I was going to write about our long final day and the senior ceremony that morning in Petropolis, however Sue Guevera's story says it better than I ever could, so I will begin after the senior ceremony.
We then boarded the busses outside the cathedral and headed to Rio. One of the friends had lost her camera lens cap down the sewer grate the night before, so several boys and our courier, Juan lifted the grate up and tried to retrieve it, but to no avail. Along the way, we made a few pit stops. Mario our tour guide wanted to keep us on time, so he said, "Bus-Toilet, Toilet-Bus, No shopping, No food, Bus-Toilet, Toilet-Bus." Who were we to argue. We made good time to Rio and looked for the last time at Sugar Loaf, the skyline of Rio, Copacobana, Ipanema and the Christ statue. We had a few hours to kill, so we stopped to do some...What else...SHOPPING. It was the Woodfield Mall of Rio, with seven levels of stores. We scattered for lunch and most of the boys ate at McDonald's or Bob's Burgers. Hard to believe a place called Bob's Burgers would flourish in Brazil, but there you go. The boys loaded up on jerseys, trinkets and some people even got jewelry at H. Stern, a large Brazilian jewelry store with offices in New York and London.
Then, it was off to the airport. With the extra Kantorei luggage, many boys and chaperones had to check an extra piece which had wardrobe or equipment. Unfortunately, each of these got pulled out for special inspection. Everybody got through easily, except Mr. Smith the Head Chaperone. We all went through first, so after an hour and he still hadn't walked through, we began to get worried. Apparently John Smith is on 5 different watch lists. Unfortunately, Mr. Smith also travels abroad for business, so then he really did look like an international spy. (My name is Smith, John Smith) Then just as they were about to clear him, the entire airport went dark. There were storms in Rio that day, the only day we saw any significant rain. The airport was plunged into darkness for several minutes and then on auxiliary power after that. We then started worrying that we might be delayed and miss our connection. Finally, Mr. Smith had his good name cleared and made his way through. Then like a sign from God, all of the airport lights came back on...We were going to make it home.
Once again in Sao Paulo, they made us make a mad dash through the airport to make our connection, then we settled in for the long flight. We walked enviously past the people in business and first class and shoehorned ourselves into our seats for the next 10 hours. I think more of the boys slept on the way home, than on the way there, but it was hard to tell.
We arrived bright and early on Tuesday morning and breezed relatively easily through customs. Once again, one of the friends group lost a piece of luggage, but this time could not retrieve it. Our short hop to Rockford flew by. I have to admit it was strange to look out the window and see suburbia instead of magnificent mountains, the ocean and spectacular scenery. But we were ready to come home, and it was a sight for sore eyes. As we rounded the corner to Cor Mariae, the parents were waving madly and crying tears of joy to have there boys home. Some boys hugged their parents eagerly and some squirmed as they were smooched, but all looked happy to be home.
Please take time to thank Mr. Bayer for the photos. Though I wrote the blog, his pictures complimented the descriptions so well and I appreciate the time he took posting the pictures in small internet cafes in Rio, Paraty and Petropolis. I hope you felt like you were there with us. I hope this continues with each tour and I hope to get more people involved next year. I've asked the senior boys to post their thoughts about tour as well, so look for those as well.
Thanks for following along. See you next year!!
Larry Prabhakar
