News from the Jacobs family in Saudi Arabia
The Blue and Gold ceremony was recently held in the Ad-Diwan building. The ceremony marks the anniversary of the Cub Scout program and is also when major ranks have been awarded. Kai was awarded his Bear Scout badge!
A few weeks ago the pack held the Cub Scouts held an event that allowed scouts the chance to practice some time honored sports such as archery, tomahawk tossing and spear throwing. The local Boy Scouts got a great opportunity to practice some leadership and the scouts had a lot of fun. A good time was had by all provided they had a high tolerance for elementary students throwing sharp objects.
This last weekend was the annual Cub Scout campout for Pack 3253. Even though the campout was right on camp a lot of work and planning goes into it – especially from Den Leader Crystal. The kids had a wonderful time though and I know that it is an event that Kai really looks forward to. Siblings were allowed to join starting at 4pm so Nora was there playing flashlight tag and sleeping in the tent overnight as well.
This year Den 14 was in charge of the opening flag ceremony and Kai’s name was drawn to be the US flag bearer. He took his role very seriously and it was one of the best executed flag ceremony I’ve ever seen 3rd graders do.
Enjoy the photos!
Yesterday I posted about the pinewood derby build and now for the race. Nora’s car – “Sunburst” took both 3rd place in the sibling race and earned the “Most Dangerous” award. Kai’s entry, “The Batmobile” won the “Shiniest Car” award and did well but didn’t place in the top 3. They also gave out the awards for the Soapbox Derby which was held back in March but the award ceremony was delayed due to a sandstorm. Kai took first place in the Wolf Scout race!
You can check out this link on the Pack3253 website for a time-lapse video of the tracks being put together. Crystal was the event organizer and, as you might expect, the event was well-coordinated.
Here are the last few images of Shaybah to post–a handful of landscapes that turned out better than most.
Seats on the plane to Shaybah were limited so the rule was scouts and leaders only with others being strictly space available. However, in the case where both parents were leaders on the trip scouts’ siblings were allowed to attend as well so Nora didn’t even have to go on the wait list. She had a blast despite being a little bit apart from the scouting activities. She had no problem generating her own entertainment and we had lots of fun scrambling across the dunes.
Here are a few pictures of Nora on the trip. Enjoy!
Last weekend was the Cub Scout trip to Shaybah located in the very empty Rub Al Khali desert. It would have been an unworkable trip by car but was only an hour flight in a comfortable Saudi Aramco aircraft. I’ve seen pictures of the dunes at Shaybah before and always thought that camera angles were used to make them seem extra impressive. If anything, the lack of reference points and monocolor of the sand make it very difficult to capture the size of the dunes. They are as or more impressive than the pictures make them seem.
Last Thursday was the annual Cub Scout Soap Box derby. After a mild (even cold) winter it was probably our first taste of what summer will have in store. A hot, dry, dusty, windy day. Still, it wasn’t unbearable and the event went well. Kai won two of his three races which he was pretty excited about.
You can also check out the event and photo gallery on the Pack 3253 webpage http://pack3253.org.
Here are a few recent pictures ranging from Nora making a painting of our much anticipated pontoon to Den 14 building stilts. Enjoy!
Recently Kai’s Cub Scout Pack celebrated 65 years of scouting at the Blue and Gold banquet. Scouts earning major ranks were recognized so Kai is now officially a Wolf Scout.
You can check out the pack website at http://pack3253.org. I know the webmaster–he does good work.
