A day in which I am glad for eye sockets.
         I woke up at eight forty five to have sufficient time to get ready before my game. I got to the field and kicked a ball around with my dad while Profe watched the little kids' game before ours started. We walked over to the different field that we were going to play on and the game started. I felt like I had missed some crucial passes in the first half. One kid fell on my ankle and I also fell over. He asked me if I was okay and offered me his hand. I probably should have taken it, but in my haste to return to the game I stood myself up.
       By halftime, we were down 2-0. We started again and that's when things started to change. I stole the ball from one kid who had been winding up to take a shot at goal and as I ran past him, I heard hime say "No mames (or mamis)" which pretty much can mean anything from "no way" to "stop" to "wow." I think he meant no way though. I was going against this one kid and neither could really pull away so I did my favorite move--the pull back--and even though another kid got it, I felt pretty professional :). A kid on the other team had the ball and I was maybe three or four feet away in the direction he wanted to go. I get ready to steal the ball from him and then all of a sudden, BAM! I feel a big pain in the right side of my face and I see nothing for a quick second and I then am looking to my left. The kid had kicked the ball straight at my right eye. That really hurt. During all the confusion I vaguely remember someone saying my name (soccer version, so it must have been one of my teammates). The referee stopped play and asked me if I was okay. It must have looked pretty bad because Profe asked me if I was okay and then after I said I was okay, asked, "Do you want some water?" (to give me another reason to step out). I decided to keep playing even though I practically cried. I took deep breaths in an attempt to stop myself from crying. For me, it is crucial not to cry or cry out during a game or practice to prove to everyone else that I am a tough player that just happens to be a girl. Plus, I hate crying in front of people! If I didn't have eye sockets, my eyeball would be smashed into my brain!
       We scored once though right after, they scored again. The weird thing is, even though I was hit really hard in the face, you can't even tell!!! During the game, I kept feeling the bone around my eye to see how much it hurt! It didn't hurt at all really! The end score was 3-1.
       After the game, we bought snow cones and went home to change. We got changed and got in the car to get our pictures taken for our visas. That was over in less than ten minutes and we hopped back into the car to go to Tenejapa. The drive was longer than we expected but not too long nonetheless. We parked our car in the small town's plaza and got out and commenced in finding a place to eat. We found this charming little family-run restaurant. We had a hard time ordering because we thought there were five tacos in a order. So when we asked for three orders we got three tacos. That was a little confusing but the food was delicious. We said goodbye to the family and walked around the city.
      The traditional costumes of Tenejapa are very different from other places. For the men, it is wool vests with a little hat with short ribbons of different colors coming off the top. Also, they wore  necklaces with metal disks. The woman didn't really have a specific top that I could tell but they did wear dark colored skirts with embroidery in a small line at the height of the top thighs. The patterns were all different but they were all in pastel colors.
       Their church was linked to the plaza, so we took a look inside before we left. When we walked in, to our right was a guy who muttered and occasionally yelled out (most likely drunk). There were candles on the ground burning just like in Chamula. There was one saint that had whiteness in the space where his eyes should have been (I knew because there were painted eyelashes around them. It looked to me like Isaac the painter from Heroes. Isaac paints the future and when he does, his eyes cloud over. Here is a picture of the church:

Pictures were not allowed in the church so my dad snuck one.

     At one point, this guy came up to us and kind of made sounds and gestured at us to look at a car. It wasn't his and the guy sitting in it looked kind of embarrassed. We thought then we would say goodbye and we would keep walking on our own but instead, he followed us. From the gestures he had made, we weren't even sure he spoke Spanish (the native language for there is Tseltal) but he asked us what some words in English meant. He asked us for ten pesos so that he could get a drink (yeah right buddy). As he followed us, whenever we walked past people, they would try and get him to stop talking to us. My dad finally shook him off (very politely, of course) and we went to get popsicles.
       One the drive back, while eating our popsicles, we saw a roadside shrine. Here it is:

It looks too nice to be on the side of the road!

When we got home, my parents went out shopping and Oscar and I stayed home and read. My dad made a noodle vegetable stir fry and we ate that while we watched two episodes of Heroes.