Quiz Night

Yes, yes. I am woefully behind on blogging. Instead of working my way out of the backlog, I'm going to post on recent activity and then hope to catch up.

Last night was Quiz Night at the kids' school. A group of 10th grade students and their teachers organized it as a way to raise money for education in India. This group of students is traveling to India this summer as part of their 10th grade expedition and they hope to be able to bring enough money to support 15 students' education for the year @ a cost of 300 CHF student/year.

The cost of entry was 20 CHF per table of up to 8 participants. Beer and wine were sold along with mineral water. There were fixed prices on the drinks. (Our table proudly bought by the bottle.) In addition, there was an assortment of "snacky" type food -- pizza, egg rolls, chips and guac, etc. For the food, they offered the Auroville principle: take whatever you want to eat and at the end of the night, pay however much you value the food. There was some discussion at our table whether we valued in American or Swiss prices (we were 3 American couples plus 2 strays).

We warmed up for the Quiz with a section of questions on TV and Entertainment. Questions ranged from "What are the recurring numbers on the TV show Lost?" to "Name 3 of the main characters on the popular show Friends." to "Name the female character in the last scene of Pulp Fiction." Our team actually felt pretty good about these questions. Unfortunately, they didn't count. The son of one of our strays wrote the questions for this section. I'm thinking this child talks to his parents just about as much as C.J. talks to us, as the dad had no insight into the answers of the questions. He just knew his son wrote them. Then again, that might be more information than C.J. would have relayed to us -- unless it was a Facebook status update.

Other categories throughout the night were: Literature & the Arts, History, Switzerland, India, Science, World Flags, Literature, Food, Name that Tune and Artist (x2!) and Mystery. Thank goodness for our 2 strays (Dads of participating students who hadn't organized into a table) as one was a university professor and helped us out with history and literature -- areas our team was sadly lacking. (We tried to explain that the U.S. doesn't believe in teaching world history, but we don't think they bought it.) Each team was given a giant joker card at the beginning of the night which could be submitted with any category answer sheet to double the score for that category. We submitted ours with the Switzerland section, which was a good strategy as we got all 10 questions correct. (Thank goodness for talkative relocation agents, information German teachers, and those guide books we read to prepare for the adventure. Oh, yes, the "strays" helped tremendously as well -- a common theme through the night.)

Our team ended up finishing in the middle of the pack. We would have done much better had we gotten more than 25% correct on either music section. (Next year's goal: conduct Name that Tune screening tests for new table members.) A group of teachers won the event, which at least goes to show that they recall the information they teach our kids. There were almost as many teachers as parents at the event. There were 15 tables of 8 each, so the event had a great showing!

We ended up eating the most expensive guacamole we've ever had, as our table more than supported a year of education for a child. We hope one of next year's 10th grade expeditions plans a similar event.

Here's the newspaper article by our school on the event:
Triumph as Quiz Nite raises CHF 5,000

There was an astonishing result at the Staff & Parents' Quiz Nite last Thursday. Over and above the eventual victory by Team Anhut, the fierce debates as team members tried to Name That Tune, and the banter about "Tim's swimwear infringements", one organisation emerged triumphant. It was the Arogya Agam clinic in South India: as a result of quiz teams' generosity, it will receive an astonishing CHF 5,000 to help its work with HIV-positive children.

The Quiz Nite was organised by the ICS Community Service Expedition to South India. As part of the trip this summer, students from Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 will be visiting the Arogya Agam Clinic near Madurai - an organisation with which the school has a 30-year association. Originally set up to help people with tuberculosis and leprosy, the clinic is now also helping children who are HIV-positive. The purpose of the Quiz Nite was to raise funds that the Expedition could take to Arogya Agam to support this vital work.

HIV positive children are a severely disadvantaged group in South India and frequently do not receive either appropriate treatment or education. The clinic wants to send a number of at-risk HIV positive children to a local hostel to live, where they can be cared for and from where they can attend the local school. Annual costs for the children are just CHF 300 each, which covers accommodation, food, books, uniform and a little pocket money. It also covers the cost of a member of staff from Arogya Agam to look after the children.

Organisers were hoping that at least eight teams would take part and that they could sponsor eight children for a year. In the end almost double that number signed up, to the delight of participating 10th grade student Rosie (whose idea it was to hold the event) and her fellow travellers who helped run the evening. A delighted Clive Greaves, one of the teachers accompanying the students to South India, told participants that "Your extraordinary generosity means that we can support 15 students for a year and we have a good start for the second year, too. Very many thanks to you all for your enthusiasm and kindness and congratulations to Team Anhut for their … what shall we say? … cerebral performance."

The good news is that the event - enjoyed by over 120 parents and staff - is on again for next year. The even better news is that next year, there will NOT be a round on European History. And the bad news? There will be a round instead on the hits of Boney M...