“I hate the SEC.
Alabama football be damned. Nick
Saban needs to hurry up and retire. Dude’s getting old.” These were some of the thoughts running
through my head as I was watching the final seconds tick off the clock of the
national championship game. But even
louder than these thoughts were the feelings of pride that I felt in being a
Clemson Alumni. Usually one to get angry
after any Clemson loss, I was surprised to notice that where anger and loathing
would have normally been, there was mostly pride and hope (and yes, still some
anger). During the national
championship, I feel like the Tigers proved something to the national – they
had arrived and were here to stay. As
the third youngest team in the FBS, no one had expected them to make it as far
as they did. Even during the game,
everyone expected to see Clemson get trounced by Henry and Alabama’s elite
defense, but I really believe that if it wasn’t for three major special teams
blunders, Clemson would have won the game.
Get that fixed and Clemson, returning loads of starters and bringing in
the seventh best recruiting class in the nation, not only has a chance to be
right back in the national championship next year but in years to come as well.
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| Watching the game with the other team... Miraculously, we didn't kill each other |
When I made it back to the village, I let the kids know that
Clemson, just like the San Vicente Volleyball team and, more recently, the
Carolina Panthers, had finished second in the nation. They had become slightly invested, possibly
as a result of my constant updates to them as soon as I received my text
updates from my dad during every game.
It could also come from the fact that approximately 75% of my t-shirts
and even a pair of my shorts refer to Clemson in some way. The conversations typically went something
like this:
“Yeah, bwai, Clemson lost…”
“Huh?! Who beat them?”
“Alabama.”
“Oh, I hate them!”
I taught them well.
In January, school got back up and running. The first order of business for the teachers
was to find the two students and the alternate that would participate in the
zone spelling bee. The kids, remembering
the blunder that was cucumber last year, told me that I was not allowed to be
the pronouncer, so instead, I got assigned the role of time keeper. I’m happy to say that one of the two students
and the alternate are both student leaders!
It’s always great to see them doing big things! In fact, the student leaders are currently
fundraising like crazy to try and go on a trip up to Cayo. We’re planning on going to Xunantunich and to
visit some of the leaders of the country, but first they need to fundraise
about $500 USD. To do this, the girls
have been making and selling bracelets to students, while the boys have been
helping to sell popcorn. They are also
interested in starting movie nights at the school on Fridays and potentially
even a football marathon.
BRO Club is also going well with the Standard IV-VI
boys. There aren’t a huge number of boys
that come out (about 5 is normal) but they are dedicated. They are especially looking forward to going
to BRO Camp, a camp where all the BRO clubs from around the country get
together for a week and do different activities as well as build friendships
with other boys from different backgrounds.
I’ve also begun getting more help from my counterparts in this endeavor. I’m going to continue to encourage them to
come out and help with lessons over the next few months. Hopefully, that way, once I’m gone, the BRO
Club will still be strong.
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| Sergio practicing football before BRO Club. One of the kids took the pic, hence the quality |
The running club, probably the project I enjoy the most, is
still going strong. The numbers have dwindled
some, but I had expected that. Running
isn’t necessarily something that youth naturally enjoy doing. They’d rather be playing football or slinging
birds. Still, though, there’s a pretty
solid group of about 10 boys that come to most of the practices.
To try and make running more exciting for the boys, I’ve
planned a track meet every month until June, when district and nationals will
take place. We had our first meet in
January, and it went pretty well until the men’s football team showed up. Then, all the boys cared about was playing
goalitos in a far off corner of the field.
Still, though, the meet was a good starting point and gave me ideas as
to which boys will be more distance focused and which boys are sprinters. The next meet is scheduled for
mid-February.
Workouts are also set to begin this week, so I’m hoping the
boys find that more exciting than just running down the road and back. The only downside to this running club is
that sustainability is going to be difficult; however, I’ve begun talking with
a teacher who seems interested in joining the club. This would be a huge step toward a more
sustainable running club.
After each run for the past few weeks, we’ve been doing
strides on the field. Typically,
football practice for the men in the village is also beginning around this
time. When the men see me striding with
the boys, they decide they want to race me.
They trot over and say, “Let’s go. Make I race you,” and, being pretty
competitive, I oblige. This has happened
on a few separate occasions and, though I’m not the fastest person in the
world, I do have long legs, something many Q’eqchi people lack. This has proven to be a major advantage as I’ve
managed to win every race, even if it’s after a 6 mile run.
While I was getting back in the routine of going to school,
my host nephew was falling out of it.
Manuel is my extremely bright host nephew who is now in high school, but
for the first few days of school in January, he wasn’t going. He told me that he had dropped out. This, naturally, caused me an overwhelming
amount of anxiety. On the third day of
the ordeal, I finally spoke to him. I
didn’t try to hide the fact that I was extremely disappointed. The kid has loads of potential and I hated to
see him waste it. I told him that he had
potential to do big things but that he was wasting his talents. I also stopped letting him use any of my
electronics, telling him that without an education, he wouldn’t be able to afford
such devices. I think this was the
kicker. Next day, he was back at school,
and I’m happy to see he hasn’t missed a day since.
Aside from the work at the school, I am still involved in
the village. The latrine project has
been going well. I believe that three or
four new toilets have been constructed over the past month. It’s a slow process, but the number of people
with access to a toilet continues to move upward. Hopefully, by the end of March, the first group
of ~30 will be finished constructing their latrines. More lessons are scheduled for February for
the next group of ~30. My goal is that
by the time I leave, everyone not only has access to a latrine, but they know
why it’s so important to use one.
Oh, and I adopted a dog. Meet Pishwit!
So, with nothing much else going on in my life, there’s only
one thing left to say: Go Tigers!
