I don’t think anyone could have properly prepared me for what exactly aniversario entails, no matter how hard they tried. I’ll say one thing, I definitely understand why the kids look forward to it so much – a whole weekend of dances, partying, staying up late, games, entertainment, sports, competition, and fun…oh, and did I mention MUD??
Right before the night begins we all had our last practices…which lasted from 10 am until the dances started at 6 pm…it was QUITE the long day but at least I got some cute pictures…
Our awesome Banner featuring Pique
Jesus, Tony, and Roger with their Pique hats
Leeah and my favorite little guy ;-)
Friday night was a night of competition to judge our previously prepared skills: aka el baile y los purras (the dance and the cheers). Having already practiced (hahahaha) for WEEKS ahead of time (hahaha) they should have been good to go! The night started off with a big rally where all the kids joined in a circle, everyone waved their banners and ran in circles, and then we kicked off with some fireworks :) AWESOME.
Setting up for the dances and purras
Lots of the teams' banners
Running with banners...
Then began the process of choosing the order of dances…which was decided by picking a color off a huge television screen – Pique (my team) chose 3rd – we were ready to go ;-)
All the teams danced their dance, showed their mascots, and then chanted their cheers…my favorite of ours went something like this:
El equipo tricolor tiene mucho corazon
Y en la cancha lo demonstrara
Adelante compañeros
Este copa va a ganar
El equipo mas audaz – PIQUE
Translation?
The three-colored team has a lot of heart
And on the court we will show it
Come on now companions
This cup is going to be won
By the team with the most audacity ;-)
One of the teams during their purras
Italy's mascot - BLOCK MAN!
Pique during our dance (i'm in the middle in the white ;-))
Anyhoo, Friday night felt YEARS long because all 12 teams had to go…we ended up standing on “la cancha” (the court) from 5 pm until 11pm! CRAZY!
NOW on to the real stuff…SATURDAY! Saturday was a day for los juegos (the games) and it was 1. AWESOME, 2. EXHAUSTING, 3. PAINFUL, and 4. FUN. The games started at 8 am with a rally to get everyone spirited up and then we literally played games from 8:30-1:30, then had lunch, then played again from 2:30-5:30…it was a LOOOONNNNGGGG day!
Fernando with our Pique flag :)
Here is a list of some of the more awesome games we played:
1. An obstacle course consisting of tire runs, crawling through a pipe, climbing ginormous stairs, wading through a pool of mud, and then army crawling back to the finish line
2. Your team sitting in a line passing a HUGE wet sponge over everyone’s heads to dump it out in a bucket.
Sponge races
3. Volleyball with water balloons
4. Race against the clock on stilts about 3 feet off the ground
5. A HUUUUUGGGGGEEEE pole to climb, probably 40-50 feet in the air where money was attached at the top…
THE POLE
6. Trivia time using facts about Guatemala and famous people from Guatemala
7. Find the jewels in the mud pit…where 5 people from your team have to literally swim in mud and find as many of the 200 pieces of fake jewelry floating in it as they can…
In the mud pit searching for jewels...
8. Another obstacle course consisting of a potato sack race, running, frog hopping, and then ROLLING in mud while water is doused on top of you
9. Wheel of death: aka spin a wheel for 20 minutes and every time it lands on something you’re given another activity (anything from running around the entire soccer field TWICE to doing an entire obstacle course in a mud pool 2 feet deep to passing water filled cups with holes in the bottom over your head – you name it.)
There were another few, less exciting games thrown in there (a game sort of like ultimate Frisbee, another water balloon toss over a net game, etc., leading up to the big, one…culminating with the one, the only tug-of-war in a POOL of mud, where my team came in third – not bad stuff ;-)
TUG OF WAR
After all of the games ended there was a huge dance for all the kids, tios, volunteers, well…everyone! Although we were all exhausted and couldn’t bear the thought of moving a muscle, we all still headed upstairs to bust some moves and have some fun…and to hear the announcements of the winners of this year’s aniversario!
Our sweet Dance, NPH style
We ended up with 6 overall winners – top 3 for dances and cheers and top 3 for games…and my team…Pique….won 2nd place in games!! Woooo!!! What does it mean exactly? It means that on Thanksgiving Day, while all you wonderful people in the states are feasting on turkey dinners, I’ll be eating a kick-ass meal of Pizza Hut with my awesome aniversario team and getting to watch a movie at the theater in town – needless to say, we’re all pretty excited :)
HAPPY 14TH ANIVERSARIO NPH GUATEMALA!!
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