Sunday, June 26, 2011

A Hockey Story











Hockey in the streets of Rocinha----

I would love to put more fotos here of the kids but my connection is so slow that it takes about 10 minutes for each one to load..my internet connection is not so good, at least today..

I had the oportunity to go and live in Canada for a bit and I grew to love hockey. Its a very special sport. Canadians passion for hockey is much like what Brazilians have for football (soccer). When I returned to the favela, I brought some hockey sticks back as I thought it would be fun to teach a little street hockey to the kids. Kids are very open minded here and after seeing the Olympic games here on the televisions in the favela, I knew people would like my idea.

I started getting interest after walking through the favela few times just with a stick and ball. Kids would come to me and ask to "try". So, I would give them the stick and show them how to hold it and how to use the ball. They enjoyed it but everytime I would pass by this area the kids would ask about hockey and the sticks and when they could play. I told them that I needed to get more sticks and that I would try to get some.

I have 5 hockey sticks and now about 70 street hockey balls thanks to one visitor from New Zealand, RICHARD HARRI. He has visited my favela twice and this last time he returned with a bag full of these balls. Now I have to get sticks and nets..I decided to post these fotos also to thank the person who Richard purchased these balls from. They will be put to good use as soon as we can get these kids sticks.

I will let you know how it turns out..