Form now on in I am going to refer to soccer as football.  That is what it is called here in Peru (and in most of the world) not to mention it just makes more sense.

Since first visiting Peru 10 years ago and then marrying Martin football has become quite a big part of my life.  I have watched the World Cup, the World Cup qualifiers, the Champion’s League, the “Copa Libertadores”, the “Copa America, the women’s World Cup, the Australian A grade.  I have even been known to get up in the middle of the night to watch games.

Despite all this I am not sure I enjoy football.  When I don’t care who wins I find it a bit boring after awhile and when I do care who wins I find it very anxiety provoking.  For example right now we are in the middle of the World Cup qualifiers.  Every time Peru plays our house fills up with people and a very tense atmosphere.  I want Peru to win so much that I just can’t sit still for the whole 90 mins plus extra time.  It’s too stressful especially as things aren’t going too well for Peru.  There’s still a small chance we’ll get in but not much.

In saying that what I do love the communal atmosphere created at most football games.  I love how people gather outside shop windows or in bus stations to watch.  I love how it crosses barriers of wealth, race and religion.  And as I am also now obsessed with being in the present moment I love how in the middle of a football game everyone is entirely present.  Almost no one is thinking about their past or their future but only what is happening in the game.

I have had some pretty special football moments over the last ten years.  I think of getting up at 4am to watch Aus play in the World Cup at the Enmore theatre.  I think of waiting in a bus stop in Ecuador during world cup qualifiers 10 years ago.  Ecuador was playing and it felt like half the town and came to the bus station to watch.  Obviously they didn’t have TV’s to watch it but I am sure watching it there would have been more fun. “The atmosphere was electric.”  I think of watching Bolivia also try out for the world cup four years later with a bunch of shoe shine boys in La Paz.  We had invited them to our hotel so they could see the game and I don’t think I have wanted a team to win so much.  And now recently it’s world cup qualifiers again (some how I am always in South America at this time) every time Peru scores a goal and I hear shouts all across Chulucanas I am so happy.