Sportsmanship

I have to brag a little bit about the kids here at DA.  Before we came over Mike was working at a Christian University in Omaha (Go Grace U!) and when we were first thinking abut him working there we went to a volleyball game that Grace was playing in.  After the game both teams gathered around and prayed, it was my first experience of a Christian school and how they came together and prayed after winning or losing to another team.  It was beautiful!  We immediately decided Grace was a great fit and would be great for the kids to be connected with.

Well, now we are here in Senegal at another Christian school.  And it's just as great.  The kids here are talented, unbelievably talented.  They compete at such levels that you would be amazed that these kids are not brought together through sports scholarships.  But beyond that they are so supportive, always pushing each other to try their best, giving advise and cheering each other on.  Recently the basketball team had a championship against a rival school and during the game the other school was yelling and chanting, putting our players down, just being very rude.  Well our students continued to be respectful (and win :)  But what was amazing was our players continued to compliment the other players when they scored.  It really was a great thing for a parent to have their kids see.

 Mike played on a softball team and they won the W.A.I.S.T. (West Africa Invitational Softball Tournament).  It was against other teams from the American Embassy, Africa and the Peace Corp.

And look it really does get cold here but Carter is from Nebraska so it's not too cold for him :)

 Mike

 We had Olympic days here.  It's 1 1/2  days of track and field events.  No school so all the kids can come and cheer everyone on.  There were 5 color teams and all the grades were represented.  It was great to see and hear everyone cheering each other on.
  

Monroe

 Regan

 Carter doing the broad jump

 Obviously they have fun with the team colors.  Some boys colored their hair blue!

 High jump

 Regan doing the Long jump

 Carter getting ready for his run taking place in the park.

There is always something going on, now if you'll excuse me I have to go watch a soccer game :)

Mike can rap??

So here is a little back story, when we first were researching Dakar Academy and deciding to come or not Mike went on twitter to see if it was ever mentioned on there.  Well it was by only one student, a senior that lives off campus and he was just asked if he attended and had good things to say about the school but that as an off campus student he doesn't get to participate in a lot of the events.  Well Mike started "following" his twitter account and it became obvious he was a huge Eminem fan, he's a rapper.  We had already found out about Senior cafe, a talent show, so Mike declared to me that if we do indeed go to DA that he will preform a rap song with this student.  Mike is definitely a man of his word because he did!  It was all done in secret, practicing here at the house and changing some words to make them appropriate and at the show he was only listed as special guest.  The crowd went nuts.  It was a lot of fun to have the students be shocked that a middle aged business man can rap.  He even made his kids proud and not too embarrassed :)