End of term

Akank is not a new student at the school anymore. She is one term old! The portfolio she brought back from school says she has done well in most subjects and is ‘developing’ in one ( No point for guessing which subject that one is). She has no projects to work on for the three week long break. All her extra classes, singing, math and piano are also suspended for December. Akank is truly enjoying a clean break from school. She has a list of places to visit before school reopens and I hope I will be able to take her to every one of them. We are setting sail tonight on a cruise liner that will take us on a three night three day extravaganza to two destinations in Malaysia. It will be a first for Akank and the family.

I will update you on what we did when we return!

 

Mo day at school.

Movember. Never knew of it until this November. Akank’s school was teeming with Mo bro’s and ‘sistas’ this morning with the men sporting moustaches that they have grown all of November and the girls with neatly drawn Mo’s,  to  help spread the awareness of prostrate cancer in men. There were two other events combined with the Mo Friday. It was a family breakfast morning and a sale for charity to support the different foundations and causes the school supports. The School  is also hosting a Cambodian all girls basket ball team for which the kids at school were sporting tattoos of the Cambodian National flag on their skin. Akank is also busy practicing for the UN day celebrations in the first week of December. Akank is a part of the choir, Irish dancing and a music ensemble and is in practice the whole day for weeks at stretch. With all this, it is a surprise that they get any academic work done at school the whole of November!

ON Mo day at school

 

In her own words

Akank had captured her winning of the swimming competition at the pool a few weeks back in her own words and submitted it to school. Here is what she wrote -

I won a prize in a swimming competition held in the gym. The competition was held in December, so the water was very cold. Only a few contestants had arrived. My coach was giving me a few last minute tips.

I’ve been swimming for the past 6 years, so I can swim very well. I was in the 10-13 years group. There was just one other contestant in my group: A huge, bulky, thirteen year old girl. We were supposed to swim 3 laps along the length of the pool. I was dead nervous, I felt so puny compared to her.

I took my diving position. The whistle blew and I dived in. After the first few strokes, I lifted my head up and she was so much ahead of me (I was told later that she had dived before me). I bolted so fast that my arms and legs were a blur. But she picked up speed and was soon equal to me.

By now it was our final lap and I had no energy left in me. But I put on an extra boost of speed and finally raced her. I won first prize!
I was awarded my trophy a few days later. And now at home I like to look at that swimming trophy I won.

 

Coining new words

Akank has her way with words. She could make new words and use them without flinching even as a younger child. However, the most recent word that she coined was something worth blogging about.

Akank’s school is busy preparing for an annual sports day event. Akank and the other 5th graders at school are apart of the March past at the beginning of the event. They have been on the school grounds for over two weeks, practicing and perfecting the march. Two days back, Akank came back red faced and sweaty after a few hours of practice and said this-

" Today I realized that our school had State level "marchpast-ists". They are actually school seniors who came and helped us smarten our marching."

 

Band play

A parent of one of Akank’s classmates owns a bakery and wanted live entertainment over Valentine’s day. The girl’s parents invited a few children from the class to form a band. It was Akank’s first chance to play in a band. She was obviously very excited when she was invited to be part of the band. She went to practice a few days before the 14th February. At the end of the practice session it was decided that she will get to play a solo number on the keyboard and sing a song of her choice on V-day. There was also a guitarist ( the baker’s daughter), another key board player, a drummer and a chorus. Akank told me that she herself was the ‘lead singer’. A day before the final show, Akank received a call from one of the band members,  and was told that that there would be no solo performances but only chorus singing. Akank was upset that she would not have a chance to sing or play her song as decided earlier. She asked me if she could quit the band. I wanted her to give it a good think before she called it quits. I told her that it would be something to look back at, when she was grown up and belonged to a ‘real’ band. I advised her that the first band experience did not have to be perfect. She would not listen. Then came the stories of how there was no coordination of music in the band, of how no one else but the baker’s daughter had the final say on the choice of songs to be sung, of how the baker’s wife did not recall Akank’s name and called her and another classmate ‘ people’ and of how Akank really had quit the same day of practice but had not told me about it.

She called the Baker’s family the same evening and quit the band – again.