WELCOME THE SPECIAL EDITION OF OUR BLOG

I ask you to think of the epic battles fought in the sporting arenas of old. The Circus Maximus and Colosseum in ancient Rome, the Ancient Olympics in Greece come directly to mind. We now think of the tournaments of the modern days… the Modern Olympics, the World Cup football, the Ashes, the Tour de France, backyard cricket at the house of the Chappell brothers. Epic battles of men and women against each other and the elements. Body and spirit fighting at the elite level for the chance to stand on the top position of the winner’s dais. All these grand events however, pale into insignificance, mere games of chance, a game of tiddly winks amongst children, compared the grand spectacle the was……..  

 

(wait for it,.............cue rousing background music, maybe “Thus Spake Zarathustra”, the really cool music from the opening scene of 2001 a Space Odyssey perhaps)

 

You ready ????????

 

THE “GARTY FAMILY”

BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT !!!!!

Impressed, aren’t you!!!

Now read on……

I know I have used the phrase before , but it is true, you really had to see to believe it. In fact, I saw it and still don’t believe it.

The actual tournament started on the 1^st of July and concluded on Wednesday the 10^th. The drama, the agony and ecstasy, the jubilation of victory and crushing despair of defeat were played out before us. Well….. maybe I am exaggerating a little but it was really cool!

the old court in all it's glory

as you can see, sadly in need of an upgrade

Still, I digress. The action started only days before the actual tournament with the resurfacing of the school basketball court. Boy, was that fun to watch, and also a little terrifying as well! The resurfacing was sponsored by a school from Canada and was greatly appreciated.

 

It was carried out by contractors who normally work on road resurfacing. You have read my previous blog posts on Jaffna roads? .....Am I painting a picture for you? Workplace health and safety…what is that? The old court was given a brief brush down and the new surface placed directly over. Various layers of crushed road base, sand, some sort of really fine dust and boiling hot tar were placed on again and again like a Sara Lea sponge dessert (you know….layer upon layer upon layer)

spreading the "magic dust"

 

needs to be flat, doesn't it?



"bubble bubble toil and trouble" to misquote the Bard

To watch the tar being boiled in large 44 gallon drums over an open fire, then being ladled into a modified watering can and poured by hand over the courts was amazing.

 

 

 

Check out the neat footwear

These guys worked in searing heat and the smell of the tar still sticks in my memory. You could not escape it anywhere in the school. And given our home is right next to the court , we had dust and smells for days. Keeping the kids off the courts was also an interesting exercise with students trying to play at one end of the court and laying of tar at the other. Shouting at them to get off the court had little effect.

with the freshly painted walls, the official pavilion looked very sad

 

 

 

With the tournament starting on Monday, lines were being painted on the court late Sunday night by the light of a variety of trucks and cars shining on the court. Walls were painted and flags and banners hoisted high and by the end the place looked great. During the night the “official pavilion” fell down with a deafening crash and we were really glad we were not under it at the time. It was put up again and is still standing as a monument to the event even today!

 

the new court in all it's glory

I don’t know how they do it, it must be part of the Sri Lankan culture, but they seem to be in total disarray, yet, at the very end, it all comes together. They love a festival and special events and go all out to put on really special occasions.

 

Finally the official opening day arrived. More gold chains around our necks, a guard of honour as we made our way to the courts from the school gates between two lines of cheering students. After the obligatory opening speeches and ribbon cutting, "let the games begin". Over 26 matches were held in a variety of venues throughout Jaffna

Jacinta doing the official duties

Angel's U17 against St Patricks

Some of the excited crowd on finals day

 It was a great event with some fantastic games of basketball to be seen. There were lots of skinned elbows and plenty of bandages on knees, but this did not slow the kids down. The students and staff really got behind it all and the exhibition of school spirit was inspiring. For the record, Angel International "Blues" took out the under 15 division and our under 17's came in as second runner up with Jaffna Hindu College claiming first place.

U15 Champions, Angel "Blues"

U17 Champions, Jaffna Hindu College

If you click on the link below it "should" take to a youtube powerpoint presentation made by one of the staff that has gone up on the school facebook page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqjA4Ur59sw

Be sure to cancel the new tab after watching to get back to the blog post.

The two links below will hopefully connect you to a couple of videos on youtube showing a group of kids having a hoot of a time cheering and generally having a good time. The feeling around the school was fantastic for days and the whole extravaganza was well worth it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix4hjZLHKN4&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5bTD8c0-gA&feature=youtu.be

Again, be sure to cancel the new tab after watching to get back to the blog post.

So many people were involved in the planning and execution of this tournament but special mention needs to be made of Dinesh, who planned coordinated and M C' d the whole thing and to coach Ramanan and his team who worked with the students so well. The whole point of the exercise was to give the students an opportunity to excel at something other than academic results and to promote a school identity and raise school spirit, in these respects it was a raging success.

