Embassy Kids Day: The Dog Show

On Friday Mom, Damon, Maddie, and I woke up early and took a taxi over to the U.S. Embassy where Dad works. Dad would have come with us to work that day, but he decided to stay home because he wasn't feeling very well. It was “Kid's Day” at the Embassy and Mom signed me up so that I could meet some new people and she thought it would be fun, for a change, compared to sitting around the house all day! Mom, Maddie, and Damon came because Maddie and Damon are now in High School so they were old enough to be helpers. The Kid's Day would take almost all day, so we started right away when all the kids were gathered in the room with an orientation of what we would do today. I was sitting next to a little girl a couple years younger than me that was the daughter of one of the Nurses in my Dad's office, we had offered her to walk down with us. She didn't speak much English, mostly Spanish, so it was a little hard to communicate with her sometimes. But I was very grateful that she spoke the slightest bit of English because she speaks way better English than I speak Spanish! The first thing we did after the orientation was split into groups, Kindergarden-3rd Grade and 4^th Grade-8^th Grade, that was the group I joined along with Damon being a helper. Mom and Maddie were assigned being helpers for the younger group. The first activity my group went to was the News Room. It was a lot of fun seeing what it was like to try and control the sound and be interviewed while being videod. It was a lot of fun. Right when we first started going around to the different stations a girl introduced herself as Gabi to me. We became quite good friends as the day went on, as I knew no one else there. Gabi had been in Colombia with the Embassy for 3 years and was staying another 3 years, so obviously she speaks quite good Spanish! As the day went on and we went to more and more stations. We finally went to the one that I found I like the best. Both groups joined together for the first time since this morning and we all sat in a line. Snacks were handed out as it was almost lunch time and we were all very hungry! We sat in the court yard talking for a couple minutes when finally about 7 men each with a dog, started walking around. Every once in a while they stopped, the dogs automatically stopping along side the men. All the Dogs were German Shepherds, except 2. One of the 2 was a Golden Retriever and the other, upon my friend asking in Spanish in the end, was a mixed German Shepherd and Golden Retriever. We all quieted down and the fun began! The men brought out 3 little table things, and a dog layed on top of each of them. One of the dogs jumped over the tables with the dogs on top of them, all the the tables in a row. Everyone clapped and a couple more dogs went, when it was the Golden Retriever's turn he started running towards them but just when we thought he was about to jump, he arched his back downwards and crawled underneath each one of them, everyone laughed and clapped. We all could tell by the level off energy and the looks of the dog that it was a bit older then the others and near the retiring age. The men leashed up the dogs once again marched around one last time and then for the grand finale they brought out 3 hoops connected to a stick making them stand about 3 feet off the ground. Next some of the guys brought out some matches and lit them on fire, we all widened our eyes in anticipation of what we knew was coming! The owner of a German Shepard unleashed his dog and said a command pointing towards the 3 lined up hoops. The dog took off at a run and jumped perfectly through all three flaming rings one after another! A couple more dogs took their turns and the occasional dog would shy away from one of the rings, the master then making the dog stop and backtrack to take on the hoop again, then normally clearing it after that try. The men cleared the courtyard again and then took and bow. We all cheered and then got herded towards the next event of the day!

By: Elena