A Gringa No Brasil

Last week, my training group (aka H-15) had our Close of Service Conference. Close of Service is usually just referred to as COS because Peace Corps people love acronyms. Anyway, the COS Conference is generally held three months before the official COS date (aka when H15ers are supposed to leave) with three objectives: reflect on our PC experience, talk about closing up projects and all of the paperwork and medical stuff we have to do to leave the PC, and discuss what to do next.

The conference itself wasn’t all that great, although I did get some good tips on boosting my resume/cover letters and how to approach the job search. But the more important thing was seeing all of the H15ers again. It was the first time we had all been together since training. We showed up in Miami for staging with 51 people in June 2009, and there were 30 of us present at the COS conference. Our official COS date is September 2^nd (which is when I’ll be leaving PC), but there’s a month of flexibility either before or after that date for volunteers to leave so it was also the last time we would all be together.

It was nostalgic as we reminisced on the past two years and saw a slide show of old pictures, but it was also exciting as we all talked about our plans for the future – when we’d be COSing (that’s right, we turned the acronym into a verb), where we’re headed, what we’re hoping to do next, etc. Very overwhelming stuff. Huge life changes.

After a week of quality PCV bonding, some of us decided to keep it going and we headed to Yuscaran for their festival and more importantly, their donkey polo match. Back in the ‘90s a PCV in Yuscaran thought it would be a good idea to have a polo match between Hondurans and PCVs with one twist – instead of horses, we use donkeys. The tradition is still going strong; it’s the 16^th year they’ve had a donkey polo competition. It was my first time attending though, and the whole thing was very hilarious.

The gringos started off by picking their donkeys from a few that the locals had lent for the game. The Honduras showed up with their own (advantage #1). Everyone mounted their donkeys and took them for a lap around the central park to recruit fans and bring them back to the basketball court where we would be playing.

The match was five on five, and 60 minutes long broken up into four quarters. Since there were so many volunteers, we switched after each quarter, but the Hondurans played the whole game (advantage #2). I didn’t go on until the 2^nd quarter. First off, let me just say that donkeys are stubborn. That’s not just a stereotype, they really don’t want to do anything that you tell them. In Spanish, the word burro means donkey, but it’s also a synonym for stubborn. Trying to direct one around the court in the general direction of the ball was nearly impossible. Hondurans are a little more accustomed to animal cruelty so they didn’t have any issues smacking their donkeys around and making them go where they needed to (advantage #3).

The Hondurans also didn’t seem to have any issues with playing dirty (advantage #4), and they kept smacking the gringos’ donkeys on the rear to get them to canter down the court, often in the wrong direction. This happened to me so many times that my donkey ended up doing laps, and I spent all of my energy just trying to hold on (we were playing bareback, by the way). Despite my best efforts, I still managed to fall off twice - not a very hard fall since my feet were barely off the ground. When we started I wasn’t even sure it would be able to handle my weight. When it wasn’t running wild around the court, it posted up in the shade and refused to move.

Anyway, the game consisted of the gringos wandering around the court wherever their donkeys took them and maybe hitting the ball if it happened to come their way. Meanwhile, the Hondurans, who’ve probably been playing for the past 16 years (advantage #5), were making passes and coordinated attacks on our goal. I think the final score was somewhere around 40 to 1. Pitiful, but still a hilariously fun experience :)

Pictures! COS and Donkey Polo