Mexico 2007: The Week's End

The last day or two of that week I did not write, because we went to an overnight camp put on at a ranch by another large group of Americans (they had also invited many other groups of Mexican kids that we did not know). Once again, while I enjoyed talking to the Americans, I enjoyed the feeling that my “place” was more among my Casa Esperanza family than among the American church group.

There’s one story I particularly enjoyed and remembered from that day camp… It was a moment I realized that my sense of humor over the past week had begun to lean more towards Mexican humor, which has its slight differences at times.

We were playing a game that was some really chaotic and strange mix of capture the flag and steal the bacon. There were at least four different teams, and perhaps

the Americans expected it to be more controlled and mellow, but… that was a silly expectation if so ;) So the kids were going crazy, and the method of “tagging” each other was by pulling the flag-football-style flags from their waist… and the Mexican kids, being fairly notorious cheaters, would of course tuck in the flags or even tie them to their belt loops to avoid losing). I am not a very competitive or rough person, so I did pretty bad in the game at first. But on my second shot, I was determined. A little boy ran into our square and grabbed a beanbag… I latched my hand onto his firmly-anchored flag, not willing to lose this time. Oh, that little cheater, he had tied it on as well! But I gave a firm yank, hoping the knot would slip. Victory! I was thrilled. But upon examining the flag, I realized that the knot had not slipped at all… and there, still tied to the end of the flag, was a little torn off belt loop! Oops… but perhaps the fair reward for his cheating. Still proud of my accomplishment, I couldn’t keep from laughing. I

told my (what I thought to be) funny story to the nearest American. To

my surprise, her response was “Oh my! How sad!” Oh… should I not have been laughing at his belt-loop-loss? Confused, I found Isba. Grinning, I pointed to the little belt loop tied into the flag I had pulled. “Isba—mira!” With no other explanation needed, she (and a few of the other girls) began to laugh hysterically.

That night, we girls pulled our beds close together and whispered and laughed and goofed off a little before bed.

Finally, the end of the camp came, and we all climbed into the bed of Terry’s pickup and headed back to Casa Esperanza, where my parents would soon be waiting eagerly to pick me up.