I had the intention of posting
again so much sooner, but I should have known that things would take longer
than expected. Pardon the delay, but here you go. Olimpiadas, day 2.
Friday night ended around 10:00,
which is insanely late for the Ranch. As the program concluded, there were tíos
and tías walking up to Casa Suyapa carrying little sleeping insects who
couldn’t make it through the whole program. Here’s just a little taste of what
Friday night was like:
The decorated stage where the judges sat. Doesn't it look incredible?! The background says "Working like the insects we will make a wonderful world."
Our mural with information about Termites. The bottom is our lema, or motto, which says "United like a family we can improve and change the world." Our shirts and flag have our lema on it as well. I never thought I'd ever say termites will improve the world, let alone change it.
Presenting our flag to the judges.
All of the teams waving their flags.
With another volunteer waiting for the presentations to begin.
3/7 dancing Termitas. See why I insisted on wearing leggings?
The games on Saturday started at 7:30 with a
Celebration of the Word and picture of everyone in the NPH Honduras family. After the photoshoot, we lit
the Olimpiadas torch, and the games began.
Las Termitas spent the morning in
Buen Pastor, which is the side of the Ranch where the boys live. We played
against Las Abejas, or the bees for all of the games that required an opponent.
These games were more physically demanding, and included the long jump, a game
of handball, obstacle courses, crawling through mud, wrestling, and of course, getting
wet.
Getting ready to walk together on giant skis.
The makeshift slip n slide they crawled under, followed by mud.
Our intense handball game. We won!
For me, the most memorable game
was the Lucha de Tirón, or tug of war,
which took place in ankle-deep mud. When we arrived at the tug of war, we were
told that there would be three rounds: men, women, and mixed. I was excited to
help with the women’s round, and Melissa, a fellow volunteer and Termita agreed
to be on the women’s team as well. When I mentioned that the two of us would
stand at the back, since it’s always good to have a strong anchor, a tío on my team turned to me and said, “Well yea, that’s a good idea. We should put you two
tractors in the back.” I don’t think he meant it to be mean, but women typically don’t strive to be compared to large farming equipment. Melissa
and I had a good laugh about that, but proved to be tractor worthy when we helped out in the women’s
and mixed round.
Getting ready for the men's round.
The men giving us last-minute advice. Note the tractors in the back.
It was so hard to do in the mud, because you had no traction. But look at everyone screaming at us!
I mean, for tractors, we look pretty good, right?
Later in the afternoon, we went
to Talita Kumi (where all the girls live,) and did relay races. These games
seemed so tame and calm compared to our morning.
We had a little break to shower
and rest before the big awards ceremony. The kitchen prepared an especially
delicious dinner of churrasco, rice, and salad. We even had ice cream, which is
a rare treat here. At awards, I learned that there would be winners for the
presentations as well as for the games, so six teams could win. After seeing
some of the other dances, I did not expect to hear the Las Termitas announced
as a winner. However, I was so pleasantly surprised to find out that we won
third place in the games! I didn't play in every game, but this Termite Tractor got to
enjoy an afternoon of non-Ranch food in honor of our outstanding game
performance.
It's already almost been a month since Olimpiadas, which I can't believe. The preparation was extremely time consuming, overwhelming, and challenging, but the actual event was a lot of fun. I'm still greeted with a hug and shout whenever I see a Termita on the Ranch, and know the kids will continue to talk about Olimpiadas until next year.
