Day 52

I was able to enjoy my last day in Puerto Fiel much more than the other days. We were once again awoken by screaming little ones in the kitchen and had breakfast together. Then we had a mini culto (church service) outside in the cloudy weather, when we took this picture. Gabriel is a little anti-self portraits (hence the no smile), but Laura is all about them. Gabriel is the son of Ramiro, the pastor of Buen Pastor, and Laura is an MK, originally from Wisconsin. After the service, though, was the highlight of my weekend.

The Game: I had mentioned to Gabriel that I play soccer, but he had yet to see me in shorts or tennis shoes or a T-shirt. He actually mentioned to me that I looked weird wearing said attire. So, a group of us went out to a small field (a little larger than an indoor field probably), but it was entirely sand. There were about 15 of us, I think, and we divided into jovenes (young adults) and adultos/viejos (the old guys -- pastors and missionaries). Even though we were young and in better shape, we expected to lose to the adultos. They may be a little overweight and "past their prime" (one of the pastors playing is 67 years old), but they have incredible foot work still, and it's obvious that they've played their share of futbol. We played two twenty minute halves, and it was a pretty high scoring game. By half time, it was 4-3, viejos, I think, and then with two minutes left in the second half it was 5-4 jovenes until someone had a hand ball in the "box" (meaning pretty close to the goal because there was no box). So the old guys got a penalty kick and made it, of course. So 5-5 to end the game. Then there was a whole discussion about going to a shootout or golden goal (gol gana). We decided on golden goal, and then ended up playing about 10 or 15 minutes with several shots on goal. The goalie for the adultos team, though, was able to block them because he's about 6'5". At one point, the jovenes team gets a corner, so someone kicks it in and it goes to one guy on our team who takes a shot -- deflected. Goes to Gabriel -- deflected into the air. Then it comes toward me in the air (and I'm actually a little scared of headers ever since my friend broke her nose by heading the ball), but I headed it toward the goal anyway. It goes over the outstretched arms of the other team's goalie and into the goal. It was seriously like a movie. I could never ever re-enact it. For the rest of the day, everyone congratulated me, told me I should coach the Peruvian women's soccer team, and even called my 6-year-old New Balance tennis shoes "zapatos gloriosos." I'm afraid they'll have really high expectations if I ever play soccer again, so I may end my Peruvian soccer career after only one game.

I had dirt everywhere in my body, so after lunch, I took a long, lukewarm shower and then packed up my stuff. Meredith and I rode with the Blocks who were returning to Lima in their own car, probably about 2 hours before everyone else. I relaxed when I got home, unpacked, and went grocery shopping with Meredith. I think the retreat was a really awesome bonding experience for me with all the families of the pastors and missionaries.