Swing batta batta batta suh-wing a batta!

If diamonds are the way to a woman's heart, and pancakes are a way to a man's heart, than the way to a small Mexican child's heart is futbol.  I used to ask kids "que pasa?" or "como te llamas?".  Now I just ask what their favorite sport is.  Not everybody speaks Spanish, not everybody speaks African click languages, but everybody speaks soccer.

Sports related conversations with little ones are a way to instantly get accepted into their inner circles.  Hitting them in the face with a volleyball is a way to instantly lose that trust:

Marianna is in the middle.  This picture is minutes before I ruined her, and my morning.  I tried to tell her that I didn't mean to hit her, but I didn't know the spanish word for "spike".  Fortunately, she was tough as they come.  I bought her some pineapple candy and we were friends again.

Marianna, and most of these young ones exhibit a toughness that I'm not used to seeing.  They go all out on the futbol field, on the baseball diamond, when they throw rocks at each other, etc.  But they never cry.  They remind me of myself in my youth.  Except I probably was crying.

Here is a short glimpse into a baseball game at the Cienega Pedregal school.  I teach there thrice weekly, although Fridays there is pretty much zero class.  It's beisbol day.  We taught an hour of English, then cleaned the school grounds, then played baseball for an hour and a half.  That's every Friday.

This is a carload of the older kids (5th/6th graders) coming back from trash duty.  I count 13.  Plus trash bags. Unless you count Waldo.

Mexican child athletes are an extremely strategic group.  You can see in the beisbol video that every at-bat is carefully planned and executed.  

But ferreal though, they play differently.  Especially when we play soccer, I see how defensively-minded they are, how patient and strategic there game plan is.  This is as opposed to the run-your-ass-off-towards-the-goal style of play that I have grown accustomed to in the States.  

I imagine they would make great chess players.  As maybe Gandhi said, "a good defense is the best offense".

Select, slightly related, sports pictures:

Our resident history scholar and oft-quoted travel companion is Don Marcos. Check the form!  He was feeling so lively after meeting some UNC Chapel Hill students (his alma mater) that he had to start tossing up some jumpers.

 

Here's Phyl's retaliation shot.  Check the form!

 

An unrelated note: Both of these pictures were taken at a school/community center in El Gusano.  El Gusano is home to 80 families.  The 5 UNC students work/live there in a similar fashion as we do in Cajones/Guanajuato - minus our internet connection, and at times running water.  

This is Lupe from El Gusano.  Her story to follow.