Good afternoon to everyone in Mississippi from Belgium.
It feels really good to say that because this has been quite a trip. Martha Alwal told you about our plane having to make an emergency landing in Nova Scotia last night. Well, we got a new plane and finally made it to Belgium. We landed around 3 p.m. here, and by the time we got our luggage we had to go straight to the gym for our first game.
When we walked out of baggage claim to the main lobby area of the airport, there were several local television stations there. We had no idea the situation with our plane had made the news.
If you remember, our flight out of Memphis was canceled. We then traveled to Chicago and had a long layover before flying to Newark, New Jersey. We boarded a plane to Brussels, Belgium, but we had to land in Nova Scotia because an oven in the back of the plane caught fire.
My first thought was to thank God we were able to land and get the situation taken care of before it got worse. We were the first ones to walk in and see all the cameras and lights. One of the television stations interviewed me about the flight and all that happened. We said before we left we were coming here to make a name for ourselves, but we didn’t realize it would be in such an unusual way.
We got to meet our guides, Annie and Julie. Annie played basketball with Ketara’s (Chapel) mom.
It was raining when we got here, and we got on the bus and had about an hour drive to the arena. There was a lot of traffic, but I was shocked because Belgium was not at all what I expected. I was thinking it would be a big city, but we drove through a lot of countryside and saw a lot of cows and sheep. We even saw one house that had ostriches.
Our bus driver did a really good job getting us to the arena because there were some really tight turns and very narrow roads.
We made it to the gym and did some drills to get our legs back under us. Then it was time for our first game against Sparta Laarne, and we played well and won 122-56. It says a lot about this team because despite the travel issues we still came out and played well and won.
We knew they were going to be physical, but I don’t think they expected us to come out and play the way we did. We played really good defense and created a lot of turnovers. We played together well and created open looks for everyone.
The game showed we can play through adversity, and I think the whole travel experience brought us together even more because we were camped out together for long periods of time in airports and on planes. I think the thing this team shows is it can make a way out of no way.
We finally arrived at the Marriott in Ghent. It is a beautiful hotel on a canal that has a lot of shops and restaurants.
We have free time the rest of the evening, and I don’t know about my teammates, but I am getting something to eat and going to sleep.
Today will be another full day. We are going to tour some of the places in Ghent and then play our second game of the trip. Hopefully we can enjoy exploring the city and end the day with another win.
Have a great day, and thanks for supporting our team.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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