We arrived at the airport to be greeted by meteorological delays as fog grounded all flights, however if we had "Internet Brains" this would not be a problem (credit to Michael Gardner when this idea gets off the ground...word play). We eventually got our flight to Porto Alegre only for BQB to have cancelled our flights three weeks previous, however they did promise us accommodation and transport in Buenos Aires for the inconvenience before sending us to Montevideo. We arrived in Buenos Aires to nothing, apart from some very helpful information services girls who talked about the World Cup and England with us. We got to Montevideo extremely tired and embarked on a two day tour that pretty much covered all of Uruguay. We saw everything we needed to, Diego Forlan's house, Diego Forlan's former team and where the national teams train. We saw a lot of fields, but fear not "No problem, Uruguay". On the way home we had the same problem as our flight home had been cancelled, but this time BQB came through so we got a night in Argentina which was not on the list, but we took it anyway. In among all of this we collected a visa which secures us in Curitiba until September 2015.
We had a busy spell on the build site as top work from the volunteers, Steve and Colin especially, means the block work is completed. It has been tough, but we did it and now the EMC Education Centre is taking shape.
Football projects continue to be delivered, even though we have lost a lot of great volunteers, but we keep going and the reason why is children like Pedro. He is 9 years old, loves football and school. His back story...he has six brothers, his mother looks after them as best she can as his father was murdered. We were able to give him new football boots, t shirt and a jacket thanks to donations from Lionsraw volunteers on the legacy tour and he was over the moon. He ran over and gave each of us a big hug and its a really great feeling to be in the position we are.
Its great to see Emerson (14 years old, comes from a poor family) helping us deliver the sessions as well as he was 'juiz' for the youngest age group showing responsibility and maturity.
The English lessons continue to keep going at the schools and the local Prefeitura de Curitiba printed some banners that show off the school partnership with Newcastle schools. They were designed by local designers who saw the project on national TV.
Inevitably life turns towards the end of our time in Curitiba and we think of some ideas we can implement before we leave. More on that as it develops in our "Internet Brain"...
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