Thursday, December 21

The camp is packed with palm trees.  It even has a hideaway place by the lagoon where you can lie down in a hammock to relax in the shade of the palm trees . Some people go there to have a nap.  There is only one problem – falling coconuts. Ouch!

Tennis Victory.  There was a tennis tournament scheduled that morning.  I played tennis a few times in my life so I decided to go. I went to play just for fun but ended up winning a guy who has been playing tennis for years.  When I came there I could not remember what the thing you hold in your hand was called in English so I started asking the guy I was playing with (Charlie) “What do you call this thing – rocket, racket? What do you call it when you shoot the ball – serve?”  Charlie was convinced that I didn’t know what tennis was all about.  He wasn’t concentrating and that’s when I started doing all kinds of tricks on him. I was twisting the ball and sending it left and right.  Charlie was very upset when he lost.  I decided to let him continue playing and tell the judges that he won the game.

Hockey Tournament. There were people who wanted to play field hockey in this tropical weather. 25 people came out to play in the burning sun, on the hard ground with plastic sticks.  It was a sweatshop. My team had a couple of good players – one from Serbia who understood a little bit of Russian and one from Canada who only spoke French.  The three of us scored a few times.  The team that won the tournament was all from, guess where … of course, from Canada.