sv evi

In December Tomu’s soccer team had a party for the end of the year. It was hosted by one of the parents on the team, a bit outside of town. We were supposed to meet at 2:30 pm at a church, “don’t be late”, admonished the text message. Our family of 5 arrived via taxi at 2:45 pm, and we were of course the first ones there.

The next family to arrive said they would take us up the mountain road to the party location, so we squished into their car (all 5 of us in the backseat, and the mom & 2 kids in the passenger seat), and proceeded to wait for an hour or so on the side of the road for everyone to show up. Then we caravanned 20 minutes up the dirt road to the party location, where we happily piled out.

It was a beautiful spot, and we all stood around awkwardly with our partners while the kids played soccer in the yard. Then Bolivar called us over, and said we were here to interact and mingle, and had us all introduce ourselves. We pitched in some money to go buy some beer. The coach arrived perhaps around 5 pm, and then we proceeded to play games (adults and kids) for about 2 hours. The coach divided us into 2 teams, and we had competitions—las cascaditas, which is counting how many times you can kick the soccer ball in the air; sack races (see video of me below), el capitán manda, where the coach shouts out an object “black shoes” and the team has to scramble to give a pair of black shoes to the runner, who runs it up to the coach. We had to make up team names and cheers. It was fun, and hilarious. I was impressed by how game the Ecuadorians were to participate; I think a similar gathering in the States would not see so much adult participation. The coach asked if anyone had a game, and I contributed with a game I used in my Spanish classes.

My teammates are chanting “Anita”, because I go by Ana here, and Ecuadorians love the diminutive ‘ito/ita’, so whenever I introduce myself as Ana, the person responds, oh Anita.

We finally ate dinner around 7 pm (fried chicken, rice, salad), then we had cake, and the soccer team kids received their gifts. They had to draw a name, and then describe the teammate they were giving the gift to. This is a tall order for four-year-olds! By the time that was over, we were all exhausted and ready to go home. Luckily we got a ride home.