Buenos Dias todos!
Hello from South America!  What a great feeling to be down here representing the U-S-A with the 16 best countries from all over the world.  This is my THIRD World Championships (they are every four years, I know makes me the old lady now!) and it reminds me so much of the Olympics, but just for softball.  Countries are represented from every continent in the world and it is so cool to walk the dining hall and talk softball to so many different people, cultures and places.  From Botswana to Czech Republic to Chinese Tapai, we all may speak different languages, but we all understand this beautiful game of softball.

The country of Venezuela has done an amazing job hosting the World Championships, the stadiums (yes there are two!) are huge and brand new, the food has been great and the fans — well they are loud, crazy and I love them!  Playing in front of these crowds is what this game is all about.  Our game versus Venezuela last Friday was the LOUDEST crowd I have ever played in front of.  It was absolutely crazy!  They were not only yelling on the top of their lungs the ENTIRE game, but they had drums, trumpets, noise makers, you name it … you couldn’t hear yourself think!  But those are the best kind of crowds, it gets your adrenaline going and makes you want to win that much more!  I am looking forward to the medal rounds starting because I can not imagine the crowds we will get for that.

In the meantime I am just trying to keep myself as busy as possible because I miss my boys so much.  I do love the technology we have though because I get to see/talk to Caleb every day via the internet.  It is definitely not the same as being there in person, but I got to see him take two steps over video yesterday and he even said “Mama” when I came on the screen — too cute!  I think everyone here at the hotel must think I am crazy though because Caleb loves when I sing to him, so anyone walking by hears this crazy American player singing “Twinkle, Twinkle little star” or “Old Macdonald Had a Farm, Eee I eee I Ohh” — if you can imagine that!  It is worth the small embarrassment to get that beautiful smile out of Caleb’s face!

We will reunite this Saturday, but until then U-S-A has one thing in mind: getting that gold medal back to the United States!!

Wish us luck and besitos (little kisses) to you all!
Love it, Dream it, Live it!
Jessica Mendoza #2