Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Dennis Rodman comes to Tejutla


Each year in the six-weeks leading up to Christmas the community holds a basketball tournament. The timing is such because it’s the dry (albeit cold) season and the students are out of school. As luck would have it, the father of my host family was able to find me a team. Those of you who know me in person (versus just knowing me through the internet) know that I’m 5´11 ¾” tall. I’m not sure exactly the average height of the Guatemalan male, but I’m guessing it’s about 5’5” if not a little under. I have a theory that it has to do with drinking coffee with dinner everynight starting at the age of 2. I also get the sense that they play a lot more soccer than basketball in this country. I base that on the lack of some fundamental skills in basketball. Don’t get me wrong, they can dribble and shoot, but it’s a bit rough. With the exception of one freakishly tall Guatemalan, I’m the tallest guy in the tournament. I’m also the only one who seems to get the fundamental concept of blocking out and rebounding. The first game the team wasn’t really flowing. It could have been that fact that they don’t ever practice and I hadn’t picked up a basketball in three years. The second game things were going a bit better. I was a rebounding machine until I got two technicals and kicked out of the game. Yes, I know…poor form. Here’s what happen. The other team found their best defensive technique to be to hold onto my shirt when I was under the basket. I got a bit worked up when this 5´2” Guatemalan muscled the ball from me since his buddy had my shirt wrapped up in his arms. Once I got free I elbowed my way in to get the ball back, perhaps with a bit more force than is acceptable in a church league. Just like back home, the choose referees here with less than perfect vision. So I got the first technical for the incidental blow to the chest of the other player with my elbow. After that I decided it was important that I explain some of the rules of the game to the ref. Of course I turned to my native tongue to do so. It turns out that he actually did speak a little English after all, at least he understood the F-Bomb when I dropped that a couple of times trying to add emphasis to some of the finer points. Last two games have gone better—Double-Doubles with a good amount of points and boards. We actually won the last one. It’s like what Coach Lindeman used to tell us on the Track Team…we’re just out there to have fun, and winning is fun! We´ll see how the rest of the tournament goes, hopefully I won’t pass up the opportunity to keep my mouth shut this time.