Game day! It was time to play Australia. This is a huge deal for New Zealand. It doesn't matter if it's an international volleyball match, game of chess, rock paper scissors...the Kiwis will always get fired up for any kind of competition against the Aussies.
Had a good training in the morning.
More great food.
I got to watch online as Ryan and the Jets took on Auckland in the NBL Final Four. It was hard to watch from so far away. Not only because they lost, but because all I wanted to do was give Ryan a huge bear hug and tell him how proud I am of all his hard work.
This was our welcome to the stadium. Our match vs Australia was the first of the tournament and would kick off the competition.
We're hoping to snag a few of these posters to take home. They are hung all over town.
Making our way to the...
It was so exciting playing in a big match like this again. Took me right back to my days at Pepperdine. {Wow, that sounds like a mature person thing to say. I am the nana of the team, so I guess if the grey wig fits.}
We had a great first game, beating the Aussie girls 25-17. About half way through the second set, this happened...
I was hitting a quick and I landed on their middle blocker's foot and went down. It was already pretty swollen by the time I got to the bench.
After our match {we won in three, 25-17 28-26 25-20} was the opening ceremony. I tried to power through standing on one foot, but ended up sitting through most of it.
Day Five
The next morning, the ankle looked like this...
...and we decided it was time for a trip to the hospital.
The closest to our hotel is an army hospital. I was truly blessed that not only our translator, Tang, but her mom and husband all came with us. When we first arrived, the X-ray technician was less than enthusiastic. We were the only people in this part of the hospital, and the gentleman nonchalantly straightened chairs and stacked paperwork as he was clearly telling our translator that he would not be seeing us.
After quite a bit of heated Vietnamese, we were finally told that without some kind of referral paperwork, I would not be seen. Tang's husband, Sau, left the building on his phone. Not seven minutes later he came back with a single piece of paper. The tech looked at it and immediately ushered us in.
This was the X-ray room. I would have taken a picture inside, but didn't want to push my luck. The table and equipment looked like something out of an old Frankenstein movie. No lead aprons in sight.
That little bit of red in the bottom left corner is the plastic bag wrapped around my foot to keep it from touching the dirty dirty floors.
Once the X-rays were developed {?}, the army doctor came to look them over. Nothing broken, sleep with your foot elevated, now get out.
We had to leave the hospital grounds to get a crutch. Just across the street were all the shops with various medical paraphernalia. That's Tang and Sau picking a crutch for me.
And this is Pam, president of Volleyball New Zealand, checking to see if it would be tall enough. She's a good five to six inches shorter than me, so my guess is no.
That afternoon was going to be our first excursion out of the hotel to the local shops here in Bac Ninh. I was hurting, but also didn't travel all this way to lay in bed. Crutch in tow, I hobbled through a few small clothing and shoe shops. Hindsight? I should've stayed in bed.
Day Six
Here comes the bruising.
I watched from the bench as we took a beating from the host team.
Day Seven
We took the morning to make the hour bus ride for some more shopping and sightseeing in Hanoi.
I got pushed in a wheel chair through the Hô Chi Minh museum.
One of my favorite parts of being here has been reading the English translations on large signs. "Residence for giving luggages of passengers in Museum Hô Chi Minh."
Day Eight
Finally able to fit back into my shoe!! I was still not training at this point, but I put on an ankle brace and walked a bit during practice.
That evening was our final match of pool play. Winning this would put us into the top four. So I strapped the ankle myself. {We did not travel with a physio. Good thing I watched John, our trainer at Pepperdine, do it hundreds of times.}
We lost in four. I played the last game and a half, contributing more emotionally than physically.
Post game. The pain and swelling I'm used to. But the bruising has been a complete surprise to me.
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