GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

Well, not really. I'm not athletically inclined enough to score many goals. But one thing you have to do at least once while living in a Latin American country (or pretty much anywhere in the world where fútbol is king) is play a game of soccer with some kids. I've done this a few times while here and every experience is different. You don't need a real soccer ball or a net. All you need is something passing as a ball and a few sticks to serve as markers for where the goal will be. The field can be anywhere there is some open space. It doesn't have to be flat or free of cow pies. And I found myself playing soccer today, and failing pretty miserably at it. But it was fun and the kids enjoyed having a silly gringa playing worse than they were playing. I made a very few good plays and aimed the ball toward the goal a few times (it almost went in once!) but didn't manage to make any goals. My team did win though, and the score was pretty lopsided (12-1), but that's probably because the teams were pretty lopsided. I was on the team with the girls, but we also had two of the better boy players and outnumbered the boys two to one. I was actually leaving the school when I saw them playing and they asked me to join. Now this wasn't a normal soccer game. No one played specific positions, there were no offsides calls or rules against tripping people. The boundaries of the field were also not specified-a corn field to one side was pretty clearly stipulated as one boundary, but the other boundary moved into a cow's grazing territory as well as a dropoff of about half a foot from the rest of the field. But I figured things out pretty quickly. My first attempt to move the ball to our goal was pretty disastrous. One of the boys on my team called out 'Seño' and since I was the only Seño around I received the pass from him pretty gracefully, but the field sloped down to our goal and I misjudged just how steep this slope was so I kicked the ball and tripped myself up, falling on my right leg and rolling onto my stomach, getting a nice grass stain down the side of my pants in the process. But we all laughed at the funny, clumsy Seño Cristina and went on our way. They were a little more wary of passing me the ball after that incident though. The game was interrupted several times. There was one freestyle gymnastics moment, when kids asked if I could do a somersault or a cartwheel and were impressed when I could. There were several incidences of girls chasing boys and vice versa when one would make a comment that would upset the other, which would end in a tussle in the grass and cries from the others of "Beso, beso!" (kiss, kiss!). No kisses were exchanged though. There were also several incidences when the ball would fly into another game that was going on, or when the ball got caught under the cow feeding in the middle of our field. Three times the girls essentially stopped playing to ask me how to say some things in English. There were also two episodes of unexplained crying (coming from the boys of course). And then the end of the school day interrupted us and, an hour after my intended exit from this community, I made my way back up the hill (this is one of the several schools I go to where you have to walk uphill both ways) and then back down to catch the bus to the center of town. It was an awesome way to end the visit.

Sorry if this post is a little disjointed. I was trying my hand at a little stream of consciousness while recalling this memory. Just wanted to share my fun experience of the day.