Craziest week ever...

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Sorry it's been so long between updates but the last few weeks have been beyond crazy! Can't remember exactly when I last wrote but basically once the national tournament finished we were busy preparing for the international tournament. Also managed to fit in some socialising along the way which was nice.

Had dinner one night with a whole lot of people who work at AusAID and it was good to meet them! And boy do AusAID staff get to live in the lap of luxury over here or what!! (Sorry julz and peter!) Certainly makes my little flat look very humble compared to what they get!

Basically the tournament was the mainstay of life up until Monday. The guys from the ICC started arriving a couple of weeks ago so we had to look after them as well as making sure everything else from food to buses to the grounds were ready for the games. The logistics for a tournament over here are way more complicated than in Australia mostly because the grounds are so far apart and the traffic is so unpredictable and can absolutely ruin even the mostly carefully planned event. Anyway the tournament went really well and in the end the only thing that really went wrong was the bombings on Friday. I felt pretty sorry for the hotel staff having to put up with so many 15 year old boys running around and I am pretty sure they were glad to see the back of us when we finally left!!

And so I started my week of 20 hour working days, up at 5 every morning, in bed by 1am! Despite everything that could have gone wrong each morning somehow everyone got to their grounds on time each morning, the food showed up and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Our Indonesian team got off to a really good start winning both their games on the first day, and the one girl in the team, Ani, took 7 wickets for the day! Was great to watch and even better when a couple of photographers showed up from two of the local newspapers just in time to capture one of the kids from Kupang doing backflips to celebrate a wicket! Made an awesome photo in the papers the next day 😊 Our B team also managed to beat Vanuatu on the opening day and they were the 2nd best team in the comp by a mile! But the team to beat was definitely PNG. They were several light years ahead of all the other teams in all areas. On one of the days one of their bowlers took 4/15 including a hat trick and the day I saw him play against Vanuatu (who as I said were easily the 2nd best team in the comp) he took 6/6 off 3 overs after his team made 238 off their 20 overs. Vanuatu only ended up getting 16! Most of the other games were more closely matched though and it actually would have been interesting to see who made the 3v4 final after the Indo team crumbled on the 2nd and 3rd days losing 3 of their 4 games. Everyone was really enjoying everything and the lack of sleep was completely worth it for all the compliments we were getting for how well we were running the tournament.

Some of my favourite moments include the Japanese team, at the end of every game, would present gifts to the other team which is a Japanese tradition. Also the singing, almost every single morning one of the Pacific island teams would be sitting in the lobby singing while they waited to get on the bus! They were amazing singers and some of the songs were so beautiful! And I think my favourite moment was after the PNG team had just humbled the Japanese, the Japanese coach offered one of their players as a present to the PNG team as a play on the present giving tradition and so a guy from PNG put his arm around the Japanese guy and dragged him off to the PNG tent where the PNG coach then picked him up and threw him over his shoulder and started walking off...haha was so funny and so nice to see the teams getting on so well!

And then the bombs happened...we weren't actually in central Jakarta when they went off and the news took a bit of time to filter out to us because all the grounds are about 1hr out of the city. The first I heard of it was from one of the umpires who is a local who had been told by a friend but I hadn't heard anything so I wasn't too worried. And then I got a worried phone call from Australia saying there had been bombs and from there we got bits and pieces of news. In some ways it was good being out so far because it meant the games could continue as normal and the kids didn't need to be told anything until they had finished their games. However it did also mean that we didn't really know what was happening or whether or not we would be able to return to the city that afternoon. The main problem was that the bombs occurred about 1km from where the kids were staying and where most of us volunteers live. Meant we had to hang around at the ground for several hours after the game had finished in the heat waiting for a decision to be made about what to do next. Eventually it was decided to head back into town to the hotel where security had been upgraded and get the kids straight into their hotel rooms. Unfortunately the head office of the ICC chose to cancel the last day of the tournament despite advice from a security adviser that it would be safe to play the last day and that all of the teams had to remain in the hotel in lockdown.

Meant a pretty long couple of days for the kids who were only allowed in their hotel rooms or the complex pool but they actually handled it pretty well. If anything the managers were more of a problem because some of them weren't particularly good at keeping the kids in their rooms! The funny thing was that despite what had happened life here went back to normal pretty much straight away aside from extra security people everywhere. Since then we have just been hearing what all of you would have heard back home and there haven't really been any major disruptions to life over here. There also hasn't been any talk of sending any of us home as they have kept the travel advice at level 4 (level 5 we get sent home I think) which is good as nobody really wants to go home...particularly the new AYADs who only got here 2 weeks ago!

In the end PNG were declared the winners and we still managed to have a closing ceremony which was nice. Then it was time to start sending them all home again after a few celebratory drinks the night before. Was an amazingly long week but totally worth it and such a great experience. I will try and get some photos up in the next few days on facebook so keep your eyes peeled.

Since then have just been sleeping and recovering and getting sick. Kinda figured as soon as I stopped my body would shut down in protest and that is exactly what it has done. Now have a lovely cold but thankfully working from home this week so have been able to rest. Also now have a housemate from the new AYADs and we are moving into our new apartment tomorrow!! Very exciting and it will be nice to be able to settle in somewhere properly without having to think about house hunting again!

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