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The team will serve at the SOS Children's Village in David, Chiriqui Province, Panama, which consists of 12 family houses, staff houses, a playground, a library, and a community house. The will also work at the Potrerillos orphanage which has average population of 60 boys and consists of a complex of 5 or 6 buildings that are in need of repair and paint. It is located in Potreillos about 30 minutes drive from David.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Panama Baseball

Some days what you plan to do gets changed.  On a mission trip, changing plans seems to happen daily.  On this particular day the plans changed with a knock on our hotel room door at 7:30 AM.  One of our Rotary contacts, Patrick, called us to tell us that our 4:00 PM scheduled time to meet Carlos Ruiz and play some baseball at the local stadium was changed to 10:00.  We gathered the team, relayed a new set of instructions, put on our baseball uniforms, and loaded the familiar taxis for the stadium.  Upon arrival at Kenny Serracin Stadium we were warmly greeted and took occupancy of the 1st base side dugout.  After stretching and tossing we awaited Ruiz’s arrival.  During our wait we took infield and outfield practice and then met another Rotarian Hector Palacios - an architect that played baseball at Southern Mississippi.  Ruiz did not show and the scrimmage we had anticipated did not occur.  However, we were not overly disappointed because we took batting practice on the same filed that many Panamanian greats have played upon [Current – Carlos Ruiz, Mariano Rivera, Carlos Lee, and more; Former – Rod Carew, Roberto Kelly, Ben Ogilvie, Ruben Rivera, Manny Sanguillen, and many more].  We learned that Panama has more per capita baseball players in the majors then any other country.  After BP we were exhausted from the heat and humidity.  We returned to the hotel and after showering we went over to the Pan American Highway area, grabbed some lunch, and visited the local stores.
Hector had arranged for front row seats for the team to view the national playoffs of the 15-17 year olds.  They are good! Several of the guys enjoyed the local ballpark fare – beef on a stick.  Tomorrow we return to the juvenile center in Potrerillos to finish our painting.
Coach Drake showing how not to
catch the ball with one hand

Chad's ready

Jon stretching out Dean

Austin and Marques getting loose

Matt warming up

Shawn, Nick, and Austin receiving instruction from former Southern Mississippi shortstop Hector Palacios.
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