Justin Bieber seriously injured while not playing Beach Rugby

December 11-12, 2010

Sometimes in life, hard work goes unnoticed and worse, unappreciated. This weekend, that was
not the case.

We left around 11pm-ish Friday night to head to Manta for the Beach Rugby Tournament. Half of the bus belonged to us and the other half belonged to the other Cuenca rugby team. Like always, I slept for most of the ride.

Around 7 am at our hostel with a beach front view! Awesome! The weather was a little overcast and the heat of the day had not yet arrived.

While everyone got settled in I went in search of some fruit for snacks in between games. Like most things here, it turned into an adventure.. One of the Christians on the team joined me for the walk. The streets were pretty empty of cars and traffic which is not too strange for a Saturday morning. We followed the directions of walking 6 blocks and turning left away from the beach. When we did so, I found were all the people in Manta were.
The streets were lined with tent and other type of temporary store fronts selling everything. The scene reminded me a lot of the Italian market in Philadelphia but with wayyyyyy more people and cars and bicycle venders. Of course not expecting to find this treasure I did not have my camera. Within seconds we found a banana vender and then a orange vender. The orange vender tried to give us his worst oranges but we were having none of that and made him empty the bag he had filled and start over. In total I was nearly run over 6 times and most near misses were from bicyclists.

Around 10 am we all piled back into the bus to head to Tarqui beach where the tournament was being held.

The brackets were decided and one of the teams in our bracket was the Quito team that won the 7’s tournament this past weekend. It was not going to be an easy road if we were to win.
The first game we played was a bit lopsided in our favor. The next two games were barely won, by a margin of 4 points in one game and against the Quito team we won by 2.
We were all ecstatic to make it to the finals which happen the next day!




Before heading back to the hostal for some much needed food, we all went for a swim in the ocean. The water was a perfect temperature and there were some good waves. We even got to see some surfers in action.

My night was spent hanging out with some other PCVs who were in town for the weekend. We ate seafood at a beach shack and later sipped some beers on the beach.
Sunday…
The team was all warmed up and ready to go. Their energy and focus was clear, they had to win.

The Nomads are a much taller team, each one of their players had a good few inches on the players on my team. They also have a few foreigners on their team (French, English and American) who grew up with rugby.

The Nomads were the first score but they missed point after. Shortly after the Aguila’s answered back and made the extra points. 7-5
Late in the last half with the score tied 12-12 one of my players was sent to the sin bin for “being too rough” for two minutes with only a minute left. This was not good. The

Aguilas were visibly tired but needed to hang on for just another minute.
Sure enough they held out! There was some confusion on how to play out the game out. Most people wanted to do overtime/sudden death. However, the rule book states that each player on each team (only using the players that were last on the field) will have the opportunity to kick an extra point. The team who makes more of these kicks wins. Basically a hockey style shoot out. This was a surprise to everyone. But I had confidence because our best kickers were out on the field. But it was going to be tough due to the rather fast crossing wind.

The Nomads were up first and their kick was off. Christian V, was up for the Aguilas and his kick was good. The Nomads answered back with a good kick. Our next kicker missed and so did the Nomads’. Then Juan barely squeezed one through the uprights making it 2-1. The Nomads’ next kicker made it, shit, 2-2. It all came down to our last kicker Christian C. If he made this, the Aguilas would be champions. If he missed it, well, no one was really sure what would happen.

He lined up for the kick and struck the ball well sending the sand under the ball in the air. End of end the ball split the uprights. I could not believe. Christian fell to his knees and the Aguilas rushed to join him in celebration! Camera men were everywhere snapping shots, this was the moment the Aguilas had been training so hard for and it was finally here.

As each one of them received their gold Ecuadorian Olympic medal, I could see the pride in each one of their eyes.




These days, I will never forget.

December 4th, 2010
We packed the 24 passenger bus full to capacity with people and rugby gear. The excitement was evident despite it being 11pm and a 7 hour bus ride waiting for us in the near future. This was my first game with the Aguilas Rugby Club of the University of Azuay.
We finally arrived at the field in Quito at 10:30 am ready to go! Rugby is usually played with 15 people on a side; however this was a 7’s tournament. Most teams entered two teams in the tournament and so did we.

I was very nervous because this was my first game ever as a coach. The guys on the team had put in a lot of work over the last few months and I wanted it to show on the field. Sure enough it did, the first team we played suffered a 29-0 loss at the hands of the Aguilas. The rest of the day had its wins and losses for our team. Overall the Aguilas took third place which is really good! The team has only been around two years; where as some of the other teams have players who have played their whole lives.

I was proud of the guys and how they played. But I was even more proud when one of the referees came up and asked if we played a lot of 7’s. I told him we did a lot of work to prepare for this tournament and they have worked very hard. He told me the hard work showed and that the team looked much better than when he last saw them play a year ago. I felt like a proud father.



The Aguilas were happy with the day as they should have been, but it was clear that they want to win it next year!
This coming weekend we are off to Manta for a 5’s tournament on the beach. Should be interesting, because I have never seen rugby played on the sand before! Some other PCVs are coming down for the weekend as well.

Sunday December 5th, 2010
I had to leave Quito the night before to arrive in Baños in time for the inauguration of the Home for the Elderly "Dr. Luis Yunga." Brad Mattan, the previous PCV in Baños helped secure a grant which provided significant funding to this home.
The event had a large attendance and the Bishop Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera was there as well. Several moving speeches were given and the elderly even prepared a dance routine. The ceremony was concluded with the cementing of a cross and two doves to the top of building. I took about 200 some pictures but do to time restraints and internet connection (and your time) I have only included the top few.






Monday December 6th, 2010
Today was my first day of giving my nutrition charla to elementary school kids. The school is in the same area where Isabel has her plot of land, Nero. Don Iban was nice enough to give me a ride out to the school. He insisted that I do not wear my seatbelt. We will not need those since we are not driving in the city.
I sighed and accepted the fact that I would never feel safe in an automobile here.
We arrived at the school and I must say it was very nice. I hadn’t set my hopes to high though, because it is in an impoverished area. I spoke with the head master and he gave me a quick tour of the grounds. I was to begin with the first grade glass.
I am very happy the markers were washable. The kids had a blast drawing vegetables, fruit and what healthy person looks like. They also had a lot of fun drawing on me and my clothes.
It was interesting to see the dynamics of the class, the boys were all very involved and the girls were very shy. Some spent the entire hour just staring at the marker and paper. No matter how much I tried they would not draw anything.
The second grade class had a lot fewer kids, but was much harder to handle. They were much happier running around punching each other and drawing shapes on their faces. Some even ran out of the classroom. I had officially lost control of the class after about 5 minutes. So

I decided to try a new teaching method. No more mister nice guy. You will draw fruits and vegetables and like it! Well. I was not that harsh, but I definitely showed signs of agitation and they could sense it.
They finally listened to the frustrated gringo and sat down. Then they had some fun drawing and writing their names after awhile.

It is amazing what a one year difference can have.

Since there is no real bus system I had to hitch a ride back to Baños in a camioneta (truck). The unfortunate thing with hitching a ride is you never get exactly where you want to go. At the end of the ride I still had a good 2 mile walk.

I enjoyed it