4 days competition

So, the big day had come of the opening of the Tibetan Olympics. It was to start with Archery and Air gun shooting, but the weather greeted us this morning with a very thick fog. An interesting curiosity about Tibetan calender by the way: Every year it is decided by the Tibetan oracles and astronomers, the days are predicted for the coming year and if a day is considered unlucky, it's simply taken away! So a Tibetan date could be: 23,24,26 etc. When it's all decided for the year, the calendar is distributed to society. So the fog was a seemed to be a very unfortunate event, you couldn't see more then a few meter, never less the targets 30m away! Inside the fog, masses of press and media people was lurking about. There was easily more press then participants, and for paying spectators, there was hardly none... A spontaneous Tibetan folk lore dance and song by the athletes was made and everybody were happy. Soon after the performance, the fog started to go away and the contest began. The weather turned really good and it turned out to be a enjoyable, but long event. Many hours after, until the archery competition was over, most people had left and the shooting competition was made short, with finally just a few people and press to celebrate the winner. Shortly after the event was finished and we stepped into the cars, it started to pour down rain.

After a late lunch, we had to wait a while for the rain to stop and then it was time for the awaited Olympic torch relay run. It started from Dalai Lamas temple and went around McLeod ganj central parts twice. It was very emotional and a big success. Lot's of people came out to watch and cheer on the athletes, but of course it turned out to be cheering more on a political agenda then a sportive avent. The press was delighted as they kept running backwards, constantly flashing the torch bearers and surroundings with humongous photographic equipment, making the Athletes feel like seahorses do in Richelieu Rock. Next day was the long distance run, won by Lobsang, one of the two that due to high blood pressure were advised not to run the race. The day after was swimming, a nice event made in a not too big pool, with self made lanes of lines and balloons.

The finals was a very nice day, lot's of excitement, big crowds and good preparations. A Tibetan youth band came and opened the finals with drums and trumpets. 4 miss Tibet's carried the big flag infront of the band, got allot of cheers and mimicked the official song rather poorly. But who cared, the miss Tibet's were very popular with the mainly sub 18 audience! Games went on their way in different disciplines and the whole atmosphere was really nice, festive and relaxed. Dogs ran around chasing each other over the tracks at times, a cow strolled by the stance and poor performances by the athleats at times, were taken with a hearty laugh by the audience. The last event was 400 mixed relay for fun, where 4 of the athletes were a team, against 4 other youth teams from tibetan schools around and a Media team consistent of random photographers picked out at the moment. One dude from Greece, one Tibetan, one Japanese and moi. I took the first leg and I tell you I felt it was a looong time since I ran a 100 meters! Needless to say, our average age 40 team, running in pants and hiking boots, got our asses whooped badly!

In the evening there was a concluding concert with different musicians playing. A Tibetan band, playing some nice mixed traditional stuff, Phil, a really good guitarist from Woodstock and a popular Estonian punk band went last. And a good thing soo, when they started, most people started making their way out! Most Tibetans that stayed, were left with big eyes and their mouths open, as a steady stream of NOISE forced it's way into their ears! Some random westerners started dancing like mad men, but that wasn't pretty.

All in all, this time had flown by and all organizers, volunteers and athlets were sad that it ended. It had been a lifetime experience with alot of good memories and new friends.

Do or?

The days has passed with a certain morning routine. Up early in the morning, do some yoga, throw in some eggs and bread down my throat and wash it down with some of that salty butter tea, that really has grown on me. Not much time to rest! Plans and times change suddenly and us four chaperone's, a Canadian girl named Dolma and two other Tibetans, Tenzin and Niyma, have to be on our toes all the time, keeping the athletes together and properly equipped for the day. Every time we are counting people in for taxis, there is always a few people missing that we have to wait for. Apart from organizing the athlets, we also take care of minor wounds and I got use of my tibetan massage to help sour muscels. Many small injuries are not actually sport related, one girl had two cut wounds from pedicuring her toes for example! These days we had a few more practice sessions of swimming and there was many personal improvements, but lot's of time was spent playing around with a ball, to everybody's happiness. Apart from the swimming there has been practice at most of the track and field disciplines as well. During all this time we've had film crews and people making documentaries following us for shooting and making interviews. Some are nicer then others. Lot's of respect to the professional Estonian team with Helen(a), the full time comedian, part time camera woman; Olger the quiet sound man; Agne the beautiful, talented director; all led by the clever, creative producer Aet. They gave the athletes lot's of space and found the way's of not getting in the way. Other film crews were not as delicate. Example, my room mate was unwillingly 'abducted' one day, so a team could have some shoots of him walking in the market during morning, they couldn't wait because the weather could change... Because of that, he unfortunately ended up missing the whole days training of swimming + track and field. He was not to happy about that.

