currently canadian

tonight i went out with a couple of friends, and we ended up at tgi friday's while several important soccer games were being broadcast on tv, including those of 6 different latin american countries. there were people up in the bar area getting very enthusiastic about an ecuador- uruguay game, to the point of singing, yelling, and cursing out people on the other side of the bar who were voting for the other team.

currently, honduras is playing the USA in san pedro sula in northern honduras. about 12 people from our group went to go watch, but i decided to stay back, along with several other people. we had even received an email from the US embassy in tegucigalpa telling americans that they were not permitted to go to san pedro for this game. that's not why i didn't go; i had decided to pass based on my general lack of interest in all things soccer.

when we were at the mall around game time, almost everyone we interacted with wanted to know if we were americans, because this game is such a big deal for honduras. we told everyone who asked that we were from canada. it was so interesting to see the responses of these people as we told them, too. it went from an anxious, curious, competitive stare to complete indifference. we didn't really tell people we were canadians because we felt unsafe, but it's strange to try to put into words the discomfort and unknown that comes from being against almost every single person in the country. seeing the passion that hondurans have for soccer is something that i can't even begin to in relationship to something like a sporting event.

i don't really know what's going on with scores or anything of the sort, but it definitely seems that this game means more to honduras than it does to the US. of course it does; the general population of the US hasn't the faintest idea that we're even playing tonight, whereas almost every honduran is wearing a soccer jersey. the mall was a sea of white and blue and face paint. i've never seen anything like it bring a country together. it seems that for hondruas, this game is much more of a way to unite the country again after its whole political crisis. hondurans are genuinely thrilled to be having this game in hondruas. a few weeks ago, it was highly doubtful that the US would even send its team to play. it seemed sure that the game would be moved to the US. but it wasn't, and as a result, i think that it means a lot to honduras. they need this win much more than we do.