I have to admit seeing Turkmenistan walk into the stadium last night brought a tear to my eyes. It reminded me of my former 5th graders and how much fun we had representing this small country in our school's Olympic celebration. Back in 2006 each class had to pick a country to represent. The other classes were picking regular countries like Canada, Mexico, France, China, Japan, etc. I wanted my kids to really learn about what the Olympic spirit is all about- it's not about gold medals, it's about representing your country- no matter how big or small. So I started researching the little countries- the ones that have lots of consonants in their name. I narrowed my choices to 3 countries and was having a lot of difficulty figuring out which one to pick. So, being slightly superficial I decided I would pick the country with the coolest flag. Turkmenistan won hands down. How can you pass up a flag that has intricate carpet diagrams going down the side..plus their country's emblem is amazing (horses, wheat, and corn.)

I announced that we would be Team Turkmenistan via a staff email and that's when all the fun started. Little did I know that I had stumbled across a country who still used camels as a primary transportation method, major products were melons and carpets, and who had established 19 national holidays to encourage national pride. Not to mention the leader who used the country's money to build ice palaces in the desert and kept a blog about his weekly doctor checkups. This was a country who celebrated Carpet Day, Good Neighbor Day (and you better believe we celebrated in the traditional Turkmenistan way of passing out bread to our neighbors...that was a fun day!), and my favorite Water is a Drop of Gold Day among so many others. My favorite part though was the country's slogan, "Water is a Turkmen's life, a horse is his wings, and a carpet is his soul." How awesome is that!!!

What had started off as a way to "liven" up our school's Olympic celebration had turned into something much bigger. My kids were heartbroken when I told them Turkmenistan wasn't sending any athletes to the winter games. One of my kid's actually said, "Then we have to represent for them. We can be their Olympic team." I almost cried (well...actually I did.) Opening ceremonies rolled around and I carried my Little Country that Could theme even further. Our costumes tied into the idea that this was a little country without a lot of money to spend on things like costumes. So in grand fashion we wore team colors of red and green, and because it was the winter games, I made the kids white scarves to wear. We made Team Turkmenistan pins and flags. To this day one of my favorite quotes from a student came when one of my boy's asked me, "This scarf is pretty itchy. I have to ask. Am I wearing a table cloth?" I laughed. Of course you aren't wearing a tablecloth...it's a sheet I cut up! We were the little darlings of the ceremonies...so many people came up to ask us about our country and why we picked it. My kids ended up winning the gold medal in floor hockey...something we wrote the Turkmenistan embassy about (we thought they should know.) And we kicked it at the foods festival- melons and bread for all.

So yes, last night when Turkmenistan walked in, I started cheering...and you know what? I'm pretty sure some of my former students did the same!