Math Counts 2017
We met the kids at the airport at 8:30 on
Thursday morning to fly to Kathmandu, Nepal.
It was a nice easy flight about 2 hours and the Chennai team met up with
us in Mumbai so we got to fly with them. I was fortunate that I got to go because I had wicked food poisoning the day before.
I sat between two guys – one was an Indian
who had never flown before and he kept asking the guy by the window to take
pictures and video for him. He was so
excited! The guy by the window was a
Polish physicist and we talked quite a bit.
He went to a wedding in Gujarat and was going trekking in Nepal. We could see the Himalayas out the plane –
they were just snowy peaks poking out from the clouds. I didn’t see Everest though L
The school came and picked us up and we
drove around the drop the kids off with their host families. Kathmandu is a big, sprawling, dusty
city.
The teachers all stayed at the Summit Hotel,
which was really nice and had lovely views.
We had a coach’s meeting Thursday night and it was great to see teachers
that I have come the last few years and to meet some new coaches.
In the US, teams compete against schools in
their districts or nearby districts.
When our teams complete in a sport or activity, we have to fly several
hours. We took 6 girls and 2 boys and I
was really proud of that! These schools
competed in the Math Counts competition this year.
Lincoln School in Kathmandu, Nepal
Cairo American College, Egypt
American Community School Abu Dhabi UAE
American School of Dubai UAE
Overseas School of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Overseas School of Colombo, Sri Lanka
American Embassy School Delhi, India
American International School Chennai,
India
American School of Bombay Mumbai, India
(us)
On Friday, we did two individual
competitions which ranks the kids for the Countdown round – which is one
against one with the buzzers – the exciting part! One of our girls got into the top 10 so she
got to do the buzzer round on Saturday.
After lunch, we went out for a cultural
excursion to Bodnath Stupa
“Bodhnath Stupa, besides being one of the largest stupas in the world, is the most important and holiest Tibetan Buddhist site outside of Tibet. The white 14th century structure is said to house a bone once carried by the Buddha. Worshippers come here to circumambulate the stupa while spinning prayer wheels and praying to the 108 small images of the Buddha surrounding the structure.”
The teacher from
the Nepal school sent two of her students with us and they were so helpful
explaining things about the Stupa – telling us where we could walk and where we
could take pictures. They told the kids
when they were paying too much money at the shops and helped them bargain
down. They were really sweet and helpful
to my kids. My kids enjoyed shopping and
got singing bowls, jewelry etc. We were all dressed in our Math Counts black hoodies and a woman stopped us and said she was a math teacher from Tennessee and asked us all about our competition. On the
1.5 hour bus ride home, I saw the most adorable baby with ginormous cheeks on
the motorcycle with her parents. Her
parents saw me smiling and making faces are her and they waved and smiled and
tried to get her to respond to me. We
“played” until traffic moved and it was one of the highlights of my day.
We had dinner at
the school and then the kids played some morse code flashlight game and then
they went to their host families.
On Saturaday
morning we did the team round and the countdown round – our girl got 2nd
place!! She called her mom immediately
and started crying she was so excited.
There were 15 teams and one of ours got 3rd place, and one
got 13th (our 6th and 7th graders).
 |
| 3rd place team |
 |
| 13th place team |
 |
| competing for 1st and 2nd place |
 |
| 2nd place individual |
 |
| 3rd place team |
After lunch we went
to Swayambhunath (monkey temple)
Even if you're not big on temple visits, making your way southwest of Kathmandu to Swayambhunath Temple is worth it for the stunning views of the city below. This Buddhist temple, nicknamed Monkey Temple by locals due to the large population of monkeys that call the complex home, is instantly recognizable by its golden spires with ominous-looking eyes painted on them.
We had the same students from the Nepal
school with us and they were helpful.
This temple was not as easy to get around than the other one. There was a lot of rubble - you could see the earthquake damage from 2015. It had shops too, but the shop keepers
harassed us a lot like they do in India, they didn’t do that at the one we saw
the day before. There were also monkeys
to contend with and I fell down some stairs and scraped up my knee even through
my jeans and I jacked up my hip a bit.
So this Stupa was not my favorite J
The kids stay with host families and they
quite enjoyed theirs this time. I am
amazed at how much effort the families put in to taking care of the kids. This was a weird situation because there were
sports competitions going on at our school and in Colombo so some of these host
parents didn’t even have their own kids with them and still took in our
kids. The school sends a cell phone
with us and we call the kids each night to make sure they ate and are ok before
they go to bed. They would tell me all about how the host parents took them to dinner and the mall or how they watched a movie. the two boys had the best "dad" He was managing director for Baskin Robbins so he took them to there every night - the way to a middle schoolers heart :) He drove them to some cultural sites and really had fun with them. We got home and I heard the school phone ring as I was unpacking and it was the host dad wanting to know if we made it home ok! Such a great host dad!
I have coached in this Math Counts group
for 6 years and many coaches have come and gone, but there are a few that I
have know for several years and it is fun to catch up with them. Miss Kala and I are the only ones that have
been to all 6 of the competitions and I am going to Miss her. It was weird to hear everyone talk about next
year’s competition and know that I won’t be there!
