School Fair Marathon

Of course with any major event, the first step is preparation. We had a follow-up meeting just days before the fair to finalize some important details. Most of the conversation was about rice and ice. Everyone was to bring 5lbs of rice and counting 10 people, that's 50lbs of rice which seemed like a lot to me. Another concern was keeping the drinks chilled. This is something I normally wouldn't think twice about, but here in Santa Teresa, it's quite the ordeal. Buying blocks of ice from another village about an hour away, washing bins to use as coolers and using a generator to power a refridgerator for the day. Mind you, THE other generator was being used for the sound system. After all the logistice were straightened out, the meeting was over. Fast forward a couple days and that brings you to another step, advertisement, only this was unplanned and on the spot. While Mr. Chub and I were driving back from Punta Gorda, we saw the radio manager of the closest kLove station. We stopped to talk and before I knew it were sitting in the studio broadcasting to kLove listeners in the area that indeed there was a school fair marathon in Santa Teresa on the 1st of November. And now to the day of the main event. First, to describe a school fair marathon. A marathon is a day long soccer tournament where teams from neighboring villages come early to register and stay and play until they lose. There was a $20 entrance fee and the top prize was $300 plus a trophy. The reason "school fair" was added you ask? So we could have Monday as a holiday. Oh Belize! And the best part, that wasn't confirmed until not even a week before. But since it was a fundraiser for the school and probably the biggest one (we ended up raising $2000) and all the teachers were working and it was a "school fair", Monday equaled a holiday. Now, how the marathon went. I was surprized to see truck full after truck full of teams show up and even a bus! I kept thinking I should have told the PC Gibnuts about the day, I wonder if they would have come. There were about 16 teams and things got a little heated when one of the Santa Teresa teams was disqualified for having a player who was registered on another team. (This is still an issue and there's some trophy drama along with it, but I hope it gets cleared up soon.) I'm not sure a marathon would be a marathon without a dispute in the rain. Did I mention it rained most of the day? Oh yes, and the games went on. The other Santa Teresa team ended up getting 2nd so one trophy and some prize money stayed in the village. I know I wish I could have helped more than I did, but they already had everything under control, maybe next time.