Goooaaaaalllllllll!!!!!!!!!

Obviously the sport of soccer, or futbol, is very popular in Central America. Actually, soccer is pretty much popular anywhere outside of the United States. Paul has been taking us to his futbol games. He plays on a team for the church and they rent an hour at small arenas and play other local teams. Paul also plays on a “better” team that has uniforms and everything. I’m not sure how the leagues work, but I just have fun going with the other missionaries and cheering for our church team or our friends. It is also very fun to listen to the things the grown men say to the ref. or the players. We try and guess what they said and decide if it is something we should repeat or not.

There is a big stadium here in Comayagua and the home team, I think their name is Hispania, played against some other team from a different city. This was the real thing I was told. They are not the Honduras team, but they were national teams kind of like the L.A. Galaxy team. The only thing I could relate it to is baseball because I’m not sure how soccer leagues work. Anaheim has the Angels, L.A. has the Dodgers, and Comayagua has the Hispania. Anyways, we were on national Honduran television because we went to the stadium and the camera man came and zoomed in on us for a bit so we flashed the peace sign and shouted. The Comayagua team lost we think. I never found out the final score. I do remember it was tied 2 to 2, but we were not able to finish the game. You know why? It started raining. It was not the usual light rain we get, it was pouring and actually cold. We sat in it for a bit. Joy, a missionary from last year who just returned to teach again this year, came with us and knew from experience to bring a rain coat so I made quick friends with her and was able to sit under her coat. The crazy people on the other side of the stadium seemed to love the rain. They were cheering for the other team. When we first arrived at the stadium all stuffed into one cab, this group was outside chanting something. They looked like a gang. After we got our tickets, we walked all the way around to the other side.

“Why didn’t we just go in where we bought the tickets?” I inquired.

“Because that is where the gangs and bad people sit.” replied Paul.

He was right. We could see and hear them the whole time. They stood the whole time and chanted the whole time. They also clapped and did this funny running thing up and down the stadium. Whenever their team did something cool, they would run out of their seats, climb the fence to the field, and hang their feet over. The security had to go over and wave their little wands at them. They even threw fire crackers into the crowd. The side we sat on was very calm compared. Only one person climbed the fence when our team scored.

I also got to experience my first Aguazul bag. For some reason, drinks are put in bags here. Water in a bag, soda in a bag, juice in a bag, whatever. If it is liquid, they will put it in a baggy, stick a straw in, and knot it shut around the straw to drink. The Aguazul bags are sealed though because it is purified water. I would always manage to avoid drinking from a bag before, but I was very thirsty so I had not no choice to drink water from a bag. It is awkward. I had to rip off a corner of plastic with my teeth then squish the liquid into my mouth. It tasted like plastic. At least I was not thirsty anymore.

Anyways, once the rain got too hard, we had to leave. I almost fell in the mud trying to get into the cab. I had to sit my wet and muddy self on top of Briana then the cab drove over a boulder on the way home so we had to get out in the rain and help the cab driver remove the huge rock from his drive shaft. I was very happy when we made it home.