GO SPURS GO, Fiesta, and other things I don´t miss

Well, I talked to my family the other day, and they said that the Spurs are doing well in the play-offs, so it´s good to hear that so far, they´re doing what they do best. Go Spurs Go! and I hope I didn´t just jinx them for posting that.

Despite missing out on things like television and the Spurs and Round Rock games, I´ve had no shortage of sports action. Two weekends ago, I went to the Maria Auxiliadora high school festival in Santa Ana, which is where Sydney volunteers. That´s the place where I had my ¨hamburger¨. It was like a Fiesta event, because there was a ton of food booths, dancing, music in English and Spanish, and it was packed with people. In the morning, there was also a basketball tournament for kids from high schools in the area. Sydney was drafted into keeping the books for the games, but she´d never done it before. Since I´ve kept the books for baseball games, I thought I might be able to help her, so we pretty much ran the tournament. I still don´t know how we ended up doing it, because none of them had ever met me before. It was super fun though, and not hard if you know basketball signals - they´re the same in every language. I also got to keep time because there was no shot clock or game clock. Soccer is definitely the big sport here, and kids are still learning how to play basketball. There were a ton of calls for traveling and double dribbling because they kept forgetting the rules.

In the afternoon, there was a dance show with kids competing in troupes from the area. I really don´t know how to explain it, but I´ll try. They call it modern dancing, but it´s more like hip-hop dancing mixed with stomp, and each routine lasted twenty minutes, non-stop. The kids were amazing and so athletic! I bet a ton of back-up dancers for celebrities are Salvadoran. But the troupes were made up of all girls, all boys, and mixed, and ranged in age from elementary kids all the way to high school. Serious talent and serious entertainment!

This past weekend, I got to go to a professional soccer game! And it was just as I thought it would be. I went with three guys from the local VIDES group (so nice to be out with people my own age!) and they wouldn´t teach me any gritos (cheers) until we were at the stadium because they all have bad words and they didn´t want the sisters to hear them teaching me. I bought a disposible camera since mine was still in the shop then (it´s back now and in perfect working order), so I´ll post pictures once I can finish the roll and get them developed. The team from Santa Ana is FAS and they were playing their rivals, San Salvador. We sat in the least insane section, and the tickets were only $3. For most of the game, the score was tied at 2, and as the end was getting closer, the guys were getting nervous because they had to get me back to the high school by 9, since the girls who answer the door go to bed at 9. Well, it was 8:45 and the score was still tied, with 4 minutes left. I begged the guys to stay to the end, unless it went into extra time, so we watched from the gate at the exit so we could escape before the crowd. Within the 90th minute, I kid you not, the FAS team finally scored to win! I didn´t get to see it because one of the guys was taking one last picture of me in the stadium and I had my back to the game, so I can´t wait to see if he got a picture of the goal in the background. Anyway, all in all, a very fun experience, and I even caught one of the give-away towels that they threw into the stands!

If I thought I was missing out on baseball, I was wrong too. Today were the finals for the intramurals for all the public school kids here in Chalchuapa. I went to see them play and two of the girls´ teams played in the championship games! Here in El Salvador, there are only two high school sports. All the girls play softball and all the boys play soccer. There´s no mixing, and basketball is only a pick-up sport. So I got my fill of softball games. It was great to see the girls having a good time, and one of them was even the winning pitcher. I am so proud of them, and I felt like a soccer mom too, since I was sitting with all the parents (and Sor Paty).

So keep me updated on all the sports action, but if you forget, I won´t be sad since I´m getting plenty of it here.