We're baack!! 2 days in a row...can you believe it?!

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CRICKET, GAME #2 (Netherlands vs. South Africa)
Ahhhh(sigh of happiness at being able to sit down and relax!)….just got home from our second cricket match ever!

There was a rain delay (it actually wasn’t currently raining, but they couldn’t play until the field was dry enough to pass a very official inspection) until noon, but once again we were out standing in the stands by 7am. Until the night before the first game it hadn't rained hard here for at least a month, then in rained nearly all day yesterday and into the night—I’m convinced that the Scotts brought it with them! (For those of you who’ve been to the Scottish/Irish Highlands festival in Estes I’m SURE you know what I mean =)!)

(warning: Lauren is about to get on her soapbox for the next paragraph....I need to vent!)
Anyhow, there was a young man who is in a wheel chair there today with his parents. They’ve flown here from Europe and bought tickets that I know cost at least $70 U.S. for each person per game (that’s a minimum of $1200 total) plus airfare, hotel costs, etc. in order to be here at these ‘international’ games. They were told that their tickets were for seats that are wheelchair accessible, but arrived to find a large flight of stairs as the only access to the base of the stand, then another flight of stairs going into the stand, and no hope of space for a chair had someone managed to get it up there. So on the map of the stadium layout they have the next stands over marked with the universal sign for ‘wheelchair accessible.’ So logically, the parents thought that they would be able to be seated these stands instead. (I first noticed the family at Wednesday’s game, sitting - with the parents on the ground - in a small grass area between 2 of the stands, and at the time kind of wondered what was going on but didn’t put things together until today.) They had tried to talk to people about this on Wed. but to no avail. They were told “but your tickets say stand ‘F’ and that’s stand ‘B’ -- you can’t sit there.” (As if they were incapable of reading their tickets!)Then I noticed them again today, and towards the start of the game I noticed a supervisor from one stand go over there, and some other people as well, and was later filled in when I asked about the situation. I was told that ‘someone was looking into it.’ Over lunch I told Matt about it, so we went over after we ate to talk to them and see if it had been resolved, and if not if there was something we could do. No one had ever gotten back to them. So here they are, having come all this way and having bought good tickets, and they’re sitting/standing in the glaring sunlight not even in a designated viewing area. They had been turned down immediately, with people telling them that they had no idea what they were talking about, that there were no handicap accessible seats. They then showed the stadium workers the map they were given with their tickets, and were told they still couldn’t go to the supposedly ‘accessible’ stands (that at least had an access ramp and no one sitting in the whole front row), because he’d ‘block the aisle’ and that wasn’t allowed. I understand why the aisle isn’t supposed to be partially blocked, but it seems like there needs to be at least some respect and truly listening to the situation and an honest effort to find a reasonable solution. But they hadn’t been given any of those things. Grrrrrrrrr. Apparantly someone thought to put in a ramp but no one thought to leave out some chairs to make room for someone in a wheel chair to sit. Anyhow, I’ll stop now…it just seems so terrible and wrong, anytime, but especially at what’s supposed to be such a huge international event. At the least I think someone needs to be giving them their money back and letting them pay for the cheap ‘grass tickets’ that everyone else who was sitting on the ground in the sun (or rain) had paid for. Right before we left they had just been allowed to move into the stands, but security was on their radios so we're not sure if it lasted. At least we tried. (Aaaand, I am now stepping off my soapbox)


On a brighter note (well, at least a partially brighter note), despite how tiring it has been to work at these games it’s been soooo fun and refreshing to meet so many new and different people! Matt and I were just talking and it struck us that in the 16 hours we’ve spent working at the cricket games, we have each been able to talk to more people who’ve been curious about where we are from and what we're doing here than the total of such inquiries by locals during the ENTIRE 7 MONTHS we’ve lived here. It was sad though when we realized that part of why it made us so happy to talk to people at the games is because it has become so unusual for us to have people treat us with genuine respect and actually want to know something about us instead of automatically treating us rudely or indifferently because we’re ‘white’. And of course the respect and curiosity is mutual…alas, the “cultural exchange” I’ve been craving! 😊 In fact, every single Dutch fan I talked to today personally knows at least one of the players on the Netherlands team! One of them gave me this great hat from Holland (that I couldn’t wear at the game due to my lovely orange baseball hat being a "uniform requirement!"--but I might have to sport it tonight and go to the ‘Holland Village’ that’s been erected for the week somewhere in town)! Overall, the games have been a lot of fun so far and getting to meet fans from around the world is great! I noticed one man who seemed to be cheering for both teams, so I asked him where he was from. "Well," he said, "I'm from Holland but I live in South Africa. So either way, I win today!!" What a great way to look at it! =) Lots of people made me smile today, and Matt too! Maybe he'll write soon, I'm sure he's got some stories to tell.

Alright, that’s all for now. I’m feeling a nap coming on. Matt’s currently lying on the couch, yelling angrily at the television(Notre Dame game) ..... March Madness has begun, and it seems to be living up to it’s name! =)

Miss you all! Lots of love,
Lauren and Matt

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