the lost blog...

I wrote this ages ago, and now that we have internet at home, I can post it.

Did I just write "internet at home"? WOO HOO!!!!



Thursday September 14, 2006

Well, last Tuesday Sam was invited to be the batboy for the Canadian Olympic baseball team, in their final game in the Americas Tournament, against Nicaragua (try to fit that on the front of a baseball jersey…). Steve and I decided that would be a legitimate excuse to skip school – he has years and years more of school, but only one chance to spend a morning in the dugout with these guys, so off we went.

Sam and I went with a few other Canadians from the embassy (including a couple of other batboys) to find a tiny little town somewhere south of Havana, on the Ocho Via (the 8-lane national highway built by the Soviets, meant to run the length of Cuba, but only made it half way – as far as they got when the Soviet Union crumbled). The Ocho Via, once you are on it, is an impressive highway – smooth, almost traffic-free, and completely unsigned. No signs to get on it, and no signs on the exit ramps to figure out where to get off for your destination. You have to hope for the best, watch the map, and count the overpasses. I assumed (wrongly) that the lack of signs was to confuse any potential invading forces. But no, it is because the metal used to make the signs is a great building material, and apparently, if you to into the right houses, you might find an ancient fridge with a side panel reading “Santiago” or “Las Tunas”.

So, we did manage to find the little town, and the baseball stadium (always one of the easiest structures to find in a Cuban town, especially at night, because of the lights. The game was fun, Sam had a great time (photos to come at some point in the future), the Canadians won the game, and we got to hear the play-by-play from the Nicaraguan sportscasters up above us in the stands. No sign of any Canadian broadcasters, though…

And we thought…

“What could be cooler than being the batboy for the Canadian Olympic baseball team?”

Stay tuned to find out…



…



How about getting to meet Kofi Annan?

All of the kids at Sam’s school (no parents, boo hoo…) were invited to go and meet with Kofi Annan while he was here for the non-aligned states thingey…