Just a little note...

Well, it’s almost game time. What a week (almost) it has been. From canoeing down a river/stream and swimming in the Atlantic with nothing in sight but sea and sand for miles, and from basquing in the glow of the Brazilian sun at the Barra Beach (pronounced Baja) and shopping in the market place; Brazil is an amazing country.

This will be a brief post that will simply touch the surface of what happened in the past five days. For those of you waiting for the photos…I’m SO SORRY! The internet on board the ship is giving me serious problems when it comes to uploading photos…I just don’t get it. But please, I’m still hoping I’ll be able to upload them after the game tonight in a café by the ship before we have to set sail for South Africa.

Funny story, on Friday night I took a walk to the Bank to take some money out with my ATM card. I wrongly assumed that the HSBC bank would be a safe choice because they are all over the States. I put my card in the machine…and the screen went black. I got nothing, and the machine got my card. I picked up the help phone that was there and thankfully ended up with a woman that spoke a bit of English. After explaining my situation in the simplest of forms to her, she informed me that no one was available to send over to get my card back and that I could come back on Monday and it would be no problem to get it then. I kindly explained that I was leaving for AFRICA on Sunday…still, nothing. I went back on Saturday morning to check my luck one more time. I was connected with a gentleman that spoke perfect English and claimed he was going to do all he could to help me. The question I was asked several times by both was if I was an HSBC customer….I’m not. Once again, there was no one around to get my card for me. I’m sure if I was an HSBC customer, they would have had someone over there in a jippy-split second…but no. Thankfully I have an amazing bank at home that is working closely with me and mom to get a card in the mail and make it to me in South Africa.

Well, I’ve gottta run! GO BRAZIL!!!!!!!