Math Counts 2017 Kathmandu, Nepal

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

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 2^nd place!!  She called her mom immediately and started crying she was so excited.  There were 15 teams and one of ours got 3^rd place, and one got 13^th (our 6^th and 7^th 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!