Cookouts, games, ruins and Uno

Our weekend kicked off with our first cookout. Typically on Fridays we will give the students and their teachers a shopping list and send them to the market to buy all the fixins for a cookout. This
week we had carne asada, chorizo, chicken, longaniza and hot dogs. We added some pappas and cebollas and a few other things for good measure and a good time was had by all.

Saturday was a bit of a free day. The students were able to sleep in and explore Xela, although knowing them like we do, we suspect

that most of them were hanging out at the Internet cafe. There was also some Uno playing in the team room.

 That night while both the women and the mixed guys team were supposed to play against teams from Xela (their women's selection team and a mixed team on the guys side), only the guys ended up playing because the women just weren't really feeling it (fatigue, bubbly guts, etc.).

The game included the debut of Bryan and Diggs on the court and they both played the full 40 minutes with Diggs hitting the game-winning three! The other three positions were a rotation of almost all of our players.

It was a fast-paced game with Hoops Sagrado leading by as many as 15 points at one time. Xela rallied though and evened things up with just a few minutes to play. While this wasn't the official Xela team it was still great to beat our friends and rivals for the first game in town.

Because it was a more casual game than the official Xela game, there was no one there to run the clock. Never fear though because Mackenzie, Hector and Malaika were there to take charge and run
the scoreboard and keep fouls for the officials.

Hoops Sagrado Mixto 75 vs. Xela Mixto 74 
Bryan (6P/12A/6R), Diggs (14P/8R), Demani (15P/11A/3R), Kevin (23P/3R), Renard (11P/2A/6R), Zion (3P/2R), Los (1A/1R), Dejeder (1A), Ronnie (1R) and Xander (1P/1R)

On Sunday, after a leisurely morning and lunch with their families, we loaded up the bus and headed to Huehuetenango for a visit to the ruins there and two more basketball games.

Zaculeu was inhabited by the Mam people from about 250-600 AD. The Mam were eventually conquered by the Quiche who then of course were conquered by the Spaniards and then of course Dole Fruit...sort of but not really. The ruins look the way they do because in the 1940s, the United Fruit Company "restored" them, which
basically means they covered the ancient ruins with plaster to make them look like they once did (sigh)...but on a positive note, it means that the kids got to take lots of awesome photos.

After a bit of time at the ruins we headed into the town of Huehuetenango (pronounced Way-Way-tenango and usually just referred to as Huehue) for two games. A women's game and another game of the mixed team of young and older (NOT OLD) guys.

So the ladies were less than enthusiastic about playing a game, but four of them were convinced to play and Zion a willing, ready and able fifth player. We really appreciate him stepping up and playing with the women's team.

It was a surprisingly close came all the way up until the end with the final score being Huehue 49 vs. Hoops Sagrado 41. (KayKay 6P/6A/5R, Tevanah 15P/8R, Mackenzie 1A/4R, Tee 15P/1A/11R, Zion 5P/1A/3R).

The men's mixed team played the final game of the night against the local team from Huehuetenango.

Chalk it up to a long week, aging knees, banged up fingers and the lateness of the hour, but the final score was Huehue 85 vs. Hoops Sagrado 52. (Bryan 1R, Diggs, 6P/1R, Demani 5P/2A, Kevin 9P/3R, Renard 4P/5R, Alec 2A/2R, Manny 1P/3A/2R, Ronnie 6P/1R, Christian 2P/5R, Los 6P/2A/4R, Djeder 9P, Xander 2P, Zion 2P/1A).

Then it was back on the bus for sandwiches and the long ride home. We've got a busy week ahead with classes, camps, a birthday celebration and our little group will finally be complete when Jesse and Malik arrive on Wednesday. Check back each day for more updates!