China - Awards Ceremony

All of the teams gathered in the hotel meeting room for the awards ceremony.  There had been a gathering almost every night in the meeting room for dinner and some camaradarie.  This being the final night, I was introduced to the tradition of trading of team jerseys and jackets.  The USA uniform stands out and there are many who are hoping to get a jersey or jacket.  This is a nice tradition and every USA member could find a taker if they wanted to. 
Personally I traded one of my jerseys to a gentleman from the Netherlands team, and another jersey to the Zambia team.  Besides the South African team, they were the only African team there and becasue we were near them alphabetically, we ended up spending time near each other on the buses and the opening ceremony.  A gentleman from the Craigenhower Cricket Club (CCC) in Hong Kong offered to trade me his jacket, for mine, which was kidn and readily accepted.
Every team got participation medals and took the opportunity to give gifts to the hosts to thank them for putting on the tournament.  Everyone there was especially pleased with the words from the China Tour champions, South Africa's captain, John Connellan.  I will attempt to crib his notes here as a final word in this blog....
"The game of bowls owes you only two things.  One, to have a good time.  We have done that.  Two, to meet great new people.  We have also done that.  Anything else is a bonus.  This week, it was our turn to get a bonus.  Thank you all."

And thank you all for the interest and warm words regarding this blog.  I wished that I could have kept this better up to date during my travels, but the fates and the Chinese censors have other thoughts on that.  If I'm fortunate enough to be selected to participate for the national team again, I will try to do better the next time. 

Thanks for reading,

Scott Roberts