One hard thing chaperon these athletes was learning to remember their names. For example you have many Tenzins, they are named after H.H. Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama) for being born under his 'period'. Those following Karmapa, names their children Karma + something. Then you have boy's with the girls name Dolma (after a goddess). If the babies when they were young were very ill, the parents would change the babies name to Dolma for her protection. Also the humor is a very cultural based thing to learn. For example: what is red, white and with metal inside? Answer: A sheep that you shoot in the head and gut from the throat to the belly! Then there's lot's of jokes about 'Uncle liar', a character that lies and somehow always manage to have sex with young girls and nuns. These jokes are told a bit embarrassing and with no girls listening.

Before the last day of training, two guests of honor for the Olympics came for dinner. One was Asha-ji, which has done allot for the Tibetan community in the city of Chennai. She is their mother so to speak and since many refugee kids don't have any relatives here, that has a closer meaning for them. The other, was a sort of world known special character, Shihan Husseini. He's a archery and karate (8th dan) teacher + sculpture and sketcher. This man has been breaking odd records during his days. Breaking stacks of ice blocks with his forehead, by jumping head down on them, had his hand crushed by tiles and then sketched drawings with the blood, sat himself on fire with 100 liters of gasoline, had 4 cobras bite his hand then smashed 100 of tiles (heart attack and hospital next), etc... He held a loud (!), funny, inspiring speech about Tibet, archery and freedom. He was so commanding, no one dared to utter a word! When he asked Lobsang loudly (the Olympics chief) that Tibetans should never surrender, they should 'Do or ?' Lobsang inspired raised his hand and shouted 'Dieeee!!!' No, no, no!! said Husseini 'Do or Do!! why should you die?!?!' as everybody was laughing their asses off. Then he showed us the record breaking events on his laptop. You can also see that on Youtube if you wish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_s8dFF02Ns&feature=related

Next morning there was no yoga. Hence known Cobra master, wanted the morning for archery training, so we quickly gathered the athletes after the early breakfast. From now on it was much easier keeping track of the athletes from not wandering off or taking to much time, you just had to remind them that Cobra master was going to whoop their ass and paint their picture if they didn't hurry! We ended up waiting over an hour on the field before he came in with a big presence and loud voice. The training went well, unneeded to say disciplined. Outside of the 'role' and a thing that the athletes has to touch his feet as a gesture of respect before practice, he is really a nice guy. I had very nice chats with both Asha-ji and Shihan and I am now excited to visit them and see what they do in Chennai. In the evening, I had to take blood pressure on two athletes that was left after further checks. Luckily they both seemed fine, so after allot of check-ups and talks, all athletes were allowed to compete tomorrow.

Fire away!

No more sleep ins! Up early and said goodbye to Dixie that had finished her time and yoga teaching course and was heading home. Then I banged some hotel doors, live aboard style, with a loud 'Gooood morning everybodyyy!!' Most athletes had been up running already and soon we were on our way to do the popular morning Yoga. After that, a quick breakfast and I was off with the 5 who had high BP to the hospital. After all electronic checks 3 of them were told not to participate in any running or swimming activities. I felt really sorry for them. They tried to keep their smiles up, but you could feel their disappointment. Specially because these three had always done lot's of training and were good runners and quite good swimmers. One is even a physical trainer at a school. Well, the doctors had said theirs, now management had to decide.

Forenoons training today was shooting air guns. We drove off with the whole squad to Strawberry fields. I didn't see any berry's, but it sure was an amazing place. Green hills with pine trees and snowy mountains looking down on us and the big media entourage. On a field we put up the 2 plywood boards and mark sheets. No one knew who the shooting coach was, if there was any, and in the end we just took out the 4 rifles and the kids got armed. Ooopps! Guns went spinning around, pointing in random directions. Peoples body's and heads twisted, turned and popped up and down as they suddenly were starring into barrel of guns! The Israeli doc started shouting commands, trying to discipline the exited athletes and secure the scene. As an old army officer he took charge, put the shooters in line and taught them basic safety practices. After that he went back under his favorite pine tree and shook his head. The shooting practice went fine though. Slowly they improved their stance and handling of the guns and the accuracy was good! The press got good pictures, interviews and an entertaining forenoon.

After lunch, it was time for swimming practice again. This time we had to go to Baghsu public pool which was a 20min walk from the guest house. I've had heard stories before that women sometimes were harassed and told to leave, because they were said to pollute the water!? So, there were no happy faces going there in the first place and when we got there, the girls said 'No no no' straight away. The place was crowded with Indian men in their tiny underwear loitering around the edges of the pool. Any female getting in was sure to get plenty of attention and maybe 'accidentally' felt up! Off the girls went to the tea shop and watched the show from a distance. Many of the boy's were shy as well and in the end only 6 men jumped in. They were as quick out though! I dipped my toe and the pool was a few degrees warmer than ice water... brrr! A quick dip and back to side line teaching once again! This was no good, I found it hard to try to convince the poor fellows that they had to practice, as they were shaking like leaves after a few minuets. Most of the time we sipped chai at the sidelines just passing time. Later, most people went away and a handful of girls jumped in for a few minuet session as the sun went low.

