Preparations started a couple of weeks before when the poster got stuck up with the team lists. As soon as they were up all of the boys were going around asking who´s in what team, which team is going to win and hassling the other teams. We had a few meetings to sort out who would participate in which event, decide on and learn some sort of chant and team song and to learn the dance. We had all of the meetings in Niño Jesús at around 8pm after all of the boys had fallen asleep. I´ve never known anybody to be in such a deep sleep. All of the lights were turned on, the music was deafening and everyone was talking loudly, yet not one of the 25 boys woke up. Amazing. 2 days before the Olympics the blue team staff (me, Anita, Doris, Elisa and Christoph. Minus Hannah and Pedro) went on a trip to central Lima during the break to buy all of the things; balloons, whistles, things that make a lot of booyah (noise) and stuff for our costumes. It took over an hour to get there and back so we ended up only just getting back intime to pick up the boys from school. Elisa and Christoph had to stay longer though as we´d ordered a giant chinese dragons head which they were waiting for. When they brought it back, it turns out it wasn´t the one we´d ordered and looked more like a duck than a scary dragon. So... Anita, Doris, Christoph and I all went back to Central Lima to sort it out and get what we´d ordered. After lots of arguing we finally got the dragon and 15 sol (about 3 pounds) off the price for the hassle. We´d already missed the whole afternoon of work but then on the way back in our combi (mini bus type bus) a man decided to call the police over when they pulled to the side of the road as the driver hadn´t apparantly stopped at a bus stop where he wanted to get off. This lead to a lot more arguing, passengers on the bus yelling their side of the story, and Christoph yelling that we had to get back for alabanza (dancing in church). We finally did get back but not until 6.30pm in time for tea. Friday night preparations included a full team meeting at 9pm to go over dance moves and chants, then working through until 12.30am to paint the rubbish cart (which ended up looking really nice and blue), blow up balloons to make a balloon arch, make a giant sign etccc. It was a very long day.
The Actual Weekend
Last year the blue team mascots were Smurfs so this year we decided to do Avatars. Hannah, Christoph and I started painting ourselves at around 7.30am and only just finished in time for the grand entrance at 9am.
At 9am all of the teams lined up down the main street in Ciudad. Blue team at the back (obviously to save the best til last). Everyone started walking towards the cancha (pitch where the presentation was taking place) doing their best to out-do the other teams. There were horns, whistles, balloons waving etc. Blue team had a chant going the whole way which went:
Nadie nos puede parar... AZUL No one can stop us... BLUE
Hay que salir a ganar... AZUL We have to go out to win... BLUE
Vamos azul que tu puedes volver a empezaaar. Come on blue you can start again.
Nadie nos puede parar... AZUL No one can stop us... BLUE
Hay que salir a ganar... AZUL We have to go out to win... BLUE
Vamos azul que tu puedes llegar a ganaaar. Come on blue you can win.
And our other chant was:
Todo el mundo sabe que azul es bacan bacan bacan bacan x2
A la derecha - la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, EQUIPO AZUL
A la izquierda - la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, EQUIPO AZUL
Everyone knows that blue is cool cool cool cool x2
To the right - turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, BLUE TEAM
To the left - turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, BLUE TEAM
I don´t think, or at least didn´t hear, any other team with a chant or song or anything. Once all of the teams had arrived at the cancha the presentations started. Each team made a dance or a drama thing to try and outdo the other teams. For ours the avatars and older boys all did a dance to Balada Boa, an amazing Brazilian song. There´s a video on the Ciudad facebook which is here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=482644045084527 I don´t know if the link will work but fingers crossed as it´s a video of the full dance and also our chants after. So with all of that the winners for the presentation were.... BLUE TEAM!
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| Josue - LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM! |
After all the presentations etc we had the races. Little kids against littles and bigs against bigs. Then the long jump. Sunday was a less dressed up day as we couldn´t really be fussed to paint ourselves fully again. So instead, Hannah and I got the paints out and attacked the kids with them. Made sure nearly all of them had some sort of paint splatter (or a nice pattern/Army stripes). All of Sunday was football so there was a lot of group competition and jeering other teams. Anyway it finished Sunday afternoon with the presentations of medals to the boys and the copa (cup) to... BLUE TEAM! So we won over all much to all the other teams annoyance as Blue team won last year. It also lead to other tutors claiming that blue team cheated and lots of arguments going on in the last tutor meeting. But, we know we won through effort so all´s good.
Next year´s volunteers have a lot to live up to though as out of us 4 project trust girls we´re now called Hermana Avatar, the other Hermana Avatar, Hermana Leon (Sister Lion) and Hermana Abeja (Sister Bee).
Only 2 weeks left of work now. I don´t want to leave my boys!
Eviecita x
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