Go back.. Day 2 May 9, 2012

After a long day at the clinic and walking around the little town we are in, we decided to sit around at the jacuzzi and just relax for a little bit before bed. As we are all sitting, talking about how Brazil is basically heaven and nothing can get better than being here, we see a light come up over the mountain top. Not knowing exactly what it is we just kept on talking about Brazil and being here, the kids, how we are "famous" to them, and the feeling it gives us every time a kid runs up to you and asks for your autograph. We finally started to realize what was trying to peak over, the moon. Only in Brazil can you watch the moon rise over a picture perfect mountain top while looking at the millions of stars in the sky. That is how we ended Day 2 as a team.

Day 3 May 10, 2012

As the alarms go off at 5:21 am (Brazil time), we got up to go watch the sun rise, which was said to rise at 5:56 am (Brazil time). We all walked around to various spots to try to find the best view of the sun coming up over the mountains. After walking up a bouncing bridge to a tree fort to see the view, we realized the fog was overtaking the little town below. Looking around all you could see was the mountains peaking over the town and through the fog. Finally finding the perfect spot to see the sun rise, we waited and waited to see the sun come up. 6:30 am rolls around and still nothing, just a little bit of light coming up. It's here, it's 6:40 am and the sun is coming up. Nope! Wrong answer! A cloud comes across the mountain top to cover where the sun is just about to rise. Laughing and giggling about the situation, we waited a little longer. At 7:00 am it finally appeared over the mountain top and above the cloud. Erie's sunrise is absolutely beautiful, top 3 in the world, but being in Brazil and standing there, looking at the fog over the town and the picture perfect mountain tops, the sunrise was something you can't even put into words. It is something you have to see for yourself. BEAUTIFUL!

Later on in the day..

Not having any idea what, where, or even who we are going to play today, we pull up to a basketball court. To the right of us it is beat up and ragged. This is exactly what we were thinking it was going to be like, so we just kind of shrugged our shoulders and got excited to play, but it wasn't the court we were actually going to play on. No one looked to the left to see the gated in area. We pulled in to the place and everything was beautiful. There was a huge pool area to the right that was absolutely beautiful. Right next to that were their outdoor basketball / soccer courts. We go to walk into the court and as we walk in little kids are smiling and waving at us and running up to us. Once again the feeling is absolutely amazing. You would never expect this at home and when we come here we are celebrities. We walked into the court and it was a pretty sweet gym, something we were not expecting at all. All eyes on us warming up and little kids running up to us on the court we had to try to get ready to play our first game. The buzzer goes off and the game is about to start, but first we make a trade with the team. We each give each other a gift from our country / school. Something we have never done in America. It was a different, but cool experience. Game started and we ran up and down the floor playing 4, 10 minute quarters at a faster pace than we are used to. The Brazilian team we played was very scrappy, but extremely fun. After we finally got into our own "Behrend groove," we started to build the lead. Game over and we win 88-55. After we all shook hands and said "good game," the other team wanted to trade jerseys and t-shirts with us. It was an awesome feeling knowing another team wanted our "Behrend gear." Once again, an experience we never expected, but loved every second of it.

An hour and a half drive later, we get to dinner. We went to the same place as last night and the food was phenomenal again. After dinner, we all went back to our hotel rooms and showered and washed our jerseys as best we could. Then we loaded back up on the bus at 7:45 pm (Brazil time). We drove back down to the little town where we had dinner to go to an indoor soccer game. Well, somewhat like soccer, but with a smaller ball and only four people and a goalie playing at a time. We walk into the game and the entire town was there. The second we walk in people started whistling at us and running up to us. We are famous. To these people and these kids, we are famous and its a feeling we cannot describe. The soccer game was definitely an awesome experience. As we leave the soccer game more kids run up to us and ask to take pictures with us. Now back on the bus and finally able to catch our breaths, we make it back to the hotel. Now its down time, time to relax and get ready for another clinic with kids tomorrow, a game and a four hour bus ride to the next city. I will leave you with this. Pictures say a thousand words, but a thousand pictures cannot describe Brazil, this experience is so surreal yet amazing!

Chao,

Kimmy Pol