DAY 7

Today started with a nice lie in as we headed off to the school at 9.30am rather than the usual time of 7.00am! We all jumped on the bus ready to go and see the familiar faces of the previous days. Although today was very different from the last two days. There was a special sports event that the school had set up using the Ocean Stars fundraising money. The sports event catered for children over 10 different schools, some of whom had traveled more than an hour to be at the event.

As we emerged from the coach we were greeted by the local media who where eager to capture such a rare and special day for Batticaloa. Behind them, beginning to form was a mini parade of students. Many were dressed in national clothing but some were ready with their immaculate sports uniform on. We were then presented with yet another bunch of flower necklaces. The members from our team who were participating, Ryan, Jacob ,Imogen, Fiona, Sameena, Amy, Peter and Jack, were encouraged to the front of the parade and the festivities began as we were led towards our seats with the whole school parading behind us. Even though this has been one of  the many warm welcomes we have had since being in Sri Lanka, it still amazed us how much effort the students and staff put into making us feel welcome.

We then stood for the national anthem of Sri Lanka (which we all hum in our heads) and we began to eye up the competition which happened to by 8-11 year olds!

Mr Taylor led a warm up to "Gangam Style" which all of the participants enjoyed even the head masters!
Then it was time to start the games. Once again we were astonished by the way the students transformed their playground into a sports day pitch. The sports day events weren't ones that we were used to - with sports such as "over the head ball throw" and "Jumping in 4 hoops in 30 seconds challenge". However we began to realise that we were in the position of 1st place. As we were feeling very guilty and bad, about the thought of beating all these children, we came up with an action plan to do badly so we could lose. This included Sameena pretending to trip up, Imogen cruising around the courses and Amy just jumping on the sport for long jump.

Meanwhile the rest of the team were dancing on the side lines with all the children as they waited for their turn to compete. The atmosphere was incredible as celebration music blasted out of the speakers. Niamh, Ria and Lucy also decided to take up the job of being group photographers and filmers.

It was then time for a break, which proved to be very successful as they fed us with the Sri Lankan version of super noodle (which we all  LOVED!). We then took as rest as Peter, Jack and Ryan ran in the overall 2 minutes endurance race. This involved running round a track collecting a sweet for each lap you complete. The team with the most sweets won. Being gentlemen the boys let all the children go before them so unfortunately we didn't win the event. It then came to the end of the event which we were all sad to see.We then sat for a presentation assembly sitting with our new found sport friends. The overall winners of the day weren't 'Kal Pak' school, this was our new name, but we did get participation certificates and trophies.

After lunch in the science rooms and a quick change we then went back to the school for a talent show; to which we all performed, 'He's got the whole world in his hands','our national anthem' and 'gangnam style'. Others performed solos, Ryan, Jake and Felix sang 'In the Jungle' and Sameena, Imogen and Fiona sang 'Wake Me Up'. Both performed amazingly! Emotional speeches and even more emotional goodbyes took place.We had met such amazing people with kind hearts and a great appreciation for what we were doing for them, it was hard to say goodbye, but we will never forget them and hope they feel the same.

We had dinner, again, in the science lab and then returned to the hotel, shortly followed by a very deep and thoughtful meeting. Our feelings were running high and the tears were flowing in streams as we reminisced about the days we had and the people we had met. Now is time for bed as we are going to get up early tomorrow and drive to Colombo!