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Published: August 31st 2008
Done!
Hard day's workFinished Work!
The final touch to the gruelling schedule of the past couple of months was to hand-deliver all the players to their connecting flights in Miami... without losing any!
Sounds easy enough, unless you have a three hour delay, a surprise fuel landing in Cali and a Bolivian shopkeeper calling the airport policewoman to arrest three of them, just before take-off!
That was before landing in Miami where half the group grabbed their bags and disappeared without so much as a slight gracias!
Beautifully, the rest of the group were delightfully tearful in their farewells... made a lot of the headaches vanish into the Miami hurricane weather.
Mission accomplished.
Wait!
Where is the Canadian boy? the Mexican?
They are on the immigrant passport control side... much longer queue!
Did they make their connections?
After a round of cross country calls, the Delta man confirmed that the Canadian was on his way home.
The Mexican was getting picked up by his father in Miami who was present, cool!
Next was to ensure that the connections that had been missed where fixed and that the 15 year old who was an unaccompanied
Mini Alberto
Cony Fooling around minor got to Chicago in good company.
Done!
I needed a holiday after that!
And...
Knowing me you might guess where I ended up!
But, that is a different lobster story!
For now, I wanted to take you back to the beginning of this group...
This group of 45 has been a much bigger challenge than the first one.
Such a large group, the youngest 15, the oldest 20 years old, with a majority being at the tender age of knowing-it-all 16.
How do you motivate, teach, protect, discipline, and have fun with so many different energies?
They arrived totally out of shape for the most part and were promptly taken to sweat off their jet-lag at the river.
The adventure had begun for them!
An adventure where they had to meet new people, a new language, new culture, food and training methods, were exposed to new freedom and responsibility compared to the relatively sheltered life in the United States.
My adventure was to keep all of these marbles on the table and in a group.
The problem was that it felt like I only had
Push!
Stuck Bus one hand, was blind-folded and the table kept on rocking...
Blisters, muscle aches, lost luggage, disciplinary measures, one appendix removed, Montezuma's revenge reaping havoc, friction with the cultural clashes, just to name a few of the challenges that faced us.
Thankfully, everybody survived and Alberto stepped up to handle the group on the days that I was on nursing/translating/problem resolving duty and could not be present at all times.
The addition of Raul Medeiros, my old friend, to the group helped as he speaks English, meaning that when the group was divided, there was always one who could translate for coach Ciro or to solve other hurdles caused by the language barrier.
Amidst all of these rolling marbles, the group had begun to jell and the problems to dissipate and they were actually starting to play football well!
Objective achieved, with a little extra sweat on our part, but, losing a little weight makes us look younger too!
What an adventure!
What a life!
See you further along a road less travelled... (Great book!)
As always, smiles for miles!
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Nikki
non-member comment
Way to Go Melchiorio!
Balky... love these photos, what a great job you and Alberto have done with these kids... but man, running up the sand dune must have been grueling! Bravo! I guess you are relaxing on some beach somewhere now... we love you! Nikki and Swami