The creator chose not to include the drizzle in her design of the BA ecosystem but she sure did teach it how to rain. It’s all or nothing down here and after a weeks worth of stifling heat with no rain a storm finally came to our rescue Friday night. If I wasn’t at a birthday party with a bunch of people I just met, I would’ve ran out into the street, got on my knees, bowed down, kissed the ground and skipped around the street hollering at the sky. It was that glorious and welcomed of a storm. Instead, I confided to the dude to my left that “neccesitemos un momento por dicimos gracias a el dio por the rain” He understood, and agreed.

Sunday afternoon I played in a futbol tournament that was also a fundraiser for Haiti. The tournament was organized world-cup style, 5 v 5, 16 minute games. The first team we played was one of the better teams in the tournament. We got whupped pretty good: 5-1. But it was our first time playing together and it was raining (and I didn’t have cleats). Our record on the day was 2-2, with yours truly scoring 3 goals, including a nasty left footed volley that blasted into the net from about 15 feet deep. It was probably my first left footed volley of my life and I freakin smashed it. We lost in the quarterfinals but put up one hell of a fight in the final match, losing 3-2 (to the same team that killed us 5-1 earlier in the day).

On the way back from the game I came across one of the most awesome celebrations I’ve ever seen. It was the 100^th birthday of a division III soccer club near the neighborhood of Belgrano. To celebrate the club’s birthday, about 500 folks of all ages (near newborns included) paraded down the street, onto the main avenue, into a tunnel, out the other side, and down another huge avenue. There were two 16 wheel flatbed trucks packed with people, a car with a giant paper mache mascot strung up to its roof, and other random cars and motorcycles keeping the procession moving. In a few other trucks were the drum players and EVERYONE—all 500, including the newborns, were singing the club songs in unison with a fierce look of pride on their faces. If a country ever sang its national anthem with as much passion, love, and intensity as these people were singing their club songs, I think the united nations would send a peace keeping force out of sheer confusion and a lingering suspicion that something big was on the verge of happening. Fireworks were blasting. Men and boys were chugging out of plastic coke bottles mixed with fernet (popular licoricey alcohol). The folks on the flatbed trucks were stomping and jumping so hard and in unison that the trucks bobbed up and down as if they were ships sailing at sea.

But hands down, the most amazing part of the parade was the sound of the marching band and everyone singing in the tunnel. I felt like we were marching for something righteous—even though in reality, at that point, I had no idea what we were marching for, just that it had to do with this soccer club. Even if I wouldn’t have wanted to clap and march with purpose down the street and through the tunnel like everyone else, I had no choice because the drums commanded it. The sounds and movement filled you completely. And people were celebrating HARD. Old weathered women with leathery faces who looked like they could sooth your deepest fears and then strike them right back into you if you started slippin were out in force, waving flags, and just generally running the scene. When the Giants won the superbowl back in ’07, I was with some pretty hardcore giants fans and partied out in the street after the game. This made that celebration, + yankess celebrations post world serious victories and the Puerto Rican day parade look tame. Granted it was only 500 people, but the energy and camaraderie was on another level. I can’t even fathom what this city was like when Argentina won the world cup.

i coulda been a contenda