Day 1, Cali, October 19, 2009

Laurel Miles:

I find myself sitting with Nicky and Owen from Australia, and Lucho and Nino from Colombia on a lovely warm evening in Cali Colombia after our first day of clinics. I am filled with wonder once again at how lucky I have been over the years to be a part of the Ultimate world both in Canada and globally. How did I end up here 5500 kilometers from my home to be included in a project that both satisfies my interest in world understanding and allows me to play my favourite game on a warm sunny day at 1600m above sea level? Sometimes I look over my shoulder wondering when my luck is going to end, but for the most part I recognize that I am very very lucky and just roll with it. Needless to say my lungs have noticed the lack of oxygen at this height but not nearly as much as they did in Bogota, 2600m closer to the stars than Vancouver.

The 10 hour road trip from Bogota to Cali was beautiful and interesting. The mountainous terrain is spectacular and the inventive methods of claiming land and lifestyle from the steep slopes leaves me feeling that the Colombian people are very strong and ingenious. I drove the last two hours of the trip, and packed down my fear of the crazy fluid crisscrossing movement of the traffic that finds red lights to be only a suggestion and the lines on the road to have no significance at all.

Given my lack of interest in public speaking and my insecurities with my second language… the possibility of the 5 minute talk I gave about gender equality and the enjoyment of community in the world of ultimate brought me close to having a heart attack. Instead, I encountered a group of people so interested in learning and so kind and excepting that I stumbled along and managed to say, most, of what I wanted to and I enjoyed myself.



I have had many moments of laughter and I feel supported in my efforts by my fellow coaches and by the ultimate community here. It is an interesting sensation when our participants thank me at the end of a session, because I truly feel the need to thank them for what they brought to the day and to me personally.