Chirijiquiac

This is the first in an occasional series of posts by students in the Hoops Sagrado program describing their time in Guatemala:

Most people will think going to a camp in Guatemala is like survival of the fittest...not even.

Being in Guatemala is like nothing I've ever done before. Chirijiquiac is the furthest camp from the school and riding with my teammates and the looks on their faces told me this was going to take forever--with the smell of diesel smoke buffering out.

When it was our stop, we got off and immediatly the kids rushed over and hugged whoever they could put there hands around except me because it was my first time at the camp. I walked over and saw that we had only one court and there are 48 kids--boys and girls. I said to myself “How is this going to work? It looks impossible for it to happen.” Especially since I'm so used to full court and about 15 players to a court at the basketball camps.

Then I heard “chicas y chicos liñes.” And I said “what cheetos?” I was in the middle of the court and boys and girls rushed to get to their side. The camp began and I was like “Ohhh thats how it works.”

Now, this is my second time in Guatemala. Two years ago I was about 5´2 and now I´m 5´7 and taller than the kids!

Since we're at a different school [Spanish school in Xela] we didn't know how to get to Chirijquiac that first day so Stan, a Hoops Sagrado vet said “All we have to do is get to the rotunda.” So we walked to catch a micro bus that had a guy yelling out the side of the bus saying “Rotunda…Rotunda…Rotunda…. Si” We got to the rotunda and millions of buses went past.

I remembered to same smell of the diesal fuel smoke amd it was like smelling Mindy´s homemade cookies, which are better than Chips-a-Hoy, and when our bus finally came, I said it it brought back memeries. The bumpy roads were heavenly to the rump.

Our stop came and we got off the bus that left us in a cloud of smoke as it pulled off. We walked through the smoke and saw the kids playing basketball and when they saw us, they stopped and rushed over and hugged everybody. A few girls rushed and took my hand and said “¿Tu novia?”

When we began the camps I looked over and saw a smile so familiar. She asked me what was my name and I said "Brandon. Y tu?" And she said Juana and I remembered her from two years ago when we won the champingship. All the kids in the camp are bigger than they were two years ago. We did shooting drills and a girl named Santa had destiny in her eyes and made every shot when I asked her to "repeat."

The days have been going great and cuts are coming up. No doubt about it will be hard to let good players go.

Written by Brandon. Brandon will be a 16 year-old junior at The Field School in the fall. This is his second visit to Guatemala with Hoops, but the first summer he will be here for the whole month.