Journal Entry # 10 Friday, June 29, 2007
Today was our last day in Jaragua du Sol and with Malwee. For this reason,
we were allowed to sleep in and take our sweet time with everything.
We woke up around nine thirty or ten and had about an hour to eat breakfast.
We went over to the Malwee training camp at about eleven thirty and
picked up some of the localkids that worked there on our way. When we
got there we suited up for the last time in the golden Malwee uniforms and
this time went outside to play on a hard surface out there. It was pretty fun
because we just played a giant 14 on 14 scrimmage with a mix of us, the staff,
some youth players, and some of the Malwee first string team. Everyone had
a good time watching some of the older staff pull some jukes and make a fool
out of some of the younger people. After thatwe took one of our favorite youth
players, Andre, out to lunch with us for our last meal at Pavenello's. Then we
went back tothe hotel with Andre and exchanged parting gifts which Brazilians
are apparently veryfond of. We packed everything up and then went down to the
bus which was a little late. We then got on thebus and left for the Airport in a nearby
town. We were running pretty late because the bus driver was behind schedule and then
he got lost on the way to the airport multiple times. As soon as we get there we bolt out of the
bus with our bags and run directly to the check-in but thankfully a flight that was supposed to
connect with the one we were boarding was late so they delayed the flight to wait for the other flight
and us. We bypassed security check and just got on the plane out to San Palo were we would catch
another flight to Rio. When we got there we were supposed to have a three hour layover but because
the other flight was way behind schedule it was over a four hour layover. We all hung around the airport
listening to Ipods, talking, shopping, and playing cards. Once we got on the plane, we were waiting
around and they say over the loud speaker that the flight has been delayed due to fog. So everyone is
sitting around in a completely packed airplane. After a couple of hours we get up and out of our seats to
go talk to one another as well as telling jokes. The flight finally took off after we had been waiting on the
plane for about four hours. The flight was pretty short and relatively painless after all the delays were
over. When we landed and got our bags it was pretty late at night so we got on the bus and left for
the hotel right away. It was a 40 minute bus ride but the seats were so comfortable compared to the airplane seats that nobody cared about sitting down some more. By the time we got to our hotel and checked in it was almost two o'clock in the morning but because we had been sleeping the entire day we decided to order a pizza. The pizza was promptly delivered and was delicious at two o'clock in the morning