The FLL tournament took place last weekend. It was a lot of fun for participants and spectators and really nice for this area to host their own tournament. By all accounts it was a success. Six teams from the area will be participating in the national tournament on Dec 4th. Hans and Annika's team happens to be one of them so we are excited about having another opportunity to earn a 400 on the board. Their scores were 350, 360 and 375. We took a lot of video but have little bandwidth so we cannot post anything for you to see. I have several favorite moments 1) When one of the first year teams we were mentoring (Robo Docs) achieved their highest score possible (275) - on their final board run and ended up taking the 2nd place robot performance award; 2) When my team so willingly coordinated the clean up while the judges were deliberating (and many other children then joined in) and then the look on the FLL coordinators face when he realized all his work was done for the day; and 3)the words of appreciation from so many teams for the work we have been doing with them over the course of our stay. I get a very hopeful feeling from people here about what they are planning and expecting for next year.
The kids here have all just finished their 2-3 week exam period and are off school until January 12th I think. This means my team will have some very focused time together finally! They have all been out at the farm with us for the last 36 hours. Games like kick-the-can and Ninja's along with watching Pink Panther 2 fill in their time together away from the robot and skit revamping. They enjoy each other and it is such a treat for them to be together. Although all teams have some struggles, this team has really been easy to work with. And it has been such a great thing to have both my kids on the same team. I really worried about that initially but overall is has been a very good decision. Annika has really learned a lot and grown into an important, contributing member of the team...not bad for a 12 year old with 14-16 year olds....one of whom is her brother!
This weekend we will camp with Liezel and Pieter's family as well as Marietjie's family. Then on Sunday we will join Liezel and Pieter's church for a potluck and short service. We realize we have a long list of things we still want to do before we leave......
Deb
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