Saturday, July 25th: Making A Difference in Brazil

     We woke up early on this Saturday morning so we could get some breakfast in our stomach and get to the gym we are playing at in time for the beginning of the clinic.

     It was a short 15 minute drive out of the city of Jundiaí to Club Jundiaiense, which is a rural fitness center and is going to be the gym where we play and we work the basketball clinic. When we arrive their was about 50 kids shooting on the two basket gym and havin a good time getting loose. After our coach introduced the players, a group of four USA players took an age group and worked on different skills. I was with the 17 year olds, which was the oldest age group, and we worked on all the basics of dribbling, passing and shooting. The skill level of all these players differed greatly; however, the passion for the game and the enjoyment each kid had during the camp was consistent. Everyone in the gym had a smile on their face, from the kids to the coaches. Afterwards, one of the kids in my age group came up to me and thanked me in English (we asked if they could speak English and they said a little, but all the kids were conversational in English) for coming in and working with them, he seemed so grateful that we would come from USA help them out. That was a very cool moment, as was the massive amount of selfies and pictures they wanted to take with us after the camp!

     After the camp we got a tour of the fitness center, which had a nice weight room with machines and free weights, a cardio section with treadmills and bikes as well as a lap pool. There was also a large room that had about 50 workout bikes in it and as we walked in they started playing some techno Brazilian music and turned the lights on low. So naturally, we all got on the bikes and had a quick 5 minute bike class. The tour was interesting to see that even in Brazil workout regimens are very similar to that in America. 

     Today's games were against the Club Jundiaiense team, so it was a wide range of talents and ages of people who belong to the club. As the women played and won we talked to a lot of the kids who were at the camp as they watched with us. It was fun talking to the young kids and although they grew up in Brazil, they act just like American kids. As the women's game wrapped up we took the floor against the men's team, who had some professionals and some people who still play on this team just for fun. This Club team plays other club teams in city and state tournaments but don't get paid for it. We took a double digit lead early as we were ale to run by the older legs. The other team was able to hold with us for a little bit but we ended up whining by about 20. After the game, not only did we talk to them and enjoy their company but they invited us down to a barbecue in the park. We intermingled with some of the players on the guys team, who all spoke dry good English and the girls talked to the women's team. I enjoyed taking to the other team to learn about their culture and what their everyday is like and how it compares and differs with ours in America. 

     After the barbecue ended, we took a two hour bus ride to the city of San Jose. We checked into our hotel, which had an open middle like an Embassy Suites. I roomed with Sean Martin from Springfield College and we had two balconies looking out onto the rest of the city. We stayed at some awesome hotels but this was the best one yet. 

     The last event for this packed day was going to the mall of San Jose. Walking around the mall and the food court was great people watching and a great way to become acclimated with the culture. It was a busy day and we will be getting up at 6:30 AM to start the road to Rio at 7:00 AM tomorrow!