I wonder that if in years to come when they hold the "The Garty Family" Basketball Tournament and are handing out the trophies and the perpetual shields to that years winners', someone may ask "who were the Garty Family?" It would be nice to think that some of the staff or students may remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better late than never

So, what has been happening since last time? LOTS!!!!  We reach another milestone tomorrow with the clocking up of 200 days in Sri Lanka. We try to think over all that has gone by; some events feature so prominently it is hard to imagine they happened on our very first days here late last year. Other events I find hard to recall even though they may have occurred only two weeks ago. It must be old age setting in…….

So to fill you in on the highlights

Last week saw the completion of the inaugural “Garty Family Basketball Tournament”. An event so large with grandeur and drama, so astounding in fact that it deserves a blog of it’s’ very own. You will just have to wait till next instalment!!

Happy birthday to our wonderful Director

The real biggie this last month was the birthday of our beloved Pastor Sam on the 13^th of June. The staff, students and congregation from his Assembly of God Church in Jaffna went all out to celebrate, and I mean all out!!! School was essentially cancelled in Manipay and a huge assembly was held where students and staff presented musical numbers, speeches and a huge cake. This assembly lasted for over two and a half hours. From there we went to our school in Jaffna, where a shorter but no less emotional outpouring of love for this wonderful man occurred. In the evening there was a special service at Pastors Sam’s church with, you guessed it, even more cake. We will take many things back home with us when we return in December this year, but none will be more important than the privilege to have spent some time quality experiences with this most wonderful yet humble of men. His wife is also a remarkable lady (as you can imagine she would need to be) who is a dynamic woman in her own right.

the choir at Pastors Sam B day

song and dance

the great man himself

at the Jaffna school



Pastors Sam A.o.G paritioners



John, Jo and Naomi at their home

On the 16^th of last month we went for lunch to the home of John and Jo, the parents of Naomi, the only other white girl in the school and Sarah’s best friend here. Naomi has had a number of “sleep overs” at our place and it is a wonderful time for Sarah, Emma and Naomi. We have not heard more giggling from the girls at any other time in our stay here in Jaffna (except perhaps during monkey watching in Kandy). Jo and John live very rough by our standards here in our school accommodation but quite well by general population. John is a very competent “jack of all trades” and they both assist at a home for girls in regional Jaffna. They do amazing things and their devotion to the people here really puts us to shame.




again, anything done here was big

outside St Anthony's

the Jaffna / Manipay road was blocked for ages

Also on several days around the middle of June were the celebrations of “St Anthony’s Feast day”. St Anthony’s is the large Catholic church at the end of our school lane. When churches or temples here celebrate, they do so with a CAPITAL C! It went on for days and to share the love around, really large PA speakers were strung up all around the neighbourhood broadcasting day and night all of the events inside. IT WAS LOUD! Also being in Tamil did not help but I could recognise some of the prayers as certain Catholic set pieces by the rhythm of the speaking if not the words themselves. Our normally quiet Jaffna / Manipay main road was turned into a shanty town with all sorts of shops and street vendors setting up their wares over the week-long celebration. It is common place that commerce and religion go hand in hand here.

 

One of the class activities we presided over was in Emma’s 5+ class. They were doing a unit on building types and we were asked (as is common practice for us here at school) to come up and have a look at the result. Not much of the work is really done by the children and we have to say there are some very talented Jaffna parents around who made very complex and detailed structures for their children. Poor Emma only has us unfortunately. There is also the communication gap, either from Emma’s teacher to Emma, or from Emma to us but we usually find out too late that we should have helped her construct an ornate and working model of some dwelling or other for HER homework.



Bet you can't pick Emma!

As an aside, the powers that be here in their folly have seen fit to make me Vice Principal of the School. I question their reasons at time and also their sanity, but given that I am getting paid nothing as it is, they were quite happy to triple my salary when I requested it to be only doubled. So in the long run, I do not know who the silly one is?

We are entering the final two weeks of the school year this week. A strange system to us where the new academic year here starts in August. Exams are the order of the day and new timetables are being put together. Jacinta, the ultimate organiser is doing the hard yards on this. She is really good with puzzles and to be honest the current timetable is an absolute mess. On the 26^th of this month we travel down to Kandy for 6 days of R and R and monkey watching from one of our favourite places in Sri Lanka. Jacinta is really looking forward to having someone else worry about what to cook for a while.  I will be a big help to her during this time. I am really good at ordering cocktails from the pool bar in the evenings.  We will relax at the pool and wander through the city and then come home early August to get ready here for the new term.

 

Take care everyone and stay in touch.