During my travels, I found Tibetans amongst the most friendliest, honest and goodhearted people I've met. These kids are no different, they are all lovely people and it's really nice to be around them. A few of them were born in India, some came when young and some just managed to escape recently from Tibet. Most of them were sent off by their parents and family for a better future were they are not discriminated, so many came here alone without any or few relatives. Usually, the escape works by hiring a guide for lot's of money, then trek over mountains for about a months time, some days without food and water, trying to avoid the check points. If they are caught by the Chinese, they are sent to an uncertain destiny. There's no fixed penalty for trying to leave China, so the verdict can be anything from a year labor to several years in prison. If they manage to escape, they usually reach Nepal, were they get 'arrested' as political refugees. After a month in camp, most are deported to Dehli, India were they stay for another month before getting placed somewhere in the country. If they are younger then 18, they are sent to normal school and can get a good start in life. If they are older, they are sent to Transit school, where they learn English, Tibetan, Hindi plus some other basic skills like computer knowledge etc. Here at least they have simple room and board, plus 100 rupies (2euros) a month that the Dalai Lama gives them from his own pocket. After this, they are on their own! Many are very poor, but they never complain and you never see any Tibetan beg.

The prize money for nr1 girl and boy is 2500USD each, witch for them is a lot of money. But still between them there is no sense of competition, they all help each other out with skills and technique in the different sports. Just being here is a bit risky, their families in Tibet could get repercussions and media avoids using their real names in interview's. I really love being with these kids and in a true sense, they are all winners.

Being a daddy for a while

This morning I was on my way to meet Jiska, my dutch friend from the Vipassana course, for a nice breakfast with the best carrot and lemon cake in this part of Asia. Yesterday evening I had gotten a message from her, asking if I wanted to help chaperon some Tibetan kids in the Tibetan Olympics. Wow, that sounds like fun! I imagined us to trying to keep together a herd of little energized 10 year olds running off in different directions. The kids turned out to be 20-27 year old Tibetan students, gathered from all over India to this Olympics.

We got in time for the press conference and were handed our over sized staff T-shirts (I don't really go well with L, and thats the smallest they had!). Lobsang, the man in charge, explained to the big media machine, that this was a symbolic Olympic with no antagonism towards the Chinese counterpart. There were some difficulties though to get as many participants as they wished for, primarily because of the criteria and shyness. So the total number of enthusiastic athletes were 9 women and 13 men. (The web page: www.tibetanolympics.com)

We met one of the organizers, Katherine, and she gave us the plan of the day and our first mission to gather them all and help the Israeli volunteer doctor to take their blood pressure. Ok, we managed to get them all in line and organized the doc examined all but five. Here a problem arose. 1 girl and 7 of the male athletes had too high blood pressure. This is quite a high percentage! The doc, Ari, explained that high blood pressure was a very common problem with Tibetans in India and Nepal. Because they normally live at a very high altitude, their diet consists of very fatty and salty food. They need the calories up there. But unfortunately they continue the same diet coming down to lower altitudes and that causes serious health problems amongst the exile Tibetans. Hard to convince them though to give up their precious salty butter tea and deep fried yummies!

Next was lunch and shortly after that, off to the swimming pool for training! The swimming coach, a very nice, older, white Rastafarian woman from NZ, was there to help teaching them swimming. And that was needed. The kids had not much experience with deep water and for some it was the first time swimming! Only a handful could swim enough to be unsupervised, the rest needed coaching and basic swimming lessons. I know how to teach someone to dive, but I'm a bit clueless how to teach someone how to swim for the first time. While Jiska was helping doc with his check ups, I was taking care of the men and teaching some how to kick (holding on to the side) and the ones who knew a bit, how to stroke. I had forgotten my swimmers and I wasn't going to go the Indian way, in my underwear! It was enough seeing men stropping about in their tangas! So I was coaching on the sidelines with big gestures and pretend swimming on land. The whole time at the pool was funny. Lot's of splashing water, arms and legs swinging wildly about and lot's of laughter. Finally, a light hailstorm put an end to most pool activities. The doc rechecked a few high PB:s and we got the number down to 5 high blood pressured athletes.

On the way home I got asked to help out chaperon the athletes during the whole Olympics. I was on my way to leave to Mandi the next day, but that had to change. This was going to be too much fun to miss out on! So now I'm living, eating and doing some training with the athletes. I'm also nursing small wounds, organizing and making sure they keep the times. This is quite some work, specially when you don't speak Tibetan!