New Jams

Last night after classes a bunch of students and I climbed into a microbus and headed for the other side of town to a semi indoor soccer field that´s about 1/2 size and lit with chain link fence around the perimeter. We split up into 3 teams and played with some of the locals who are friends with the director of the school, Carlos. They were all a lot better than we were, but we had a rad time. The team that got scored on would sub out and the team on the sidelines would come in. I realized that I´m not very good at soccer, but I had a lot of fun for the 1st hour, but my gutz were acting up a little so I chilled for the second HOUR. Yes, we played for 2 hours. My lungs and throat burned like crazy either because the air´s real thin or the pollution is awful combined with the fact that I´m pretty out of shape. About 45 minutes into the game the power went out and we were playing in the dark with the help of the microbus´s headlights shining down the field which made it real tough on the far side to see with the blinding lights in my goalie eyes. The power came back on pretty quickly, but the lights above the field didn´t come on for 20 or so minutes. There were little kids on the other side of the fence lighting off black cats, or the central american equivalent and throwing them wherever they pleased, which sometimes, was through the fence near us. Those kids were jerks, but I guess if your only entertainment were throwing firecrackers at gringos you´d do the same. Good timez.
This morning I ate a hasty breakfast and went to the school at 8 to go on a trip to this market called San Francisco that´s about an hour´s busride away. I went with 2 other students, Karl and Eileen, and our guide, Amaro who is an X guerilla and lived in the mountains for 8 years fighting the man. Fuckin´rad. He doesn´t speak a word of english so our communication was limited, but Eileen speaks pretty well. So we went to a place where all the buses leave from and hopped on a ¨chicken bus¨ which is a pimped out bluebird school bus from north georgia with all kinds of gems. For starters it had a rad stereo system and the driver who looked no more than 23 pumped the hottest jams from this area the whole way. It had all kinds of tinsel on the inside and people crammed in. You know how when you rode the school bus it was a huge pain to actually fill your seat with 3 people, even if you were a small person? Well, here, 3 to a seat goes without saying and people cram in the aisles. Fortunately everyone here´s pretty reasonably sized and not a lot of cram jamz occur. When we got to the Market (and several other times) Amaro reminded us to watch our money and cameras and zippers on our bags for thiefs. We got off the bus and we were in ¨the biggest market in central America¨or so some say. You can buy just about anything you need there, except hi-end electronics. Cows, pigs, birds, dead birds, bird guts, spices, watches, bird feet, toys, shoes, kittens, herbs, clothing, belts, hats, food, small children, JK JK JK, and lots of other crap. There were some other gringos there aside from us. There was one section of the market where two paths intersected and, good christ, there was a lot of shoving and a text book cram jam. There really wasn´t anywhere to go, but you had to push if you wanted to get out of the mess and the hardest pushers were little old ladies 3/5 my size. Fucking insane. I almost fell over at one point, but the little old lady in front of me fell instead and all was well. I picked that broad right on up. It was the least I could do being from the country that so badly fucked up hers. I ended up buying two fabric belts that have some neat embroidery on them and 3 bananas which I´ll eat tomorrow on my way to the volcano that we´re climbing. I avoided getting pickpocketed or stabbed or whatever and feel great about it. After a while we left and got back on the bus where this dude came on and went down the aisle tossing packs of gum or peanuts into people´s laps and then gave them a moment to think about actually giving him a Quetzal for it or letting him retrieve it himself on his way back down the aisle. That´s how it´s done in this here city.