Day 30- Quarta 15/6/11

I had my induction for my second placement today, and I am excited to start tomorrow! The owner used to be a professional soccer player here in Brazil and he started up this club to give poor people the chance to play with a good program. The program consists of coaching soccer and also training. Projects abroad went and purchased some shin guards, blue socks, and a white shirt for my attire. I am beyond excited to be able to wear soccer socks as crazy as that may seem. The fields consist of mostly dirt with a few small patches of grass. I will be working with one other volunteer and he has enjoyed the placement a lot. The night before he sets up drills and uses Google translate to demonstrate what he is trying to convey. It is an exciting concept of us being coaches and players. Even though the ground is mostly dirt, I could not be more excited to be on a flat surface. I absolutely love the beach, but coming back to a surface where I am comfortable playing at will be most enjoyable. I get the best of both worlds, I could not ask for more. For beach soccer I can honestly say that I feel a huge improvement in my play. I even took a player on down the line today and it shocked me, but I just went for it. I have become pretty comfortable with the sand and I think it helps that I am not being as shy as well as not feeling pity for every time someone gets an injury. I have learned that these boys watch soccer as their main sport, so faking injuries is something that they are accustomed to. I really think that there should be some sort of rule against faking injuries because seeing the impact on how these boys react at my placement just proves that these soccer players are their role models.

Other than that… today was a weird day. I will just leave it at that. Boa noite.

"Nobody says you must laugh, but a sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the day"