Basquetebol (bash-ke-te-BOL)

On Wednesday we played basketball. I was so excited! It has been a long time since I had played though, very long! But I guess part of it is like riding a bike, your body just remembers most things.

Carlos, the motor grader product manager in Brazil, took us to the Cat Club. The Cat Club is a huge outdoor park that has swimming pools, water slides, clay tennis courts, soccer fields, basketball courts, workout facilities, pavilions for gatherings, areas with nice BBQ grills, and walking paths, all nestled in the beautiful green rolling hills outside of the city near the plant.

Carlos explained that all Cat employees have access to it along with their families. They have lots of events, balls (the dancing kind), parties, etc. He told us it is very important for them to rest and relax when they are not working and that the company here really values that.

The grounds were beautiful. They were well groomed with flowering hibiscus all through out the park. There were lots of 7UP trees as I like to call them. I first saw them in Florida. They are a small round green tree with clusters of bright yellow flowers. Get it? Lemon-lime? 7UP? It makes sense in my head!

You could tell they really take pride in making and keeping it nice. It seemed to almost be like a sanctuary to them.

It was here that we got our game on. Or at least tried to. :)

We played a 3 on 3 half court game Americans v. Brazilians. Their courts are bigger here - the dimensions are somewhat different. We got smoked. Although we had a pretty good run at the end. Then a few more guys showed up. Big tall sweaty ones without shirts....I sat the next game out. Without me the teams were even in number :)

As I watched them run up and down the court, cheering, groaning, laughing, passing, shooting, playing together, I thought about how sports can be a great equalizer. You may not all have the same spoken language, but the language of the game is the same.