A week or so ago, my friend Olga (one of the credit assessors for the "committees of women entrepreneurs" at Fundación Paraguaya) invited me to play basketball with her friends in Minga Guazu, a town about 25km outside of Ciudad del Este. Apparently the fact that I was "tall" (first time I'd heard that...ever: viz 51cm bike and constantly needing to hem my pants) and liked running meant that I was a perfect candidate. Cheerily I agreed--seemed to be a great way to meet some women my age, chance to get to know a new part of the city, and have something to do on the weekends when things are pretty quiet in CdE. The invasion of foreigners last weekend suspended basketball plans for a week, but on Friday I committed myself *for sure!* to basketball practice on Saturday evening.
Two bus transfers and a very kind lady who pointed me to Don Bosco High School in Minga Guazu, and I was there. Couldn't get ahold of Olga but feeling pretty sanguine about the whole thing, I trekked past some very enthusiastic pick-up soccer games towards the one outdoor basketball court...seemed like the right place, maybe? There was a group of women jogging in the typical brazilian-made spandex capris and sports-tanks (I felt a little silly showing up in my comparatively--in my mind--tame addidas running shorts...people here think they are too risqué since they show a lot of leg, to which I reply that no *way* are they going to get me in purple and yellow be-rhinestoned spandex tights, so deal!) accompanied by what seemed like a guy who was their trainer. I took the opportunity to find an abandoned nook and change into sports clothes...when I got back they were stretching. I asked if this was the basketball league...to which the guy replied yes, and wasn't it a shame I had shown up late, and I had to run for a bit to warm up. Ok. How long? 5 min. Uh, ok (???)...so set off for several laps around the basketball court. A bit winded (5 minutes wasn't much, so maybe pushed it a bit, ruh roh!)...returned to the group just as they finished stretching. Got all the appropriate introductions, including Olga's sister (still no Olga, yikes!), and off to practice. Yes!!!
Which turned out to be way more serious than I expected! No pickup basketball...no siree. It turns out they are actually practicing for some sort of women's championship league (yikes!). Started off with drills and discusion of positions/strategy. The trainer (who never gave me his name...guess I'll have to ask next time) played basketball with a guy who was somehow involved with the Argentine pro-league, which is pretty serious. In fact, he seemed pretty serious. Yikes! After about half an hour of offensive drills most of the other ladies were pretty winded. Luckily my cardio was hanging in there even if my ball-related skills left everything to be desired (Junior High PE being the last time I touched a basketball). So after a break we started some defensive drills, at which point I realized that I was actually, shockingly, absurdly, incomprehensibly, the second tallest girl on the court. Cool beans! Which turns out to be almost important when covering another player. This could be totally awesome! But at this point it was starting to get dark and a lot of the women seemed pretty beat. And the mosquitos were out, and we were sweaty, so the trainer called it for the day. A few of us stayed around to practice shooting (which I desperately needed!). It felt like after a bit of practice I was starting to get the hang of things. I definitely was not the worst shot on the team, which was simultaneuously encouraging and discouraging. But finally decided to call it an evening when it was almost too dark to see (ergo the terrible image quality on the photo...yay for basketball in the dark!). Olga showed up just as it was getting dark--she said that she got stuck in a meeting but pledged to make regular practices. Guess we'll see!
So now I'm part fo the Minga Guazu ladies "basquet" team. Practice both days on the weekend (yikes!) and on evenings on tues/thurs, which I probably won't be able to make because it's a long bus ride in the dark, which isn't great news for gringas navigating public transit in Ciudad del Este. Who knows, maybe this will accelerate my plans to get a junky little car for my time in the field. It would certainly do wonders to balance out my emaciated cyclist/runner upper body. I'll come back to the states with some serious guns!
Sounds like fun!
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