Church and Futbol

Sunday morning Bryant, Brittany, Liam and I went to the large cathedral in the Plaza de Armas for a 9:00 am Catholic Church service. Bryant was the only one of us who was religious but it was still cool to experience how church is in Spanish and in South America.

It was my first time actually inside a Cusco church because usually you have to pay to go inside them by buying a tourist ticket and going after the services. The inside was beautiful! It had high ceilings and old paintings hung all over the walls. There were gold gates surrounding areas like the center where the music played and toward the front where some candles were lit. The many rows of pews were dark shiny wood and there were pillars that reached the ceiling with podiums attached where the priests used to go to talk in.

Many things were different from a service back home. Some people were standing all over and leaning up against the pillars instead of sitting down in the pews to listen. It was not silent while the priest spoke either and some people were not even paying attention to him but rather they were kneeling and praying to themselves or over to the right side praying to a large statue of Christ on the Cross surrounded by fresh flowers. This really tested my Spanish and made me realize I may not be as good as I thought I am because it was hard to follow what he was saying. Although, I did understand when he the many times he said “en el nombre del padre, su hijo y espirito de santo” while making the three point sign from the forehead to each shoulder. The priest held a microphone so that the enormous church and its crowd could hear his homily (a Catholic sermon). He wore a long green robe and sat in a chair at the front of the church that almost resembled a king’s throne.

The crowd was a mixture of all different kind of people. There were other gringos like us, some coming for the experience and just to look around and others that were there to actually pray. There were wealthy families dressed in their Sunday best, indigenous women with their long braided hair, people in jeans and t-shirts, and even some men in uniforms that stood reverently in back.

We went home to have lunch and then went with the new Minnesota couple and Liam to a soccer game. The teams playing were Cusco (Cienciano) and Lima (Universitario). Apparently the Lima team was from an upper class area and was snobby making for a big rivalry between the teams. The fans from both teams were super crazy and we were glad to not be sitting in those sections but on the calmer “occidente” (west) side instead. Both fan sections had bands which they yelled songs to the sound of the drums, flags which they waved high, and they jumped up and down practically the entire game. The Lima fans let out orange gas at the beginning of the game while they rushed up and down the stands. Since the fans were so crazy, they had SWAT officers lining the steps in-between them in case any riots were to break out. The police stood at the top of the bleachers in each section as well looking down on the crowd and ready to pounce on any fights that may occur.

There were also police officers with shields lining the field to stop any crazy fans from jumping inside onto the turf which probably would have been nearly impossible since the field was surrounded by a fence with barbed wire on top. The shields were to protect the players and officers from things being thrown on the field like water bottles and other trash. They made us leave our water bottles outside of the stadium for this reason because people will sometimes fill them up with urine and throw them at the opposing team members.

The 4 referees dressed in blue uniforms and came out of the blown up “Movistar” phone promotion tunnels first. Next to the left of us Lima entered the field and to the right came out our team, Cusco dressed in red uniforms and white shorts. Our captain, number 10, did the kick off in the middle of the field to start the game. About half way through the first half Lima scored and a fan nearby us showed his excitement very openly in a crowd full of Cusco fans. A man next to us was not happy with this and threw a purple slushee at his white Lima jersey and called him a bad name in Spanish. The Lima fan surprisingly did not retaliate and simply kissed his jersey and let it go.

The game continued with the refs blatantly disregarding Lima hand balls and personal fouls making the Cusco players and fans extremely upset and even causing the injury of one of our best players. It looked like we were going to lose the game until in the last minute we scored and it ended with a tie of 1-1 for which they did not go into overtime to settle.

We left the stadium and the streets were packed with people now trying to get taxis home like us, which took us forever by the way because they were all already full. All of a sudden two dozen or more kids came running down the street at us and cops and army officers followed. I got freaked out and didn’t know what was going on and hid behind Liam until they had passed. I still don’t know what that was about, so if anyone has any idea please let me know. I don’t know whether those kids were getting in trouble, or if it was some sort of tradition but I am curious to know why they did that.

Adios for now! I will be home on Sunday afternoon.

-Hillary-