Deaflympics 2007 Day 2: Saturday 2/3/07

Today I hit the Deaf Expo for all of 20 minutes; I would have been there longer except that it took forever to find the room in the Salt Palace. I do a quick walk through and say hi to a few friends. There was a booth with t-shirts and I only saw the one that said something like 'what's the sign for pimp?' and I almost bought it. I should have dangit.

I grab a sandwich at the mall and get on trax to head up to the Huntsman Center for more practice with the kids. They are all inside sitting and watching all of the different groups getting ready, setting up, checking lights, etc and are pretty quiet. After a while it's our groups turn to practice on the stage. I think we waited a few hours and the kids are getting restless and running around. They give us all sandwiches and licorice.

We all line up in the tunnel and I get into arguments with the 5 year olds 'I don't want to wear this jacket, it's hot' 'you have to wear it, this is a practice for tonight and if you take it off you will lose it' 'but I'm hot' (5 minutes of argument later) Me: Kid, there's a lot of things in life that I have to do that I don't want to so suck it up' and eventually, 'because I said so'.

One by one, each dance group makes their way to the stage and I wait with mine, we are second to last, right before the flags. They don't want to stay in their lines on or off the stage and all crowd around it. I make them hold hands so they remember to give each other space for good lord, some of them won't hold hands and fight each other. They practice on the stage, not bad and I go around reminding them of giving each other enough room and of the steps. They look really cute and my heart melts as I forget the constant questions and fighting with each other and arguing with me. Two seconds later we're back in the tunnel and into the gymnasium to wait until the show.

At this point I have lost track of time, it's maybe 6pm or 7pm, who really knows and I've been herding them in and out of the bathroom before the show so the one who has Spiderman paint on his face doesn't decide he needs to go right before he gets on stage, like earlier today. The kids are the usual running around and playing and the athletes start coming into the gym, they are waiting there until they go on stage and wave at the audience. I grab a couple of kids and take them around saying hi, starting with Canada. They give out pins and flags and some of the kids go sit back down and some go wandering around meeting people. I take the shy ones and shove them right at the different athletes. Ha. I talk to most of the ones I introduce the kids to, and it's interesting trying to communicate. I can tell them I'm American and I think I understand their sign for deaf and kid cause they were asking about the kids I'm dragging around. I ask them the sign for their countries and what they are competing in. I tried to tell the Russians that the kids were dancing in the show but they didn't understand and the kids wanted more pins so we kinda gave up and walked around more. They were really nice to the kids! And most of them were really excited to meet each other and they wanted pictures and names. I went around with Itzel and she was telling the Canadians that she used to live in Toronto, I didn't know that and thought it was cool. She wasn't really shy at all with meeting people, she'd go right up to them and say hi and then ask for a pin or a flag. Ashlin was really shy though so I took her and a few others who were scared to meet people and we walked around a bit. It was funny, some of the hearing dancer kids wanted to know how to ask for pins or say hi so I gave them the easy version, walk up, wave, point to a pin or a flag and if they had one to give out they'd get one. One of the athletes from Poland I think even let me try it out on him to show them it would work. A lot of them wanted pictures with the kids so I'm rounded them up when I can and offering to take the pictures, that was definitely easy to communicate.

They leave to go do their thing on stage and we're left with the kids again, as they look over their loot. After an hour or so, the volunteers get to switch out and we go side at the side and watch the rest of the show from about the National Anthem until the end. We all wanted to see the kids anyway, with all the work we've done and they are really cute. We get to see Rathskeller, a comedy/dance group with 2 men and 2 women dancing to some rap and hip hop and then some 8-'s music, wild wild west and Michael Jackson. Then they have a Native American blessing and pow wow with was cool and then Jon Marceau come out and performs and then the dancing with the kids. Afterwards we all go back to the gymnasium as they wait for their parents to come pick them up and I'm cleaning up the garbage and taking pictures. I told one little girl, Brittney that I was really proud of her and she did a really good job and she gave me a big hug, so of course I start taking pictures with me and most of my group. Eventually we all leave and I go home, really tired but wow, it was really cool.