Day 31 - Reviver Futbol

So after a bit of a lazy weekend and most of a busy work week, Thursday rolled around.

Usually, my team plays soccer on Tuesday nights, but Thursday night soccer is not unheard of, so I didn’t think much of it when Angelica told me they were playing tonight. I went home after work and prepared for another simple, fun night of soccer with las Guatemaltecas on our little soccer field nearby.

Boy did I get a fun surprise!

Instead of going to our usual soccer field Lydia and Angelica instructed the tuktuk driver to take us someplace new - to a field that I had never heard of. We took winding back streets much farther than normal to a large field where we found some of our coworkers waiting with one of the Mayan Families volunteer groups for this week.

Reviver is a church group that is here in Panajachel for one week installing numerous beds, water filters, and even building a house with the funds that they raised. On only their second day here, one of the group leaders had the fantastic idea to throw together a soccer game with their group versus some of the local Mayan Families teams. Now I know to recommend this idea to every group that comes down to volunteer in the future. We had a blast!

The Reviver volunteers ranged from college-level soccer stars to first time players, but fun was had by all. There was a sizeable group of us so we each played quick games to three, then traded off with two new teams of six. This went on for about two hours, though it seemed like no time at all.

The players from Reviver initially were a bit surprised to see me, the only gringa there outside of their group, playing on the Mayan Families worker team. They couldn’t decide if I was going to be a ringer for my team with my height and long legs or if I was going to hold back my fast Guatemalan compañeras. Lydia was without question our star, scoring most of our goals, but I am proud to say that I held my own on defense.

Afterward, we all shared some Lindor truffles that Reviver had brought and took pictures as one great big group. I think it was a great bonding experience for the group, both in terms of getting to play with native Guatemalans and getting to know the Mayan Families staff.

Everyone agreed that this would make a great regular occurrence. When I return to Panajachel with Ohio State in a year, I’ll make sure to tell everyone to pack their game faces. Soccer is definitely on.