Weekend Fun in PG Town!

This weekend was craziness!! I finally got to experience the Saturday market in town, where I ran into a bunch of Toledo PCVs coming in from their villages. Always refreshing! Then, Cali and I hung out with Owen because his villagers were in town having some big meeting. We walked around the market, the water, onto the pier, and had lunch.... a nice long day of sunburn for me! hahaha. It was exceptionally hot....hotter than the normal hot!! hahaha Meanwhile, I was so dumb because I was supposed to be playing with the PG women's football team at 4 and I had been in the sun all day --fail! By the way, I chose the PG team because the other team wanted me to play in Belize, which is a 7 hour bus trip up just to play soccer.... too much!  So anyway, I got home around lunchtime and ate and tried to cram in my hydration before game time.
Football is where I got my first TRUE taste of "Belizean time". I went over to the field around 3:30-3:45, knowing I would be way early, but still. So 4 o'clock rolls around and still nobody has shown up! Finally, at 4:20 the other team literally emerges from high weeds on the far side of the feel. haha So I have some hope. I wait awhile and they start warming up. Then I notice a little boys team start warming up on the other side of the field.... I think to myself: they wouldn't really have the girls team play these little boys, would they? And then the girls come off and the little boys split into two teams and start playing. I was confused, bc it was now almost 5pm and the boys were playing. I ask the ref and a coach and some other people if there actually is a girls game or what and everybody says yes, but nobody knows the time or details. So the best answer I got was that they were playing after the little boys, so I stuck around. As the game neared the end, there was still no sign of the PG women's team. I was confused. By 6 o'clock the men's team was playing. WHAT! So I try to ask around again, and everyone still seems to think the women are playing...."next." So I'm really frustrated at this point, having been waiting around for 3 hours! I head to Michelle's host family's home, "Teacher Alice's" house and hang out for awhile. Since I'd already invested SO MUCH time in this game, I decided I would head back towards the ending of the men's game and try to give it one more shot. So with almost no hope, I did, and sure enough, the PG team was there! Shocker! So I got excited again and introduced myself to people here and there. They were not very friendly or excited to see my white butt there, but I figured I would just prove myself on the field. Our game didn't actually start til 8 and we played a team from Guatemala that was fairly decent. I was actually surprised by the level of play of both teams! It was refreshing! Not as good as most teams I played with in the States, but considering the culture, they were decent! We were up 1-0 for awhile and I finally got into the game! I was able to score the second goal for our team and even assisted the 3rd! We won 3-0. It was SO great to play! And I gained the respect of the girls and they were nice to me by the end--a few still had grudges and wouldn't speak to me, but you can't win em all! I was so glad that I went out! And it was a true Belizean experience because there were TONS of people there! Most of them were there for drunkenness or to watch the men's games happening, but they truly supported the women's team too! There was an announcer commentating the whole game and it was truly one of those awesome cross cultural experiences in life! I loved every minute of it! After the game, the Toledo news came to interview us and he came up to interview me, my nickname being "white gyal" of course! haha I felt so dumb, because all I said was "yea, it was great..so much fun! we won! woohoo!" Could I look more American???? Aaahhhhh! It was kinda funny because the camera man/reporter was the same guy who interviewed me at Cacao Fest...and he remembered me! hahahaha too funny! So it was a good experience overall.... even though I had a true taste for Belizean time..... lol.
After the game, I rushed to Teacher Alice's house because they were throwing Nate a bday bash! They even cooked pizza!!! Yum! I went from one workout to another--dancing! Teacher Alice's family is Garifina and they know how to party! They had a dj and were dancing and drinking all night long! It was fantastic!  I ended the night with a scorpion coming right at me on the floor! Yikes! 2 scorpions in 2 days!!! What are the odds!?!

Sunday I woke up soooo early because it was unbelievably hot!!! I think I sweated out about 5 lbs of water weight in my sleep.... uy! My host family were teasing me all morning... asking if I had a "goma", which is a hangover in kriol. I didn't, but they still harassed me about it all morning, lol. I ate kaldo in the morning, and then spent some much needed time with my fan in my room...that is, until we had a blackout! lol. Pretty much the whole afternoon was no electricity and no water, which was awesome because I smelled from dancing the night before and the whole family was waiting to bathe because we were heading to a graduation party that evening! So it was a sweaty afternoon of pretty much nothing. Mrs Assi sent the girls out to buy everyone ideals, which was definitely refreshing. When the power finally came back on, we had very little water, so we all took bucket bathes and got ready for the party. I was so excited to go! We went all the way to San Antonio village, where it ended up being Matt's old host mom's niece's party, (we call her "Na")! Before the party started, I got to go meet Mr Assi's mom and his sister and go to both their houses. We did a couple hours of sitting around and visiting before heading to the party. When I got there, Na immediately came up to me and hugged me. I was so excited to see her!! We talked for a bit and then the toasts began. The party format was toasts for about 30 minutes, all the men get drunk, then everyone eats dinner, the men are still getting drunk, then all the old men and women take a shot for the celebration, and then possibly dancing (music is playing the whole time)...but we left before any dancing happened.  Na took good care of me, hooking me up with food and Coke while I was there. She's too cute! We left the party pretty early because we had to head back to PG. As we were leaving, I almost stepped on a scorpion on the road! I cannot believe it! I must be attracting them!!! haha 3 for 3 on seeing scorpions daily!!! hahaha Hopefully, this is not a habit! I'm a target for critters!
Anyway, I was glad to experience a Mayan party. And I hear that that was a pretty mild party for most....which is nice to hear because there are 2 weddings coming up in the near future that I've been invited to!!! I can't wait!! lol.

What a great weekend it was in Belize! Now, it's back to work for a lazy Monday!