Hard to remember the good times without remembering the first consolidation, at the resort Rio Selva!
Specifically, I remember playing a whole hell lot of beach volleyball. And if I think about that, one image comes to mind: Brandon playing with his wild, long curly hair, his crazy eyes and monkey screams ,the ferocity in his enthusiasm for the game and the six inch rock and roll goattee. If I was la oveja with my beard, he was la cabra loca.
And I also remember some intense moments during one game, the ball went up into the air and I flew at it so extremely hard, I wiped out in the sand so badly, I didn't know if I was going to get up. Everyone yelled and remarked that it was as if the ball exploded into me. FUN! And you know, that's why Peace Corps is such an amazing thing. When we get the chance to relax, everyone all together, we really cut loose.
The other memory of playing volleyball (apart from the endless hours of playing Wall-E ball in Sucre and Cochabamba--one time i was feeling extra brash, and so I challenged five others to play against just me, all alone on the side of the court. it was close, but they had too many people, no delegation of whose ball it was, and so I narrowly won!). The other memory is of playing in Candelaria with a dozen people, and I was doing just fine. But then the ball flew directly at me, I hit it high into the air and it flew towards the stands. Luckily no one was there, but the ball came down directly onto the metal fence. I looked at it, starting to walk towards it, when I heard it hit, and then .... 'sssssss....' was the sound of the air leaking. I couldn't believe what had happened except for the fact that the ball remained exactly where it landed, hanging limply, impaled by the metal wires of the fence.
I had just killed the volleyball! And what could I do? I looked around, made some self-deprecating humour, some "i'm so shocked! DID THIS REALLY HAPPEN?" -type hand gestures. In this way I got all of the bolivian kids to laugh with me. I won't forget that day.
In Cochabamba, the last couple of days there, I discovered there was a pro beach volleyball competition near our hotel. We had been doing things: watching movies at the cinema, going to the park, different things. The first day, I found out about this, and since it was so good playing wall-E ball, I went there. When it was worth the price to get in, then eight of us went back. It was awesome! We were able to see the semi-finals, then I stayed longer to watch. The first game I saw was Brazil being beaten by the US team. All of these players were staying at our hotel, so at different times I saw them come through. It was especially good to talk to the US team, two women, one who I believe had been in the olympics, and to show them how we were representing the US as Peace Corps volunteers there. And of course we were able to help them get around the town, telling them where we liked to go (Brazilian Coffee, the sushi place!).
But more I was hoping the Brazilian women to do good. I got to speak to them a little, one in particular, who was gorgeous--and before the final match I got to speak to her again: "boa sorte!" The americans had beaten them the first time, but they won every game after that, so the finals it was USA and Brazil again. Most people boo-ed the US team, except the 8 of us. I cheered for both teams. And it was a surprise to see so many Brazilians in the stands with us! The game was close, but the other Brazilian girl hurt her leg.
Inspired by this game, my friend Peter was able to retrieve a picture of a party from the year before, where his Brazilian friend- "one of the most gorgeous people I've ever seen"- showed up at the party wearing just leaves from the ground that she had glued to her body!
What a Marvelous country.
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