Chuva – Rain - Regen

It was a rest-day today in the Confederations Cup. No games in Brazil, no direct preparations for a match-day in Recife. And as a consequence only a few volunteers in the Media Centre, to support less than 10 journalists and photographers.

I left home at 7am. It rained all night, quite some water was on the streets already. I walked again to “my” train-station to enter a train which was totally packed with people. 7am is really a bad time to drive from Prazeres to the Centre of Recife. Upon arrival in Rodoviaria I took my time for a good cup of coffee before I entered the Volunteer Centre. Unfortunately my Dutch friend Peter left home today, will try to meet him soon again.

Upon arrival at the Media Centre I first had another interview with Radio Sunshine. The sound quality of the earlier interview was insufficient. Today we tried several ways to get to an acceptable sound, finally we found a landline which enabled us to execute that interview. For all who are interested; listen next Monday, June 24, at about 07:50am to Radio Sunshine for a detailed feedback about my experiences in Recife!

I tried to make a personnel planning for our 2 last real working days. Out of all shift schedules I created an overview to get an insight on who was allocated with which times. Strange to establish a shift starting at 2pm when there is a match starting at 4pm. Out of the 63 volunteers which should be working as a Media Volunteer we found about 10 names of people we never had seen thus far. Did they ever show up? Did they say that they could not join (from one volunteer I know that he unfortunately was not able to join)? Did they collect their uniform and didn’t appear anymore? I really don’t know. But what I know is that this is very bad for all the other volunteers who were not allocated to this Confed Cup. I know many people who did apply and didn’t get a chance to support this event. For sure an issue to be looked at for next year. And hopefully these people are not going to be interviewed or selected for the Worldcup!

Unfortunately none of the team-leaders was working today so it was rather difficult to create an acceptable personnel planning. Some people who were working all the time in the underground Media Centre would love to once also be able to work at the pitch, at the press conference or at the media tribune. But what would the team-leaders think about that? Democracy is for the people in our team very important, does however sometimes lead to it that we do not take decisions at all.

After we then heard that Tahiti will have its press conference shortly after 2pm tomorrow, and Uruguay only in the evening, we decided to make a final planning only on Saturday morning. This also because of the fact that only a small number of photographers and journalists is assigned to join us this weekend.

I stopped my working day at about 5pm, went to TIP Rodoviaria for some quick shoppings and another cup of good coffee, and took the train home. As it was not really late yet I decided to make a walk home, and to experience this area a bit more. A big mistake… It rained so much all day that the street in which I stay was fully flooded, I think at some places there was at least 20cm water on the street. Too bad that I got totally wet, my shoes, socks, pants, everything! Happily I did not wear my Confed Cup pants this time!

At home I wrote my article for our local weekly newspaper “Rontaler”. The article will appear in next week’s paper! Will share it on Facebook as soon as it is electronically available.

Let’s hope my last 2 days in Recife will be filled with sunshine. The game Uruguay – Tahiti on Sunday might not be that interesting. The last 2 days with my volunteer friends over here will undoubtedly be great, irrespective of this match!