¡Dia de Deportes!

To kick off the school year, as had been done previously in GSW history, we held a Mother-Daughter Day yesterday for the girls at one of our schools and their mothers/ sisters/ cousins. We promised sports, games, food, music, and fun. Alex and I struggled to decide on what food we should serve, considering it was being held during lunch hour (12-2). Finally we decided to preorder mass amounts of empanadas and little sandwiches, to be picked up at 10:45 am and 11 am. We also had to buy decorations for the "field" (read: cement), decide what games we were going to play, make an awesome mix CD, and make sure all the girls got from the school to the field. There were a lot of logistics and a little stress that went into the planning, so Friday night Alex and I decided to blow a little steam off at the bar across the street's Tribute to Pink Floyd & Led Zeppelin night. Best Stairway to Heaven cover I've ever heard, and a great throwback to GJHS.

Saturday morning:

Obstacle 1: We go to pick up the empanadas at 10:45, and no one seems to have prepared anything. We find out they have been cooked, just not packaged, so we scrambled to do this as quickly as possible. Got out of there at 11 am. Only slightly behind schedule, and only slightly annoyed with Peruvian's lack of time awareness and management skills.

Obstacle 2: We go to pick up the sandwiches, and no one has any idea what we're talking about. "5 minutes!" they say. Yeah, right. We finally get out of there around 11:30 am, half an hour before the party is supposed to begin, without having set up the volleyball net or decorated the field. Very behind schedule, very annoyed.

All our junk... this picture doesn't do the quantity justice: 2 hula hoops, 3 soccer balls and 2 volleyballs, a huge bag with a box of 30 empanadas, and a massive suitcase with a boombox, cups, paper towels, and 2 huge boxes with 30 empanadas each. Plus two backpacks on Alex's back.

Obstacle 3: We arrive at the field, and there are 20 testosterone filled Peruvian men playing their Saturday game of fútbol. Alex braves the men and says WE'RE HAVING A PARTY HERE AT NOON and they agree to leave at noon. There were also three men drunkenly passed out around the edge of the field.

Notice the DOUBLE backpack look Alex is sporting. And the "Don't mess with me" face.

Despite the complications, we managed to pull the whole thing off with smashing success, we agreed. Though not as many moms came as we had hoped (Saturday is for cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc.), the moms that did come were incredible and it was great to talk with them about the program a little more. We played mostly volleyball- it's like Peruvian women's crack- but a few other fun games, my favorite being what I like to call Flashdance, but Alex says it's called Freezedance. We played the Vengaboys and shouted "MUEVANSE!!!" and they had to move- dance, jump, whatever- until the music stopped, and if they didn't stop, they were out. It was so fun! Alex got really into it. Passersby thought they were hallucinating.

As a result of the overestimation of how many moms would come, we were also able to feed an entire neighborhood with leftover ham sandwiches and Inca Cola. That felt good.

All in all, it was a really great event and a perfect way for all of us- me, Alex, the moms, the girls- to get psyched about the new school year. Alex and I walked home from the field with our balls and hula hoops in hand and boombox on full volume listening to Bob Marley (a Cusco music staple) and Enrique Inglesias feeling quite triumphant.

You may not actually be able to see the net in this picture... it's not the greatest net ever (very flimsy), and putting stakes into cement is impossible. So we use a lot of rope to string it alllll the way across the "field" and tie each end to the goalpost. Makeshift= key word.

Cool Moms

It is also difficult to decorate a field with limited time and resources. We did our best.