My time with the Bolivian synchro team has rapidly come to an end. I just want to thank you so much for your donation and support to help create competitive synchronized swimming in Bolivia, as well as send a duet to compete at the UANA PanAmerican synchronized swimming championships. We managed to raise the funds necessary to send Aracely and Milenka to the competition entirely due to individual Canadian donors like yourself. This would not have been possible otherwise. In the end, this experience was everything we could have hoped for and more. The girls got the opportunity to train in Vancouver for five days thanks to donated pool time at Kerrisdale and CCAC, a donated underwater sound system, and donated lifeguarding by my brother-in-law’s little brother. Without that training camp, this just wouldn’t have worked. That was the first time Aracely and Milenka had heard their music underwater, and the first time they swam in a pool that was wide enough and deep enough to actually swim their entire routine. I am so grateful for all the help we received in order to make that possible.
Once at the competition in Calgary, the girls finally got an idea of what competitive synchro looks like, how a competition is run, and how it feels to swim in front of an audience that actually knows something about synchro, rather than just swimming for the public in Tarija. For Lisa and I, it was great to be in touch with all of the coaches in South America, find out how strong the rest of the countries are, and find out things like future competition dates, when seasons begin, how things are organized and luckily, how we might get a coach from Venezuela or Cuba to come and help out. I was starting to get a bit worried about that part, as I don’t see myself heading back there in the next few months. Looks like we should be able to work something out.
As for the girls swims, they swam two of their best swims, they made it through the figure competition, which they were pretty nervous for, and they smiled the entire way through their duet. Lots of great comments from judges, coaches and swimmers, and a ton of support from everybody at the competition. Everyone in South America was excited to hear that Bolivia has a team and is training. They can’t wait to see the teams attending competitions soon.
So definitely a success. The girls right now are attending a coaching clinic at the pool while I have a few days off, then they and Lisa will be heading back to Bolivia on Friday.
On top of all of the Individual donors, we have to thank CBC for getting our story on the radio, which really got the exposure we needed to raise the funds, Team Aquatic for donating suits, caps and goggles, CCAC and Kerrisdale for the great pool time in Vancouver, Vancouver Pacific Wave Swim Club for the sound system, Synchro BC and Synchro Canada for all their organizational help, Sandy for volunteering his time as a lifeguard, and both my and Lisa’s families for putting up with us these past two weeks, driving us around, and cooking and cleaning up after us.
Thank you all so much.
