It feels like a very long time since I last wrote one of these.
Sorry I've not posted anything for a while.
I've had a very busy week. From Thursday to Saturday we had BCS' first ever 'open weekend'; two days for which we invited prospective students and their families to join us at the school and get a taste of what life is like at BCS.
On the Friday I was responsible for running an educational yet fun activity in the computer classroom for two hours while students milled around the school going from one activity to the next. Unfortunately the equipment I had planned to use stopped working the day before and I was up until half past midnight trying to fix it on Thrusday night. Even after an hour and a half the next morning I never got it working again so I had to come up with a last minute alternative.
On top of open day pressure and the general stress of having so many visitors around I was heavily involved in last night's dorm activity. It was an event we called 'A Night On The Town'. The most ambitious 'late night' we've done this year. The idea was that we set up various activities around the school site that a teenager might typically make use of when going out for the evening in their passport country and the kids are given money with which to pay for any activities of their choice.
The night-life included restaurants, a live music cafe, a disco, a cinema, a games arcade, a bowling alley, roller skating and a magic show.
I was running an Italian restaurant called 'I Calzini del Criceto' (try Google translate) selling spaghetti bolognese and spaghetti carbonara. It was the most stressful thing I've done all term. I turned our lounge into a restaurant seating 15 with mood lighting, candles and classical guitar music. My mistake was that I was running it on my own as both chef and waiter, at one point serving 12 people in one sitting. It was very tiring but also enjoyable and very satisfying to know that everyone enjoyed both the food and the ambience.
After putting the juniors to bed I played a couple of songs in the cafe and drank several cups of tea (Adam had brought over his personal supply of Tetley and had bought some cartons of UHT making this the best tea I was likely to taste all term and probably until I return to England). After the seniors had gone to bed many staff hung out in the cafe (the dining room) and we had a sing along with various songs which popped into peoples heads until gone 1 o'clock.
Now I need to get some sleep as I ate far too much for Sunday lunch as usual (Sunday siestas always come in very handy as sunday lunch is always very tasty and includes a pudding).
We're going to the beach this afternoon.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Saturday, March 3, 2007
SIPS 2007 Day 4
Today was a much easier day. It was light this morning when I went out to buy bread and fruit.
Our first match was at 10:45 back at ISD again so we had breakfast at 8:30 and set off from the guesthouse at 9:30.
Today was just a few remaining football and volleyball games followed by finals and exhibition matches.
We won a volleyball match today, it was the highlight of the day. So many times we've come close to winning only to throw it away, but this time we managed to keep going 'til the end.
I also got to play a bit of beach volleyball in the morning on the sand court with some other staff and random kids who wanted to join in. It was great fun.
The morning passed very quickly having started so much later than the lst few days.
In the afternoon we played our final football ties and the intermediate team scored two goals (their first of the tournament) which was a great moment.
After our last games we were hanging around for quite a while as the closing ceremony wasn't until 7:00. There's an outdoor swimming pool at ISD so a few of the kids and staff went for a dip although my feet would have turned the water brown had I gone in. Several people made comments that I could be turning into a black man from the feet up, they were that dirty.
The best game of volleyball I saw all week was an exhibition match in the afternoon between the senior boys champions and the senior girls champions. The girls team were particularly spectacular to watch as they played a very unusual rotational strategy involving lots of positional swapping at the start of each point and they played very good three-touch volleyball. The last game went to 24-24 with the boys (who actually had a few girls on their team) taking it 26-24 in the end.
We had a good showing in the award ceremony at the end with four of our athletes winning medals for best in category and one girl breaking a SIPS record for the 3km cross-country.
This evening we had a staff meal out and I went to a very nice Thai restaurant and then we watched the lunar eclipse whilst eating ice-cream on the guesthouse roof.
Now it's time for bed. Back to BCS tomorrow. Check out SIPS photos on Flickr (link on the right).
Our first match was at 10:45 back at ISD again so we had breakfast at 8:30 and set off from the guesthouse at 9:30.
Today was just a few remaining football and volleyball games followed by finals and exhibition matches.
We won a volleyball match today, it was the highlight of the day. So many times we've come close to winning only to throw it away, but this time we managed to keep going 'til the end.
I also got to play a bit of beach volleyball in the morning on the sand court with some other staff and random kids who wanted to join in. It was great fun.
The morning passed very quickly having started so much later than the lst few days.
In the afternoon we played our final football ties and the intermediate team scored two goals (their first of the tournament) which was a great moment.
After our last games we were hanging around for quite a while as the closing ceremony wasn't until 7:00. There's an outdoor swimming pool at ISD so a few of the kids and staff went for a dip although my feet would have turned the water brown had I gone in. Several people made comments that I could be turning into a black man from the feet up, they were that dirty.
The best game of volleyball I saw all week was an exhibition match in the afternoon between the senior boys champions and the senior girls champions. The girls team were particularly spectacular to watch as they played a very unusual rotational strategy involving lots of positional swapping at the start of each point and they played very good three-touch volleyball. The last game went to 24-24 with the boys (who actually had a few girls on their team) taking it 26-24 in the end.
We had a good showing in the award ceremony at the end with four of our athletes winning medals for best in category and one girl breaking a SIPS record for the 3km cross-country.
