by Kara Kim

Whoosh! Spike! Swish! Another goal! Another point! You may think sports are just fun and games, but not in Argentina. Every game was an epic battle between two teams fighting for the win. On sports/park days there were mainly three sports for people to choose: soccer (fútbol), volleyball, or basketball. Naturally, soccer was the most commonly played sport, for both men and women, and each played at their own vicious level. It might be because Argentina has such good meat, all the people, young and old, had incredible leg strength and astonishing shooting abilities. Scores wouldn’t be 1-0 or 2-0 like in the United States but rather, they would be 4-0 or 5-1 due to the Argentines’ awesome soccer skills.

Looking back I’m really glad that I decided to pursue soccer early in life, so I could use that skill to play fútbol with people in Argentina who shared a passion to play it. Even though playing sports with them was really fun, the whole team and I got many opportunities to meet new people, make Eugene and the Tucumanos playing futbol futbol training begins young in friends, and have a great time playing sports with them. I think it’s really amazing how a simple sport could be used to unite people from different parts of the world.

Personally for me, I got to experience playing fútbol with the men AND women. I come to the conclusion that the men play super aggressively, and the women, young and old, can kick the ball really hard.

One fond memory I have was one Saturday the women, from the team and from the IBM church, were organizing a friendly game between the married ladies and the single ladies, and once the game started, Pastor Jorge’s wife, Norma, was saying to me, “No tengo miedo de ti!” (“I’m not afraid of you!”) But my team ended up winning, and after the game the married women all walked off the field breathlessly.

For me, I thought it was amazing that all the way from the older men/ladies to the younger boys/girls would go out of their comfort zone to play soccer and it was encouraging to see that even when they get tired, they would still be willing to play, even the people who don’t know how to play. It was such a blessing to spend time getting to know people while playing sports and building friendships with them in the short time that we had. I look forward to the next time I will see them, but until then, it’s keeping in touch with Facebook!