The question took me by surprise. “What’s the Super Bowl?” my host brother asked, in Spanish of course, while he curiously flipped through my October issue of Sports Illustrated. “Really? You don’t know?” I responded.
It would be easy to think, ‘Wow, this kid needs to get out more often.’ But the truth of the matter is this: The Super Bowl, LeBron, the World Series and many other sports means nothing here in Costa Rica. All that matters is soccer.
Wow, I thought. How do I explain our nation’s biggest, most-watched sporting event? How do I explain that with the exception of Easter, it’s the most important Sunday of the year? Or how do I explain that one of my friends loves the Super Bowl so much, he considers it the New Year and actually begins his New Year’s resolution during the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy?
“Okay, the Super Bowl is when the best two American football teams play for a championship.” He raised his eyebrows, shrugged his shoulders and continued to flip through the pages. There on the page was an article on tight ends – the position in football, not cheerleaders – and a picture of former Cleveland Browns great Ozzie Newsome.
“That’s my favorite team,” I told Diego. “Are they good?” he asked. “No, they’re bad,” I said. “Really bad.” “Then why do you cheer for them?” “Good question,” I said. “My parents are from Cleveland.”
Next was a picture of LeBron. “Do you know LeBron James?” I asked. “No,” Diego said. “Who is he?”
I wanted to tell him everything, like how he’s a quitter, how he completely punked Cleveland fans this past summer and how much money he makes in Miami and how it’ll be years until the Cavaliers contend again. My Spanish is getting better every day, but it’s not good enough to explain LeBron.
“He’s a good basketball player,” I said.
It would be easy to think, ‘Wow, this kid needs to get out more often.’ But the truth of the matter is this: The Super Bowl, LeBron, the World Series and many other sports means nothing here in Costa Rica. All that matters is soccer.The Super Bowl was Sunday, and yes, we had an opportunity to meet some Peace Corps friends to watch the Packers beat the Steelers. But I decided long before coming to Costa Rica that the Super Bowl and World Series can wait until we come home. Besides, traveling to meet our friends would have been a two-day excursion: Walk 45 minutes to the bus stop, ride the bus for 30 minutes to the main highway, wait for the next bus to San Jose, ride the bus for an hour, walk 25 minutes to another bus stop, take that bus for 25 minutes to the Peace Corps office, where I would have probably met everyone to take a taxi to the nearest bar that had the game. The following day would have been that itinerary in reverse.
Sorry, I like football, but not that much.
Instead, Megon and I formed our own game of ultimate Frisbee with some kids from the neighborhood. All we needed were sticks for goals and our host brothers’ disk. It was the Leones (Lions) versus the Tiburones (Sharks). Though it was a hard-fought game by all, the Tiburones (Megon’s team) brought home the glory with a 5-3 come-from-behind victory over the Leones, whose most veteran player crumbled like stale bread under the brutally hot afternoon sun.
Comments