After work we headed back to Sevenegala to play games once again with the village children. Ed suggested football and a pump was found to inflate one of the footballs that we had brought with us..... Matt continues the story.
As the game started the two teams were Rookwood ( me, Harry, Sophie, Eddie,Sarah and Owen) and Sri Lanka (a few local 20 year old Sri lankans and a few children.) At the beginning the teams looked rather unfair but we soon found out that luckily football is not Sri Lanka's national Sport!
The Sri Lankans were not up to the standard we expected them to be and the teams were quite even and within ten minutes we were two nil up courtesy of goals from Sarah and me.
They also did not seem to understand the rules as they liked to use their hands quite frequently, much to our amusement. They did however give us a good match and, a few fouls later, with much premature sweating from the boys we managed to grab a win. The final score was 5-3 to us. So in the international game between Sri Lanka and England, England won. Maybe the real England football team can draw some inspiration from us and finally realise that winning a football match against Andorra is not a big achievement.
Hannah however did not seem to have the same luck as our football team and became the first on our trip to receive a ball to the face courtesy of a cricket bat, held by a young Sri Lankan child. After a lot of swelling it was discovered that the injury was not serious but Hannah did arrive home nursing an impressive black eye. Hopefully this will be the last injury of the trip.
As you can see in the picture above our win in football raised camp morale and we had a lot of fun doing it.
There were however other activities going on during the games session. We brought along a large parachute that was used for many varieties of games. The younger children reacted particularly well to this and seemed to enjoy this activity the most.
Other games included badminton, catch, cricket, and primative version of basketball.
From the amount of activities shown here I think it is clear to see that we are continuing to have a fantastic time here in Sri lanka. The weather continues to be hot which, I am guessing, is a contrast to the weather back home. This is goodbye from Matt with a picture above of me looking strangely Asian in Kirinda, a buddhist and Hindu temple.
Lots of love to my family back home, having a great time! Bye!
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Wow, looks like fun. If I ever get the chance to do something similar in the future, I will definitely take it. Everyone on the trip is a big inspiration to everyone!!! Becky Machin
ReplyDeleteJust back from the Larmer Tree, wet and knee deep in mud (pretty much the same as those water buffalo scenes). Missed Mrs Clarke and Mrs Speed as marshals this year but they're doing a far more important job in Sri Lanka. I'm glad you are not down that hole Mrs Clarke, the pictures are brilliant. Matt, I think you look like a natural football coach - Roy Hodgeson watch out. Great report on the elephant orphanage Bobby, do try to have some of that spicy food, you may well be surprised as to how tasty it is. I haven't read all of the comments. Did anyone guess EQT? I think Extra Quiet Time, during prayers maybe. You all look as if you're still enjoying yourselves despite the hard work. Are you all comming back? Looking forward to the next post.
ReplyDeleteI think that EQT means Evening Quiet Time. From The Machins
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are all still having a good time. Not many people can say they have built a school in Sri Lanka. It doesn't look like they have the same health and safety rules on their building sites. Has Mrs Clarke taught them how to play Mancala yet?
ReplyDeletePoor Hannah - hope it is not too uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteQuite a respectable scoreline. Well done all. Great to see so many smiling faces.
Ruth
Hope Hannah's eye doesn't give continue to give too much pain, rotten luck. Great to see you bounced back from yesterday's picture of you in Harry's report Matt,you look much happier and more energised today! Are you and Harry slightly embarrassed when you look back at the villagers' faces as you celebrate your victory, I think the joke is definitely on you!!! Love to all, great to hear today's news x
ReplyDeleteWe are back from our holiday now(escaped the Hampshire monsoon season !) so just catching up with your blog which is really amazing. You are all having a wonderful experience- great to see the pictures, the kids are so cute and we enjoyed seeing Ed and Matt digging a big hole- Dad will have you digging the allotment Ed, on your return! Love to the whole team.
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