Nivea Beach Games and Community Fun

The Singhalese people do not celebrate a "New Year" when we celebrate New Year in January. They celebrate it based off of the full moons and is usually in the month of April. It is a Hindu tradition, brought by the tamils from India. This year we participated in some of the festivities. In Pottuvil, our closest "town," we played games, such as relays with spoons carrying limes (Tiffany); eating bread on a string, with hands behind your back (Koda); and watched and photographed all the rest. Our favorite one to watch was groups of men trying to climb a greased pole to reach the Sri Lankan flag. It looked impossible, but by the end of the day, as the grease had worn off from so many tries- the flag was reached!

The next day, we helped our kids in our village with a day of fun games. We let them use our tent, and came early that morning to set it up and decorate. It was fun to watch all our friends/families playing fun and silly games.