My kids have been on fire lately. First, Calvin was selected as a Teen Ambassador and went to the conference in Florida. Then he came home and the next week won Youth of the Month at the teen center. The most recent base newspaper has a photo of him on the front page of the Desert Times with the other conference attendees (the link will take you to the electronic version of the paper).
And this photo appeared on the NSA Bahrain’s Facebook page. Upon their return, the kids gave the base CO a brief of what they had learned. (Check out that suit!)
In the same paper, there is an article about the Firebolt Memorial Run. Carter has been getting up at 4:45 every morning and running with the High School track team. They don’t have an official team, but there are a few middle schoolers who come out to run. Since Carter trains for distance running, every time the base has a run (about 1x/month) he and the other distance runners will go over to base and run it as their training for the day. In the most recent run, Carter came in 1st place in the kid division (page 4). He ran a 6:15 mile in their most recent team competition. He said he loves to run.
Last weekend the younger 2 boys were in an international baseball tournament playing teams from Saudi and Australia. I have whined and complained about baseball this season, but the tournament was really fun.
We had an evening barbecue after the games where my boys made fast friends with the Australian boys. Now they have another reason to want to visit Australia.
The wind picked up and it got chilly fast. We had to be back again the next morning at 7am for an 8am game (one of the reasons that I might whine).
The wind remained, but we had fun anyway.
It was gritty and dusty and the wind kept blowing caps off the players. I can’t imagine how the pitcher got through the game without walking everyone.
She has learned to function well in the desert. You can see why the old school tribes always wore headscarves.
I asked her to bring me a bottle of water, but she brought me a Coke instead because “I thought you’d want one. Can I have a sip?” Ulterior motives indeed.
players from all three teams
We were also able to participate in the centennial observation of when the Australian military landed at Gallipoli and suffered large casualties during WWI. The Australian team brought flowers and a flag and read an account of the day, played their national anthem, and had a moment of silence for the fallen. I appreciated that my kids were able to observe another country’s patriotic ceremony and to remember that our military allies also have sacrificed much.
The kids all traded jerseys, hats and anything Bahraini for anything Australian
then spent the afternoon sharing lunch and competing in a skills competition.
Carter came in 2nd place in the throwing competition (and had a mention in the Gulf Daily News!) and his friend from the Australian team (Carter’s double — when they traded jerseys, I kept thinking he was Carter) won silver in base running.
The last big event of this week was Caleb’s Living Museum presentation. He’s been working on this project all semester. The kids choose a famous person and research their life — creating timelines, written reports, a “self-portrait,” and the last piece of the project is the oral presentation.
Caleb chose Jesse Owens because of their shared love of running. Today he dressed up, set up his table with 5 artifacts that he created or collected to represent Jesse’s life (the horse was because Jesse Owens raced a horse and won), and then spent 2 hours giving his talk to anyone who came to his table.
Camille was insistent that her horse’s tail be braided. She noticed that Caleb had taken the braid out so she waited until he was occupied to redo it. I’m impressed that she can braid. I didn’t show her how to do it either.
The kids go to a great school. I’m not talking about academics, but the community is kind and close-knit and the various elementary school classes that visited each station were respectful and encouraging. Caleb is a natural presenter. He had great eye contact, animation, and enthusiasm.
And the fact that he was happy to work with his little sister by his side made it even sweeter.
Two hours of non-stop talking and he was raspy voiced (even more than usual) and tired
but really happy!
