nov 30

I’m old, fat, and slow.

…At least, that’s how I feel.

Soccer (futbol) is a big sport here. I don’t think the word “big” really gives it justice, but because I’m always at a loss of words (both Spanish and English), I’ll just leave it at that. Last week the kids posted a paper on the door of the cafeteria. It was a list of different groups… actually, the more appropriate word would teams. To go into more detail, the lists were futbol (soccer) teams. At first I thought, “This can’t be too bad. A little running will do me good.” As a silly American, I definitely overestimated my abilities. I mean, I know I can’t play soccer very well, but I didn’t understand how much pain the sport would bring me playing against children. I practiced with one of the girls right before the graduation dinner on Thursday. As she yelled at me to run faster toward the ball, I felt as though all the bread and ice cream was yelling in my other ear to stop.

The volunteers and I were talking before the games started. We all agreed that we were nervous. These kids love futbol. It’s a deep, deep love. It was very possible that a 13 year old would start chewing us out for messing up… but it was too late to turn back. One of the volunteers was on my team and so we began preparing for defeat (not of our team, but of ourselves…both mentally and physically). That’s when we find out that we only have 4 players. We had the best girl on our team, but she couldn’t play because she had been disrespectful. The other younger girls couldn’t play because they were being punished as well. It was not very good news for us. The losers had to pay 5 limps each to pay for the winner’s lunch. After searching for people to play with us, we finally got a few girls to agree to it. The game started. These girls get pretty angry when someone messes up because futbol is serious business to them. You don’t mess… with the pies (not as in yummy pie, pies means feet… haha, yeah, not funny. Ignore me). Although we were the underdogs, we ended up having a tied game. I was torn between ecstasy and horror. I had worked so hard and I was so tired. The fact that we didn’t lose made me feel like I was unstoppable (the kids like to bust out singing We Are the Champions… that’s what I felt like even though it was tie game). On the other hand, we had to play again because they weren’t doing penalty kicks. This made me want to cry. I imagined playing another game much like the one I just played, but instead of barely making it through, my legs would go on protest during the first half and refuse to work again.

This was yesterday.

Today, I feel more tired than I have been during the whole 3 months here. My legs ache and I feel like collapsing. I was at the Infa sitting at a table and accidentally fell asleep. I woke up to a child shaking me and asking me to read them a story. And why am I this tired? …Because of one soccer game. I hardly think that’s normal… but I’m working on it. Hopefully Miss Old-fat-and-slow will say goodbye if I start playing with them more often. But the catch is I have to do it… and after yesterday, the sidelines look a lot more appealing to me.

Well, I’m off to bed. It’s already past my bedtime.

p.s.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOLA!!!!