MRISA - Volleyball Tournament

MRISA is an association of Mekong River International Schools where teams from Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia compete in basketball, volleyball and soccer tournaments throughout the school year. This time it was our (ISPP's) turn to host the Middle Years Volleyball tournament and we were all very excited to be involved.

Samuel had decided to try out for the team even though he had never really played it before, unless you count  a few games on the beach on holidays! He wasn't that hopeful as it was for grades 6-8, but went to training and had a go. He was able to match it with the older kids and was selected in the A Team as their designated "setter". He does have amazing co-ordination, can read the play, excels at ball sports and has energy to burn! Phil and I can debate at length as to where the talent comes from - both claiming AFL footballing cousins, and I throw in the Stawell gift place getter (thanks Uncle Ted!), but I may have to admit that Phil has it over me on the tennis court! Either way -  he was rapt and we were pretty proud, although  I was then lamenting that it was a home tournament and I didn't get to travel......but I'm sure there will be other opportunities.

lets go ISPP lets go!

Part of the hosting duties is also to provide the "billets" for all the visiting teams so ISPP had to find beds for about 150 kids. We requested students from VIS (our previous school in Vientiane) and were lucky to be assigned Joji from Japan who Samuel used to play soccer with, and another lovely young boy, Daniel from Canada. They were great kids, and it was wonderful to welcome them into our home. They were bombarded with questions from us all about life in Laos, who was still there, friends, teachers etc,  and took us down memory lane!

 

Our visiting VIS friends!

The tournament was played out at The Beeline Arena, across on one of the islands on the Mekong. It's a pretty impressive stadium for Cambodia  although it did get  pretty hot under the tin roof. Pool games were played on the Friday and the rest of the school students from ISPP were in the crowd creating a fantastic atmosphere. ISPP lost their first 2 matches in what were nail biting 3 set matches - to a strong team from Ho Chi Minh City (ISHCMC) and our arch rivals here in Phnom Pehn, Northbridge (NISC)  We won the third game against a team from Thailand, the highlight being Samuel holding serve for 11 points straight.

The Saturday morning game was the all important match to determine if you played off for the top four spots, or played off in the consolation group for places 5 -8. It was another tight  game and the boys came up just short against UNIS, the tournament favorites from Hanoi. They were a big strong team and just had a bit too much power. The boys fought it out bravely though winning some magnificent rallies. So it was on to the play off for the plate trophy. The boys won the first match, producing some of their brilliance from the Friday games which meant they would play off for fifth spot and found themselves up against NISC again. Both the teams had a fair bit of home town support and the atmosphere was amazing, with plenty of cheering and drum banging going on. It was another nail biting match but our boys managed to win both tight sets, again playing some of their best volleyball. It was an amazing finish with Samuel serving at set point and being carried from the court on the shoulders of his teammates. He was rapt and we were really proud of his effort and sportsmanship. He had really matched it with the bigger taller kids and continually revved up his teammates on court. It was a wonderful experience for him, a great introduction to MRISA and was topped off with him being named MVP for his team and making it into the All Star Team for the tournament.  The smile couldn't be wiped off his face - hanging with the big kids was pretty cool stuff. 

Joji and Samuel, respective MVP's for their teams!

Hot Hot Hot

Hello again everyone. As you may have guesssed we are in the middle of the hot hot hot season and have been experiencing some extremely hot days with humidity levels off the page! I think it is a bit hotter here  than I remember Vientiane being but really, hot is hot - so we don't really worry too much about the actual degrees! I'm not really complaining - just letting off a bit of steam - so to speak!!  We are lucky enough to have a pool to cool down in, air conditioners to keep the house cool and a generator for back up to fight the constant power cuts - so we manage! There has been some rain storms already, some say a little early, but nevertheless very welcome. We all love it when the thunder rolls in and the sky clouds over - and then the torrents rain down bringing  much relief - and often it is gone just as quickly. Not sure how the drains in the streets will cope when the real rain starts - we'll probably need a canoe to get around in, as it doesn't take much for little rivers to form down our road. Life just continues on though, tuk tuks splash you as they scoot pass, umberallas and plastic ponchos pop up for sale on every corner, streets become uncrossable and you never stay dry for too long - but thats the wet season for you!

Speaking of being wet - we had an amazing time in Bangkok for the New Year Celebrations. Every time we ventured out of the hotel we got soaked by the Thais celebrating in the streets. It was fantastic to witness.....once........but by day 3 we were all a little over it. Some of the street scenes were amazing though with literally thousands of people swarming down the road drowning anyone in sight with water pistols, buckets of water and anything else they could think of. We thought we were prepared with a couple of pump action water pistols but no!

Some of the highlights of that weekend were catching up with loads of friends; Mark and Robert, Flavia and kids, David and Whinnie, Jo and the boys  and of course Uncle Stevie! It was great fun and wonderful to see everyone again.

Since then we have been keeping busy. Samuel has made the MRISA (Mekong River International Schools Association) school team for volleyball, which we are hosting here in Phnom Penh next weekend. He's done really well to be selected as the only grade 6'er in the team (grades 6-8) so we are very proud of him and are looking forward to chearing him on. We have some of the kids from Laos (VIS) staying with us so that should be fun. It's a whole weekend of volleyball so more on that next time.

Mixing it with the big kids!

Sienna has had another swim meet and did really well. The next one is at the Olympic Pool in a 50m pool which will test her out but she is training hard. She also performed at the school concert,  doing a guitar solo with her teacher playing "I've got a feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas -  she was fantastic. No musical talent from her mum or dad - so very proud of her too! (Note: I don't supose thats actually a solo, with her teacher, but anyway...)

Phil is busy breaking in a new Ambassador at the Embassy. They are a nice family with a son in Sienna's class and seem pretty relaxed. There has been a bit of a change in the demographics at post recently, and we now have more families with Samuel being the oldest of 16 kids. So the social scene is starting to change and we get together a bit more now and have a great time at the Akubra Bar at the Embassy. We recently had a very memorable dawn service for Anzac Day at the Embassy and it was attended by about 200 expats. Samuel read a poem and did a wonderful job. It was a really moving service complete with a Khmer bugler who did a fantastic job.

Kids pictured here with our Defence Attache, Captain Andrew Dakin.

I am still having trouble with the settings for this blog, so if you have subscribed to it and are or aren't getting notifications of these new posts, could you please let me know.  Hope you are all well and enjoying life......take care for now xMekong Molloys