Olimpiadas 2009

Day One: Opening Ceremonies and Team Presentations

Judging by the glamourous show of the whole affair, you would have thought that the Pope himself was visiting the Ranch to determine the winner of Olimpiadas 2009. 18 teams, each stacked with the youngest chiquitos, school-aged kids, a volunteer, and ranch employes; each sporting elaborate, hand-crafted costumes, with carefully constructed wooden floats and oversized paper-mache mascots, with copious glitter and fire and balloons to wow the judges and win the presentation piece on opening night. My team, Costa Rica, spent the whole day leading up to the opening ceremonies making last-minute touches to our 6 foot paper-mache volcano (which would spurt fire during our presentation), crafting stilts and painting our flag, altering the costumes for the dance, and fashioing proper outfits for our specially-chosen Zelaya, Micheletti, and Oscar Arias (the president of Costa Rica and mediator of the political battle between Zelaya and Michelleti) who would be parading around the floor during our piece.

When the time came for our team to walk out on the cold concrete floor of the school auditorium for the opening ceremonies, I surprisingly had no regrets that I would be shaking my groove thing in front of 600+ kids, volunteers, employees, sponsors and judges. Although our team did not place in the top 3 in the presentation section, everyone remebered her dance steps, our volcano never malfunctioned, and we looked a whole lot better than some of the other teams. But Team America shone with two massive boxes painted to look like the Twin Towers that opened up at the end of their dance to spew hundreds of red, white and blue balloons into the air. The kids went nuts; the judges were sold. That was a much better show than Guatemala, who turned out all the flourescent lights for the beginning of their presentation in order to parade in with candles . . . and then it was 20 minutes until someone could figure out how to get the lights back on again. Again, the kids went nuts. Patience is most definitely a virtue here.

Day Two: The Games

I still have bruises on my knees and scrapes all over my arms and legs, and my sore back tells me I must be some kind of Olympian after some of these events.

The Luchador

Two teams of 20 people knee-deep in a deep, dark pit of mysteriously thick mud; stripped of all personal dignity as soon as the tug-of-war has reached its furthest point of tugging and the other team releases the rope, sending you flailing against unclaimed, sweaty torsos and backsides . . . I suppose I've heard that mudbaths are good for the skin.

Who's the King?

I was surprised to learn that the raised platform that stood 3 feet off the ground and was covered with mats was the battle court where 5 of us ladies from Team Costa Rica would be pitted against 5 other women from Team Argentina to grab, pull, tear, push, and rip until we forced the other team off the platform. I haven't played chicken fight since the monkey bars in 3rd grade, but it felt oddly good to triumph against the nearly 200 pound 7th grade teacher from Talleres. (Score one point for the English teacher.)

Cultural Section

Trivia at its best. Again against Team Argentina, we were required to name the date of Padre Wasson's death (the founder--luckily I had just memorized it) as well as the official language of the Dominican Republic (note: it's not English). I especially enjoyed the segment when our team drew the topic "English Language" and the question required an easy translation of 5 verbs in the gerund. As you can imagine, I was invaluable. (Another point for the English teacher.)

That's just a smattering of the events; in addition, we braved an obstacle course complete with a terrifying suspended ropes course and rows of miniature tires to slide through; the long jump; wet giant sponge relay; a hockey match (high-sticking encouraged, of course); and many other relay events. Team Costa Rica did not place in the top thee for the games, either, but we did our best and had fun. Winning something would have been nice, though, since first place gets to go into Tegus for pizza and a movie. No wonder those kids take this so seriously: when it's one of your only chances during the whole year to get off the Ranch for a few hours, you just might consider mud up your nose and in your ears a small price to pay.