Students get excited when Mexico scores
At minute 38, Mexico scored the first goal against South Africa. The students watching the game went wild. But then the referee retracted it. Off sides. The emotion went one from one extreme to the other.
“Boooo!” cried our middle schoolers whose morning classes were canceled to participate in what virtually all of Mexico was doing: watching its favorite sport being played by its own people. Mexico versus South Africa in South Africa.
I’ve never seen our students attention span last so long. A projector, laptop and internet streaming live action from the other side of the Atlantic was all it took. Every time the live feed went dead for a fraction of a second, the students booed. When it came back on, their focus steadied.
Any ex-patriot struggles with identity. I’m not really Mexican, but I’m no longer a normal American. The heat, the garbage, the lack of order can easily make me want to hit the dusty, desert road. But sitting there with those children who have been in my class for the last 10 months, whose personalities I know better than what I did yesterday … I felt a certain camaraderie. I felt the same disappointment they did in minute 54 when South Africa scored the game’s first official goal. And I felt their same excitement 25 minutes later when Mexico scored and tied up the game. In that moment, I found myself on my feet screaming without a second thought.
The final 1-1 tie, left us all neither happy nor sad. Back to English class. “What is the plural of foot?” … . In this year’s World Cup, I’ll be pulling for two teams.
Gena Thomas is currently living in El Carmen, Mexico and is a faith-based coffee shop manager and women’s coop laborer. For more on her experiences, check out her blog.
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