Futbol (Soccer)
By far the most popular sport here in Honduras is soccer which is known here as futbol, not to be confused with “futbol Americano”. There are several soccer fields on the ranch and most of the kids play it every chance they get. It is also popular among the adults and frequently there are “friendly” competitions among adult teams. In the last month, there has been an invitation to all employees on the ranch to put together teams and form different leagues to play each other in a season that starts this week and goes through May. At least 8 players are needed to form a team since these games involve 6 players on the field at a time. The volunteers were able to enlist 8 of the 11 volunteers to form a team. Unfortunately, Allen was not eligible since the team was in a women’s league. He was drafted onto the Maintenance team instead. Yours truly joined the Equipo Voluntaria (Volunteers’ Team) even though I have not played soccer for over 30 years!
Under Natalie’s leadership, practices for the Volunteers’ Team have been scheduled for the last week. This is good as two of our players (Julie, and Iris), while both athletic, have never played soccer before. Unfortunately, not many of us have been able to make it to practices. I have only made it to one and, as expected, was quite rusty. That practice was a pickup game with the teen boys who are quite good. A few of the adult men also joined in, including Allen. It was fun, but exhausting, especially given the 90-degree weather that we now have in the afternoons.
It is now officially the “dry” season for the next few months
– probably for the length of the soccer season. With the heat and the lack of
rain it is quite hot (but not humid) and dusty. The ranch relies on the creeks
and dams for their water supply. The dams are low enough now that the following
message was sent out ranch-wide to start conserving water:
“Please immediately
report to the maintenance team any water leak (broken pipes, leaky faucets and
toilets, among others), it is forbidden to use hoses, keep the faucet open
while washing dishes, clothes or bathing.”
There was a water shortage in Copan when Allen
and I first arrived in Honduras, and I felt like we minimized water use at that
time. We have not been as concerned since we have been here on the ranch and
have been enjoying longer showers and plenty of water for washing dishes and
clothes. We will need to go back to being more vigilant.
Back to soccer – I “volunteered” to be part of the Volunteers’ soccer team since they needed at least 8 players to form a team, but kind of hoped that I would not have to play much. In my younger days I really enjoyed the game and was in a women’s league for quite a while before my kids started playing. I was in a lot better shape and able to run much faster and with much more stamina.
Our first game was yesterday and we played the “externas”. I was very pleasantly
surprised that our team won! In fact, we
won very handily at 17 to 4!! I ended up playing goalie for the first half and
did pretty good. As goalie, I always remember the ones that I didn’t get and
how I should have done better to stop them, but the rest of my team was very
complimentary which made it very enjoyable. A lot of the kids watched the game
and they were pretty impressed that I played at all; I love it when I can
surprise them.
We have a bye next week, so I guess I have more time to practice and am more looking forward to it now. Allen bought some goalie gloves for his team that should arrive when his brother visits in the next few days so maybe I will borrow the gloves and see if help my performance.
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