Sports week

"Takraw"

(above is our school's swimming pool.)

We missed monday and tuesday classes due to our visa run, and showed up wednesday, which is the first day of what Thailand calls sports week. Which is basically a five day long sports extravaganza, pitting all of the high schools in the Chaiyaphum province (there are 42 of them) against each other in all different events. The first day included a giant ceremony where all the schools paraded and sang their school songs. We were able to catch some swimming, which was at our own Muangpayalae, and "Takraw", which is a game that originated in Thailand. It involves a rattan ball and a low volleyball net, the players are only allowed to use their feet or heads to move the ball, and the rules are similar to ping pong or volleyball. Here are a few pictures of some Chaiyaphum students playing the game. As you can see the games get pretty intense and are very fun to watch. On friday we watched some Muay Thai boxing and a few basketball games. Thursday ended with an elephant sighting on the way to the gas station.

(Above are pictures from the ceremony)

(and the elephant on the way to the gas station)