We Are Monsters

Last night we attended the primary school's production of "We Are Monsters" where Clem had a starring role.

A clip of one of the numbers can be found here.

Clementine's Science Fair

Clementine recently participated in the school science fair. For her project, she and her partner studied the effects of mold on different foods. They hypothesized the apple would grow the most mold because it had the most moisture. You can watch part of her presentation here.

Destroy my Sweater

Sam studying probability and listening to Weezer. The thermostat is set to 18. 

TISSL Swim Meet, Colombo

Video of Clementine swimming the 50 butterfly can be found here.

And of Peter's 50 fly here.  

Flag Day, Part Six

We have lived in Sri Lanka longer than anyplace else as a family. Twice as long than Brazil, India, or Jordan. And I will be sad to leave. I'm proud of the life we have built here and all we have experienced and achieved over the past three and a half years. We lived through a global pandemic, an economic crisis, fuel shortages, and political upheaval. It hasn't been easy, but we grew stronger as individuals and a family. There is no place in the world I would have rather been and no one in the world I would have rather been with. But next summer our time in Sri Lanka will come to an end when we move to Cairo, Egypt. We're excited, nervous, trepidatious, and eager to see what the next chapter will bring. 

Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

Halloween preparations were somewhat derailed by the presence of coronavirus in the home. My office hosted a Halloween party at the reception center, but the party seemed more geared toward toddlers and adults (you can imagine the type of set-up that would appeal to these two very different demographics.  Bounce houses and beer). 

Starting to feel better, Sam volunteered to help set up. His friend, Tyler, randomly bought them full-body cow suits in the mail, so they were all set for the festivities. 

Peter barely rallied to put in an appearance. I don't know who was more exhausted and bedraggled. Calvin? Or Hobbes? 

Im not exactly sure what Clementine dressed up as but I think it could best be described as an alien go-go dancer. 

The party was Saturday night, but on the actual night of Halloween, a friend organized a trick or treating caravan through Colombo. We drove to the houses of a dozen or so Americans living in Sri Lanka which was much more challenging than it sounds, considering it was rush hour in a city that had no idea it was Halloween and no reason to be on the lookout for little kids dressed as ghosts and ghouls, Spiderman and fairy princesses. 

Clementine got talked into going to track practice by her coach so was completely done by the time she got home. Our house was one of the last on the trick or treat circuit, so by the time we had returned an hour and a half later, she had rallied, donning her alien makeup for the third time in as many days and helping Elise pass out the Halloween candy. (They'd even carved jack o' lanterns out of watermelons!)

What Goes Up Must Come Down

Peter, Sam, and Elise stumbled through the front door, emerging from a light, yet persistent drizzle that had fallen for over a week. 

And Peter collapsed, face down, in the doorway.

They had flown from Jordan in the middle of the night and traveled all day to get home. They had swum as hard as they could for three days straight, rising before six in the morning and not laying down to sleep until after ten at night. By the time they returned home, they were beyond exhausted. Neither Sam nor Peter would leave their bed for a week. 

The following morning, Peter had a fever. Sam showed a temperature shortly thereafter.  

The preceding weeks and months had been a grind, easily the most frenzied we'd experienced as a family: early morning swim practices, riding to the pool in a tuk before dawn through deserted city streets in the pre-morning, preternatural mist, play rehearsals, late-night parties, school lessons, French tutoring, afternoon practices again after school and Saturday mornings. The collapse was more than the effects of the red-eye flight from Amman. The collapse was the collected relief of months of hard work realized. 

And COVID.

We'd managed to avoid the virus for two and a half years, but bringing kids together from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Oman, Jordan, among other countries, with nothing but a cap, goggles, and swimsuit on was unlikely to yield any other result. If the boys were going to get it, there was no better set of circumstances to succumb to the virus. Better after the big meet then before. 

Elise ran a clinic for the next week while I had to host the biggest visit we'd had to my office in a year and plan the official opening reception for our new office building. She easily exceeded her step goal daily and provided three-meals-a-day room service like a fine bed and breakfast, exhausting herself in the process. 

After a week, they recovered enough to return to school, but Peter was still too fatigued to swim. Sam would attend two practices before their next big meet, a gathering of Sri Lankan international schools in Colombo.  

Growing up a swimmer, I'd been on their side of the two or three-day all-day swim meet many times, but this was my first time on the parent side and only now do I have a full appreciation for how much my mom sacrificed for me to swim. I know how much swimming was a part of making me the person I am today (for better or worse) and I want nothing more to provide that same opportunity to Sam, Peter, and Clementine. But, man, is it a lot. 

Elise has already been introduced to the challenges of feeding the bodies of three competitive swimmers. It is nearly an all-day effort in the kitchen, akin to work as a short-order cook. Full-time meal planning is a prerequisite. But Jordan was her indoctrination into the endurance required to support swimmers at a three-day meet. It's easier swimming. Honestly. 

After years of staring at the same black line running along the bottom of the pool, staring back at me, I walked away from swimming after my junior year in college. Even when I trained for triathlon, I only swam occasionally, relying on my swimming background and laurels (such as they were) to get me through the swim leg. It was often enough to emerge from the water at the head of the pack. But watching these kids now, I do miss it. Maybe not initial entry at 5:00 a.m. practice winter in Baltimore, or the constant shoulder pain, or dryland with medicine balls and stretch cords...I always loved the action of swimming more than being on a swim team. 

The meet in Colombo is called TISSL (pronounced "tissle"). And we spent two whole days baking under the hot, tropical sun, struggling to stay hydrated, while also keeping track of three kids' events, keeping from melting into a puddle of sweat and tears. Elise left halfway through the first day with a fever, finally succumbing to the upper respiratory infection making its rounds along with COVID and the flu. 

We've run ourselves ragged this fall. Not something we usually do. But it was for a good cause. This swim season has been transformative for all three kids. It showed them what they were capable of, imbued them with heretofore untapped confidence, and shaped their minds as much as their bodies. They're good, and it feels good to know you're good at something.  And it was a journey they decided to take on their own. They have agency over and ownership of their success. 

All Elise and I did was drive the car. And sit in the stands. And make the breakfasts. And pay the entry fees. And....

Clementine's Turn

After the boys' trip to Jordan, Clementine had her chance to compete in a swim meet hosted by one of the local international schools in Colombo where her relay team finished third!