This evening we had a staff meal out and I went to a very nice Thai restaurant and then we watched the lunar eclipse whilst eating ice-cream on the guesthouse roof.
Now it's time for bed. Back to BCS tomorrow. Check out SIPS photos on Flickr (link on the right).
Friday, March 2, 2007
SIPS 2007 Day 3
Day three was another early start but also an early finish.
Today was stadium day. We hired the Senegalese national stadium for day where we held all the track and field events.
SIPS track events are the 100m, 200m, 300/400m, 800m and 1500m races; field events are just shot put and long jump.
The stadium is large but not overwhelming. Most of the seating is concrete terraces, quite like English stadiums 20 years ago. There was more real grass in the middle but the football goals weren't set up so we didn't really get to enjoy it.
The races were very exciting. We did very well today with a few 1,2s and 2,3s. Some of the races were especially tight which meant we screamed all the louder.
There was a constant cluster of red shirts next to the finish line where a large group of BCS supporters were camped, cheering on our runners. Although we're the smallest school represented at SIPS we were definitely the most visible track-side and I think it made a big difference for our athletes.
I was so hoarse this morning that I started the day cheering through the school megaphone which was great fun apart from all the kids trying to play with it every 5 seconds and making horrible squealing noises.
At the end of the day we had relay races (they didn't count in the competition, it was just for fun). BCS entered about 6 staff/parents teams and Adam and I finished second and third in our race (despite being up against loads of sports coaches from the other schools). It was fun to run in such a grand setting (as much as running can be fun at least).
It's dinner time now so I should go and eat.
Today was stadium day. We hired the Senegalese national stadium for day where we held all the track and field events.
SIPS track events are the 100m, 200m, 300/400m, 800m and 1500m races; field events are just shot put and long jump.
The stadium is large but not overwhelming. Most of the seating is concrete terraces, quite like English stadiums 20 years ago. There was more real grass in the middle but the football goals weren't set up so we didn't really get to enjoy it.
The races were very exciting. We did very well today with a few 1,2s and 2,3s. Some of the races were especially tight which meant we screamed all the louder.
There was a constant cluster of red shirts next to the finish line where a large group of BCS supporters were camped, cheering on our runners. Although we're the smallest school represented at SIPS we were definitely the most visible track-side and I think it made a big difference for our athletes.
I was so hoarse this morning that I started the day cheering through the school megaphone which was great fun apart from all the kids trying to play with it every 5 seconds and making horrible squealing noises.
At the end of the day we had relay races (they didn't count in the competition, it was just for fun). BCS entered about 6 staff/parents teams and Adam and I finished second and third in our race (despite being up against loads of sports coaches from the other schools). It was fun to run in such a grand setting (as much as running can be fun at least).
It's dinner time now so I should go and eat.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
SIPS 2007 Day 2
It's been a long day.
I got up this morning at 6:15 to go out and buy bread for the day and 4kgs of bananas for lunch. Breakfast was at 6:45 as we needed to be at the International School of Dakar (ISD) by 8:30 ready to parade around the field there.
Today was volleyball and football. They have a grass(!!!!) football pitch at ISD and an indoor and an outdoor volleyball court. It was a really busy day for some of our students. Some were playing in three different teams and had six games over the day. The exhaustion was really visible by mid afternoon and it was agonising watching the kids trying to eek out just a little more energy for every ball that came their way.
We had some wins but in general we did pretty poorly points-wise. Despite a lack of points there were some very good team performances. I saw people playing to their best and teams playing better together than I've ever seen in practice at BCS.
It was quite an emotional day at times. Particularly when the midgets played. The 'BCS Midgets' is the name we gave to our youngest football team; a late addition to the events this year. They are all Eagle dorm kids and half of them are still at the stage of being scared by flying balls but they put in some great performances. I screamed myself hoarse and I'm hoping for swift vocal recovery overnight.
I should go to bed now as I've gotta be up early again tomorrow to buy more bread and fruit before breakfast.
Check out a few photos from the past 2 days on my flickr account (link on the right hand side).
I got up this morning at 6:15 to go out and buy bread for the day and 4kgs of bananas for lunch. Breakfast was at 6:45 as we needed to be at the International School of Dakar (ISD) by 8:30 ready to parade around the field there.
Today was volleyball and football. They have a grass(!!!!) football pitch at ISD and an indoor and an outdoor volleyball court. It was a really busy day for some of our students. Some were playing in three different teams and had six games over the day. The exhaustion was really visible by mid afternoon and it was agonising watching the kids trying to eek out just a little more energy for every ball that came their way.
We had some wins but in general we did pretty poorly points-wise. Despite a lack of points there were some very good team performances. I saw people playing to their best and teams playing better together than I've ever seen in practice at BCS.
It was quite an emotional day at times. Particularly when the midgets played. The 'BCS Midgets' is the name we gave to our youngest football team; a late addition to the events this year. They are all Eagle dorm kids and half of them are still at the stage of being scared by flying balls but they put in some great performances. I screamed myself hoarse and I'm hoping for swift vocal recovery overnight.
I should go to bed now as I've gotta be up early again tomorrow to buy more bread and fruit before breakfast.
Check out a few photos from the past 2 days on my flickr account (link on the right hand side).
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