Jacobsen Outlook!

Take care everyone. We have been thinking of our fellow Queenslanders during the floods. The coverage over here, particularly on BBC news channel, was very detailed and painted a fairly dramatic picture. Hope all your feet are drying out and the sun is shining.