Sports Day & Church

Okey dokey, so it’s a Sunday afternoon in January and I’m sweating. Who woulda thought? If someone had told me a few years ago that when I studied abroad it would be in India I probably would have laughed. Germany-probably. Russia-maybe. India-well I never even considered it until the end of my search. Although somehow I am sitting here in our common room near the Kannkanardy Junction in Mangalore India writing to you all. This trip I imagine will be filled with ups and downs and turns that I never saw coming. It’s such an interesting place and most of the time I love it but it still comes with the good, the bad and the ugly.
Saturday was a good day! Every year the school holds a sports day. Something I never thought I’d be so excited to hear. They had track events and more. I was thrilled! It was slightly and by slightly, I meanly largely different, than any track day I’ve ever participated in but it was so much fun. The day started out with the students splitting into their 6 respective teams. They were divided by whether they were a 1st, 2nd or 3rd year and then each year was split into 2 groups: BA and BSW. They marched around the 200 meter track each team with a solid color flag all following one leader with the school flag. There was a small school band playing as well on the bleacher-type things to keep them going. They got in front of all the professors, the few students who didn’t participate and us, the Americans who didn’t partake in the march. So they lined up and sang their school song nad raised their flag and introduced their guest of honor, a previous professor of the school. Then they had a torch. Yes, a torch. 5 students ran it around the track and then planted it next to the track. It was great. Next they let a dove free to start the whole day off. Sadly, there were a lot of hawks flying around and right after they let the poor dove go, a hawk started chasing it and I’m pretty sure the bird only got about 5 min of flight until it was breakfast. So the games began then…
They had done all the throwing the day before and I think the jumps as well since I didn’t see any of that going on. They had the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 meter runs as well as tug-of-war, skipping 100, walk 600?, 2 relays and a lemon walk. Alison, a fellow BCA girl was a sprinter in HS although she runs longer distance now but she ran the 100 meter sprint and got 3rd place. I should have run the 800 since the winning time for girls was a 3:38 but I was never really into fast races and it was at the beginning of the day and I didn’t realize they didn’t train and that I was probably more in shape than the majority of the girls there. The one race was the skipping 100 and they skipped rope while running for 100 meters as the one race. It was fabulous to watch-also another fun one to try out but we couldn’t figure out what they meant but skipping race or whatever they were calling it so we just watched. The teachers did a lemon race which is like our egg race but they use lemons here. They walk about 25-50 meters with a spoon in their mouth and a lemon on the spoon. All the students loved that. The 1500 was the last race before tug-of-war. They ran the girls and guys together, there were 9 girls and maybe 15 guys. It went off around 11:30 and it felt like a hot end-of-the-track-season meet. The sun was shining and it was plenty warm out with the humidity high. They are not into running consistent paces I soon realized after the whistle went off. It started out soooo slowly I was not prepared. So I ran up with the guys and trailed off the lead guy. The first 2 laps were very slow-slower than my 10K pace I think. Then he slowly picked it up and then with about 3 laps left we were going much faster. The last lap he took off and so I did too because another guy was coming up fast behind me. I ended up getting either 2nd or 3rd overall, first for the girls. It was so great because even though I know none of the them really ever train and whatnot, it was my first time ever getting first so that was exciting  Next was tug-of-war and Indians are some of the most intense tug-of-war-ers I’ve ever witnessed. It was freaking awesome! I took part in 2 of the 3 rounds and the third years ended up getting 2nd place I think for it. It was a lot of fun and Alison and I are going to try and go back to run on the track before classes if we are allowed. It was on the police grounds kinda far away so we’ll see but hopefully.
This morning I got up earlyish and went to church with Annie and Alison. Annie had gone last week with Robert and so she had met the Pastors daughter nad so she met us halfway there and showed us the way. Church started at 8:45 and went until 11:45! I was not expecting that at all. Although strangely, it didn’t feel that long at all which I’m very thankful for. The service was mostly in Kannada, the main language of the city, although there was some English in it too. The pastor had a translator for the sermon which was slightly less than 30 min I’d say and I’m glad that was translated because it was pretty good. It was a penecostal church and I’ve never been to a Pennecostal service in the US but from what I’ve heard they are loud and sing a lot in the US and they do the same here. Praise the Lord and Alleluia are the same in both languages and so that I could always understand. The songs were awesome nad if I end up going to that church more than I want to ask for the songs. They sang some in Kannada, one in Hindi and a few in English. It was really awesome because they sang ‘Here I am to Worship’ and it felt so cool to know the song from back home. Also today they had a mega offering because the church was built 2 years ago and so they are still in debt and today was big day to give apparently. The pastors son was playing keyboard and another boy was playing guitar and it was cool to listen to all the voices and them playing. Another interesting thing was that they all take their shoes off before entering (they actually do this in many places) and the guys and girls sit on opposite sides of the church.
So that has been my past few days. I should be starting classes sometime this week although Thursday is some holiday so no class then and field placement will start either this week or early next week I’m thinkin. I hope you all are sledding lots and getting your skating in for me since there is no way that I am going to be doing that. I wish you all a wonderful Sunday.