THE TRIP FROM GARANHUNS TO ARAUÁ
ok it was a VERY long trip and week.. for starters, we had serious bus problems.. soon after the trip started, one of the wires that sends juice the windshield wipers was frayed and came loose.. every 30-45 minutes theyd come undone and we had to stop and reconnect them.. things became unraveled, literally, when we blew a tire and it was just shredded to pieces.. we pulled over to the side of the road to change it, only to discover the jack did not work.. luckily, a truck driver that had pulled over had one in working condintion and lent it to us.. he was really nice about it, he waited almost 45 minutes as we changed it and refused to take money from us for his trouble.. "we are all on the road, and one day i may need your help", is what he said and then drove off.. the kids enjoyed the fact that a bus for an all girls school pulled over and their driver helped us.. you take one bus with 60 boys ranging in ages from 11-17, and take another one filled with about 50 girls ranging in ages from 13-19, and you get quite the event.. we got the spare on, but it was bald.. we had to drive slow into the next town to get a new tire.. while we waited for the new tire, we got lunch.. this whole process delayed us about 5 hours.. we got in to arauá alot later than we had planned, but at least we made it to arauá, in the state of sergipe..
THE TOWN OF ARAUÁ
think small... imagine a one mule town.. now, imagine a town smaller than that.. the only place with internet access was city hall.. not much to do in this town.. i like small towns, but this was too much.. everything stops after about 8PM.. it got so bad we got away two nights after the games were done.. the first place we visited was estância, a bit bigger than arauá but smaller than garanhuns.. we got the kids pizza.. the second trip we made was to a town called boquim, and i really liked this place.. small, but it still had signs of life.. there was a plaza in the center full of girls looking for guys, and guys looking for girls.. the players really enjoyed it..
THE TOURNEY IN ARAUÁ
the tourney was very competitive.. there really wasnt a bad team there.. the teams came from various states here in the northeast: bahia, sergipe, alagoas, and us, pernambuco.. all the teams had ups and downs, but in the end, all classified for the finals.. the youngest group lost in the first games of the semi finals on an own goal.. the middle group lost on penalties.. the older kids made it to the finals, but lost on penalties as well, and we ended up with a second place trophy.. all the other coaches came over to tell us ours was the most organized, most professional looking group, and many offered players to train with us.. in the future we are going to hold our own tournament here in garanhuns and many will bring their teams to participate in it
BACK TO GARANHUNS
if the road to arauá was difficult, the road back to garanhuns was worse.. this time the other tire blew.. we got it patched up, but about 45 minutes later, it blew out AGAIN.. we decided to drive to aracaju, a beach in sergipe.. we tired to find a hotel for the night, but due to an event, most everything was booked.. at 4 in the morning we finally found a hotel where we could get 10 rooms and cram the kids in.. the next day while we got the tires fixed the kids went to the beach.. it was the first time a few of them had ever been to the beach and they really enjoyed themselves..
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