18th December, 2009
After a 21 hour journey and a few tearful goodbyes at the airport I finally arrived at Seenigama Sports centre, one of the Laureus supported projects. I spent 2 weeks as a tourist here last Christmas and loved the place so was very keen to come back and get to know the country better. Having been inspired by one of my fellow foundation team members to volunteer over the xmas holidays I asked a Seenigama representative (Quen) who visited our offices in March, whether they took volunteers. On being told that they did I jumped at the chance to make the most of my xmas break.
The project has a whole host of sports on offer and despite the exceptionally high standard almost everyone and anyone is welcome to join in. Following on from the recent Beefy visit there is a real Laureus buzz in the air and it’s actually quite moving to see the pride which the kids take in wearing their Laureus t shirts.
One of the sports on offer is netball, and as a enthusiastic player both at school and university I was eager to get involved. I have been amazed at just how hard the girls work – they do 2 x 2hr sessions a week, often in the heat of the day. In addition to matches this also includes all sorts of skills and practices that I wasn’t even aware of. The team are southern province champions and are going for the national title next May so have been very willing to show me just how it’s done. Despite my 5ft 9” I have been very much outplayed by the coach who can’t be much over 5ft, however I have still been thoroughly enjoying myself and have been invited to come back out next year to watch them compete. Not sure what the foundation Director will make of that…
Yesterday we had a mass yoga session on the roof of the sports centre, which involved the boys and ladies cricket, the girls netball and even quite a few staff members! It was quite different to the type of yoga I’m used to as it was very slow paced and much more about relaxing rather than stretching. However, it inspired me to run some Pilates sessions next week with the female teams and hopefully if that’s a success with the womens enterprise group. Much like in the UK male participation in sport is much higher than female participation. Unfortunately, unlike in the UK, after a certain age womens’ participation in sport is pretty much non existent. As someone who believes passionately in the role that sport can play in everyone’s lives, and women in particular, I am keen to see what I can do to reverse this. I’m hoping that if they can learn some of the basic moves they may be able to practice this in their own homes and develop and maintain a certain level of fitness. In addition, I am all too aware of the ability that Pilates and similar exercises have to reduce the chances of injuries, which given the physicality of everyday life for everyone out here could be hugely beneficial.
I am about to go off on my new Sri Lankan bicycle to map out a route to take the boys cricket team on tomorrow – I’ll report back next week to let you know how I get on…
ALAN Malcolm on 28.12.2009 10:12
Great stuff
Keep it up