GOOOOOOAAAAAL!

I finally went to my first professional football (soccer) game this past weekend, the Jamaica vs. Mexico World Cup qualifying match. What a game to see. After being defeated in the game at Mexico a few weeks ago, the Reggae Boyz were in a win or go home situation. After going up 1-0 early in the first half, the Jamaican team was able to shut down the Mexican team for the remainder of the game and win their first game, taking a big step towards advancing to the next qualifying round. This was just part of a fun, very non-Peace Corp type weekend.

After another Friday night similar to last week, I was up a little after 6 am to go to the local community pick-up football game. I’ve been going for the past few weeks and most of the guys have started to recognize me and gotten to know who I am. I do tend to stand out being the only white, non Jamaican person, so it is pretty easy for them. Most communities around the island have daily or weekly football games that the guys play in. Depending on the community and the age range, the quality of game can be pretty variable. This particular game is comprised mostly of men in their mid twenties to late thirties who have been playing pretty much all their lives and for at least a few years with each other. Needless to say, they are all pretty good and I have a tough time not falling flat on my face in front of them.

During the first game I went to, I was introduced to the group by my host mother’s son that plays and they all knew my name pretty much right away. But since that first game, as is typical in Jamaica, they have given many different nicknames, ranging from the typical “White-man” to some pretty inventive ones like “tourism” and my personal favorite “Senator McCain.” For the most part, these names aren’t meant as anything derogatory, its just part of Jamaican culture to be very upfront about appearances. If your fat, they call you “fata,” if your skinny, they call you “maga,” if you have a beard and dreds, they call you “rasta,” etc.

Another aspect of Jamaicans is that the entire island is obsessed with Obama. If Obama wins the election, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a national holiday here. I get asked very often about my political affiliation and whom I’m voting for. Come to think of it, I’ve been asked at each game about this stuff. And up until this point, I have always tried to remain some what neutral, saying I’m registered Democrat but haven’t put in my vote just yet just in case I would offend someone that might support McCain. In retrospect, this was retarded. If I didn’t expressly say that I was voting for Obama, then, by default, they figured I must be voting for McCain, and therefore earned the nickname “Senator McCain.” Imagine having one white guy running around in a football game with a bunch of Jamaicans and every time the ball came to me, they started yelling “Senator McCain!” it was pretty funny.

But, at the same time, I also got the impression that it wasn’t such a good thing seeing that none of them actually like McCain. So this past week when I got to the game, I was greeted with “Wagwan (What’s going on) Senator McCain?” At that point, I finally told them that just the day before I mailed in my absentee ballot and had voted for Obama. This then set off a discussion of why they like him for more than just the fact that he is black and all this other stuff which I just sat and listened to like usual. Then I started to notice the most amazing thing, from that point on, they actually started to refer to me by my actual name! I guess that’s all it took to get their respect. Either way, it was nice to finally not have to keep track of 10 different names while playing a game that I’m already at a disadvantage from not having played since I was in grade school.

After the game, I headed into Kingston to meet up with some other PCVs to take a trip to the Bob Marley museum and get ready for the football game. The museum is at the house that Marley lived at in a section of town called Liguanea, where he moved to once he became well known and started making money. Not to get too much into it, but I found it inspirational just to see how much this man had in terms of honor, respect and love from people world wide, yet also how simply he lived. While certainly nice, the house was no mansion. And it was also nice to really explore some of the meanings of his songs beyond the laid back, pot smoking stereo type that is often assigned to his music. He really did do so much to inform the world about the oppression and struggles he and other people like him were going through and at the same time putting that aside and spreading the idea of peace.

After that, it was off to the game. It was great walking into the national stadium and seeing a sea of black, green and gold with easily over 100 speakers spread around the track blasting dancehall music while the teams were warming up. We were able to get bleacher seats not to far up from the field near the midfield area, where we had a great view of the entire place. After the goal, the entire stadium erupted in cheers and the enthusiasm of the crowd never went down for the rest of the game.

Luckily, some of the other volunteers that came into the game were able to get some wrist bracelets that got them access to a section on the track right next to the field where Red Stripe was giving out free booze, hot dogs and cotton candy. Best of all, they were able to take these bracelets off and share the wealth. I was in the last group to go down to the Red Stripe area which near the end of the game. So while we taking full advantage of the free stuff, standing no more than 10 yards from the field, time expired and the Jamaicans won! The entire stadium erupted again and the air was filled with people throwing what ever beverage of choice happened to be in their hands. It was certainly something I never expected to experience during my time in Peace Corps, but I’m glad I did. Now lets see if they can beat Honduras on Wednesday and take another step towards to World Cup.