Los Super Chivos

So I have been really terrible of keeping up with the blog, so Im going to recall as many stories as I can and fill them in as we go. Lo siento

So in Xela, to really integrate yourself, you have to become a super chivos fan. Guatemaltecos love their football. They really love it. This is the most excited I think I ever seen the people of Xela get. On game days, you can run into hundreds of people all decked out in their gear. So they are the super goats. After much dilberation and have a schedule caulk fill of activites, it seemed as though we were never going to get to share in the fun. Then the night came. We celebrated a little before hand to get in the mood for a rowdy crowd. Before heading to the game we had heard rumors from our field director ellie. She had apparently gone to a game before and ended up getting shot in the face with a bottle rocket! So we were prepared for an intense night.

We gathered all the gear we could afford, which included price haggling and such. So there we were headed to our first game, we could see people as far as we could see all pouring in for this game. People were cheering as loud as they could. One of our group had a drink with her and as we were entering the security stopped her and we all thought she was going to get into big trouble. However, it turns out that they just wanted to give her a plastic bag to put her wine into. Yes we were all as shocked as well. Oh no miss the guy came running after hes your drink ahah. We could see rowdy soccer people had already filled the stands and were cheering and doing all the normal chants. WOOOOOOO XELA WHOO WOOOO XELA WHO!! and so many more.

At first we were a bit apprehensive about whether or not we should dive in with the hooligans. Or if they would even accept us into the crowd. It could some courage from Rachelle to hop in and then come get me to hop in. It was insane, the next moment I knew we were all jumping and chanting and sharing in the merry making with all the Local die hard fans. And I must say they were loving it. Or rather they were loving rachelle's craziness in the crowd, it was really impressive she was meeting people left and right, but I pretty sure if I was a good looking extranero they would have accepted me in the crowd the same. However, they were awesome, they were showing me all the chants and hand signs and really getting us into it. There was so much energy. So indescribable. I loved every second of it. The game was super close and the super chivos finally pulled out the win at the end. The fans all went nutz and were shooting fire works off. They even let me hold the flag and wave it in pride. That night I felt like a really Guatemalteco from Xela. It was wonderful.