Dear Reader,
Larry the Letter Carrier sailed into the Solomon Islands the other day and I began telling him about playing Flying Futsal, and he was like, whoa mate – put it in a letter so I can share with my online friends.
Let me begin by introducing myself, my name is Freddie Flying Fox. I am a team member of the Megabats, a flying futsal team in Solomon Islands. We are a good team and are well liked by the fans as well as the other teams. We are happy to be one of the top flying futsal teams in the division. Last week we played a great game against the Giants from Papua New Guinea.
Let me tell you a little about the Megabats. We have a total of 12 players. One is our goalie, Frieda, she is amazing. She stops so many goals and helps our team win. Most all of our players are about 16 inches long and have a wingspan of about 5 feet! Oh, wait! Did you think I was a fox? Sorry, I am actually a really big bat! That is why our team is called the Megabats. We are nocturnal, so our games are always played at night. Flying Futsal is a well-loved sport, our games will have 10,000 flying fox fans watching us play. When they start doing the wave, the flapping of their wings is like a giant breeze off the ocean.
Being flying mammals, we play in the air! The goal nets set high in the trees. The ball is filled with helium, so it stays in the air as well. The Magabat fans hang from the trees surrounding the playing field. When they start filling the stadium, the squealing, shrieking, and cackling can be heard for miles! They are a rowdy crowd.
Last week’s game was against the Giants. It was a fun game! My friend, Phil, is on the Giants team. It is weird when we play against each other. We are both good players, and competitive. We always shake hands and do our best on the field. We are always happy for whoever wins the game. Phil’s team won the coin toss, so they had the ball first. Phil winged the ball so high in the night sky that all the players had to flap their wings hard to get to the ball. I just barely touched the tip of my wing to the ball, but it was enough to aim it to the goal. Phil tried to stop the ball, but flew right over it! The ball was soaring toward the net. Swoosh – and in the net it went. I was the first to score!! Then Phil scored. The teams were winging the ball back and forth toward one goal then the other. We were in constant motion keeping the ball in constant play. The Magabats scored again, then the Giants. The Magabat fans were shrieking and flapping their wings. The tree tops moved with the force of the wing movement, making the goal nets sway a bit. Caught up in the gust of wind made by the fans, both me and Phil lost our balance and started to nosedive to the ground. We bumped into one another and wrapped our wings around each other – we looked like a giant magabat ball! We hit the ground and rolled and rolled. We were laughing with every rollover. Thankfully neither of us got hurt. And luckily Frieda stopped the Giant’s last goal kick, so the Megabats won the game!
After the game both teams went to the fruit tree grove and enjoyed mangos, bananas, and durians.
Remember, writing is right on! So, write a comment below.
Your friend,
Freddie Flying Fox
Do you remember? Is Freddie a fox or a bat? What game did Freddie play? What team won the game?
Additional tidbits – Solomon Islands are in the South Pacific. They are tropical islands with an average temperature of 77 degrees. Flying foxes are the size described in the story! They are really megabats! They can roost in large colonies from 2,000 – 20,000 bats. They enjoy eating fruit while hanging upside down. Bats will travel over 30 miles to find food. They are good pollinators; research shows flying foxes help in growing durian fruit (a very stinky fruit). Bats are the only mammals in the world that fly. Other mammals might glide through the air, but bats actually flap their wings and fly. If a bat gets hot, they flap their wings to fan themselves and cool down. Futsal is a sport that is played indoors on a hard floor like basketball. Scoring is done by goals, like soccer. In the story, the futsal ball was filled with helium, an odorless, colorless gas, with a low density but, this would not really make the ball float. However, it can make a balloon float.
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