When the boys in the village weren’t hounding us to take their photos, they were playing cricket. Some of the guys and girls on our team took an interest in it as well and the idea of a Friday afternoon cricket match was born.

Earlier in the week, Mike had purchased a cricket bat and made the fateful decision to bring it to the worksite for the boys to play with. At lunch they all crowded around him as he was washing his hands and were asking him something in Tamil that sounded like “can we use your bat”. When Mike said “yes” they all cheered wildly and threw their arms around his waist in a big group hug. Mike was right when he responded, “I think I just gave them my bat”. Sadly, Mike had to leave on Wednesday to get back to Singapore and missed the big match on Friday, but not before he made it to a shop for a new bat.

As for the match, the village kids (and a few local ringers) soundly thrashed us. I’m not sure I can say what the score was, or even that I know how to score, but it seemed like they were doing better than us.