About a week ago, I agreed to play basketball for the girls team of the Nazarene Church for a competition with other churches. While I am certainly not an essential player for basketball, I have a height factor over many Ecuadorians. Sunday afternoon we assembled on the local soccer field. I was told the girls were supposed to wear white shirts with black shorts. So I showed up with a white tank top and black capris, complete with blue sneakers (that have a few holes in them). You’ll understand why all the details in a moment. The guys from each church were going to compete in soccer and the girls in basketball. So each church assembled in groups in a line to start it off. I was told to hold a few fake flowers (poinsettias) and to stand in the front and center of our group. Someone announced where the churches were from and then we prayed.
Something that I may have mentioned before, is the obsessiveness with having a “reina” or queen for everything. Well, as you may have guessed, there was going to be a reina for this little friendly competition. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) there were only two candidates for the reina....myself and another girl. Unlike me, she was all dressed up in a long dress and done up hair, obviously she knew she was a candidate for the reina position. So we had to stand in front of everyone. Because there were only two of us, the man in charge decided that we would flip a coin to see who would win! (I hope you find this as humorous as I do). And so the coin was tossed and I WON! So, they pinned the yellow sash on me and for the rest of the day I was known as “reina” instead of Raquel. The pastor joked with me and said that since I was the reina I had to buy everyone water and throw a party with lots of food.... I did buy the water but not a party. On top of all that, the other girls’ teams didn’t show up to play basketball so NEXT weekend we will be playing, and I’ve been told that I need to wear the beloved sash to that gathering!
Who would’ve guessed that I would be named “reina” one day!
By the way, our guy’s team won the soccer game (as they said we had the favor of the reina!) Then to top it all off, three of the guys came by that night to sing a few songs to me in honor of my triumph in the competition! As if I had anything to do with actually winning! It was a fun day to say the least!
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