A passing of the torch

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[youtube=K-RAp_InNVQ]

As soon as I got back from the Great North, we had one week until Aly and Zach moved back to Wisconsin and we knew we had to maximize every minute! Karaoke (called Karleoke here, after our gracious host, Karl) was the usual spectacular of performances, and we met some legendary people that week. One in particular was a girl that was rapping with Zach all night long, Angela from SF who is traveling around central america for 8 months. The next day when she walked into Barefoot, all of us started cheering and yelling for the amazing new rapper and asked her to join us and maybe be our new best friend? She was meant to stay in Placencia for 3 days, and ended up here 6 weeks and traveling to Mexico and Cuba with me! Much more to come with Angela!

Lucky for her, and us, she was right in time for the Beach Olympics! While I was in the States, Aly had gotten everyone in the village psyched on the idea of the Olympics, and it was scheduled for the Sunday before they were to leave. I was SO excited at the prospect, and the word spread around the village like wildfire! Tyler decided to make a beer bong for the event; none of us knowing that Belizeans had never seen such a fun party contraption! Not surprisingly, it was an instant hit, and we had all generations of legal drinking age partaking in the action!
We had four teams of three people, drawn at random from a hat. Then each team had 20 minutes to make a uniform out of the things in the craft box and submit their team name. The supplies were basic - pipe cleaners, feathers, glitter, and a few mardi gras and birthday hats! You can see the well laid schedule in the photo gallery - we even downloaded Olympic music for the opening and medal ceremonies! Thank goodness all the events were simple, because between the bittaz shots and beer bongs, I couldn’t even get the participants to line up in a straight line to start the egg toss!
I was trying to compete as well as run the show with Aly, and there was lots of mass confusion in the beginning. Thank goodness I had a megaphone and best friend to help me out! By the time we actually started there was a good crowd of over 30 people gathered at the peninsula tip to watch us compete for the fish-shaped pipe cleaner medals. We did our best to combine our love of Wisconsin and Belize into the event schedule. The Scrambled Eggs and Cheese Toss had the athletes hands covered in cream cheese while trying to handle eggs, and the Bread and Lambeau Field Games used the always crumbling creole bread and hard as a rock baguettes as props. Wrecked at Sea Oil Wrestling was pretty much that - wrestling on a air matress while slathered in baby oil...neither a wisconsin nor belizean tradition, but a great idea for an event! and the Bak Eet Up Three Legged Race....one of our favorite Belizean songs encourages us to back it up, back it up, back it up, so what better way to celebrate than to try and 3 legged race backwards?? It was also the perfect final event of the Olympics, since all four teams would compete at once and race towards the finish line banner. I later found out that our champions, Steve, Angela, and Doyen, were practicing their backwards racing all day in between events! They were the only team that didn’t collapse over backwards laughing hysterically, and it got them the gold medal. Well, the gold #1 fish pipe cleaner necklace!

The entire event was about 2 hours of pure joy and entertainment, and I can confidently say that everyone had the BEST time EVER! As the sun went down, most of us stayed on the beach and reveled in our victories, or stole medals from each other, depending.... Many are still talking about it, and now that a Winter Olympics are in the works, everyone is coming to me with event ideas!

The next day was Aly and Zach’s last night in town, and Cassie and Charro wanted to host a party for our dear friends’ departure. The cases of beer went fast, as the bonging continued, and the toasts to Team Wisconsin flowed into the night. It was another reminder of our close friends here in Placencia, and not a goodbye, but a See You Again Soon! And as a matter of fact, we will see them again soon, for the Winter Beach Olympics in Feb 2010!

Be sure to check out the video icon below to view the Bak Eet Up Three Legged Race in full motion! Also I uploaded the Remoran Stalker video again, this time in the youtube format- check out the video icon below the text entry. Enjoy!

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Photos

Anton inking Z at our house
the first of many performances!

The first event
It took about 10 minutes to get the teams to understand the egg toss lineup. Another beer bong for all!!

Egg Action Shot!
Thanks Anne, the official photographer

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