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Published: December 13th 2005
Hello all.
Well by now you are all wondering how Bart's fight went. As some of you already know, he lost to China. But let me tell you this, that kid shook up this competition like no one else has! It was definetely onve of the most exciting moments of this tournement. Bart took the fight right to the Chinese fighter! He went at him full speed with confidence, power and skill. The whole stadium was cheering for Bart. It was clear that everyone was shocked at the level of skill and agression from this kid from Canada that no one had ever heard of before. With about six seconds left in the round the Chinese fighter caught Bart with a lucky right and sent Bart to the mat. He immediately got up and put his hands up to show the ref that he was ok. They began a staning 8 count and with 2 seconds left on the clock the ref, for some insane reason, thought Bart was not fit to continue and called the fight. Everyone in the stadium was shocked and sent a rain of boo's down on the ref even the head judge looked confused at what the ref had done. But when Bart left the mat everyone cheered for him. Clearly the other teams and the fans were impressed.
This is something we deal with as Canadians in this sport. When we enter this arena we are not given any respect as fighters. Respect is given to the Chinese, Russian an a few other countries but there is none afforded us. I don't mean to sound like we have sour grapes about this because we do not. We need to earn respect as Sanshou competitors. What Bart did earned us respect that night and we are filled with pride! When we come back to the 2007 Worlds in Beijing people will be on the look out for him and they will know what we are capable of as a team. We are all so proud of him and we know you are too. People from other countries have approached us in the two days since his fight to tell us how amazing they think he was. My title of this posting is how I felt when Bart fought. I kept hearing Muhammed Ali saying "I shook up the world" in my head.
We're excited to show you all the fight so you can see for yourself how well he did. This kid from Canada, of all places, had the Chinese fighter and Coaches very nervous. The fighter kept looking at his corner for direction and the coaches were clearly worried.
Other fights: Alana fought the UK but was not successfull. Shane will be fighting our friends from Iran tomorrow morning. We have made good friends with their team. They are gracious competitors. Win or lose.
Notes on Hanoi: The Pho, and all the food, is very tastey! We haven't experimented with the street food much but the dishes we've had in restaurants are very good. This country also seems to have an love affair with cucumbers! They're everywhere, in every dish. I think this may be because they are a cheap easy crop to grow.
This brings me to life in Hanoi and Vietnam and I'd like to say a few things about that. In Hanoi a decent monthly salary is $200 US. That's about $2,400 a year. Most people do not even manage this. The poverty here can be shocking at times. It makes me think of how fortunate we are in Canada. Despite their poverty, the pollution, the communist government, the Vietnamese people have an amazing spirit. They are kind, polite, always ready with a smile and excited to make friends with us. When Ayron and I were on our tour of the country side we asked our guide if people were happy under communism. Our guide simply replied that the people were happy that they got to choose their own destiny. I get the feeling that communisim provided stability for the people in a time of chaos, but I really believe that the Vietnamese people are too indepedant for communism.
Other notes: Yesterday we went to see Uncle Ho. It was pretty serious business. After a series of security checks, which included metal detectors, random searches and leaving your belongings with a security desk, we were ushered into the building where Uncle Ho rests. We were told to walk two by two, remain quiet and have our hands at our sides at all times. In the tomb there are four very serious looking guards with shiney AK47s making sure there is no funny business going on. As the line moves you only get about a minute in the room with Uncle Ho's body. I'm very happy we went to see this. Uncle Ho is still the hero of these people and they have great respect for him. We noted that there were a lot more Vietnamese people there than tourists. This was not a tourist trap, it was a serious place of worship for their hero.
The pollution here is just about all I can take. Some days it feels like someone has poured a bottle of javex down my throat. I'd give just about anything for 10 minutes of clean B.C. air!! Someone please send me some!
The shopping has been great too. Plenty of interesting things at very good prices. I suck at haggeling though. Like I really suck at it! I can't bring myself to drive the prices down even further. Things are already so cheap. What does it matter to me if I could get a dollar off? I know they need it more than I do. I feel two ways about this though. I do feel like it is just a dollar and what do I care. But I also know that bargening is a part of the culture and that if you don't do it, it can open up the door for price gouging. It is a dilema I'm not dealing well with.
All right. I'm off. Love to all (espically those kitties).
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Mom,dad,tinka,stas
non-member comment
to bart
hi bart.we got the news from the tournament in hanoi that you were fighting. we are very sorry that you lost but we are very proud of you.we are with you with all our hearts.we love you very much.for us, you being in this world chempionship was an extremely big event.it was your first experience in this kind of competition and we believe that it is not the last. there is many more in your future. love mom,dad,tinka and stas. ps. please forward it to bart.