My day began like any typical day in our Central American lives; ending a 1900-0700 shift with customers asking where the water was?! Turns out that all of Panama City’s water system was shut off due to the new metro system construction. I had to quickly make signs saying to use the downstairs bathroom (where we had a simple system to allow for flushing: a huge garbage bin of pool water and a smaller metal bucket for transferring pool water to the back of the toilet when finished) and close the four bathrooms upstairs before the mass of morning bathroom use could fully develop. Luckily, we were fully booked the night before so I had the pleasure of following the early risers around and flushing the toilet with water hiked upstairs in buckets. The pool then became everyone’s shower and I decided to fall asleep for a few hours.
After waking from a nap and R finishing our volunteer day shift, we cleaned ourselves in the pool, put on as many shades of blue as possible (we didn’t want to be mistaken with our northern neighbors… So backwards!) and decided to make our way to the Canada vs Panama futbal game (we allowed for 3.5 hours of travel time, thinking we would be there incredibly early; turns out we needed every minute)!!!
It is important to explain the passion Panama has for its team. Leading up to the event 100’s of Panamanian fans were spending several evenings outside of the Canadians’ hotel making as much ruckus as possible in hopes of making sleep impossible. This included the obvious drums, encouraging the passing cars to honk, revving motors on motorcycles, chanting, and lasers pointed into windows from adjacent buildings, all of which we could see and hear from our hostel. When a Panama game is happening, everyone walking around the city is showing their support wearing their team’s jersey or a red scarf; their futbol is taken seriously and they want to participate in the 2014 World Cup.
After sitting and waiting in traffic for 2.5 hours on a bus we had finally reached the sea of red jerseys and quickly joined the hundreds of fans flowing toward the stadium! We were all first lined up in a narrow line talking and feeling a level of relaxation, albeit moving fairly slowly. This environment quickly changed when more red kept appearing from all directions and the crowd soon realized that we weren’t moving inside the gates quick enough for everyone waiting in line to see kickoff. There was a massive flooding until we were all standing right on top of each other so close that hands needed to be kept in the air so no one would catch an elbow to the face. People began to chant “cuando cuando” and use the mass of people gathered to put pressure on the gates. One fan even tried to jump the fence. Anxiety and desperation kept building to the point where military officials began to calm the crowd by spraying pepper spray into the air (we now know our pepper spray will do wonders when used on attackers). This only calmed the crowd for very brief moments, but we somehow were shoved/pulled/caught/escorted by military arms through the gates and into the arms of the waiting security officials in a weird daze…. we had finally made it in!
We quickly ran up to find thousands of fans banging on drums, blowing whistles, stomping on the stands, and generally making as much noise as humanly possible. We found a seat quickly and settled into the game that had already begun. Men all around us were ordering trays of 12+ beers at a time and everyone was chanting. Then the first goal was scored! We all jumped up and down screaming in excitement, and everything in everyone’s hands was thrown into the air landing on some other screaming fan. It was impressive as all of the food and drink of thousands of fans all took to the air at the same moment and then showered back down on the crowd; the celebration continued for a good 5 minutes and then relaxed back to banging on drums, whistle blowing, and chanting. The passion was toxic and we made a fan wave go around the stadium at least 3+ times (it is very difficult to pay attention to a wave and the futbol game!).
Half time was spent in the proper Panamanian fashion: playing music as loud as possible through the speakers, completely different sets of music on the various drums around the stadium, dancing in the stands, and reloading on more trays of beer to enjoy the second half. One of our neighbors was curious why we were cheering for Panama; he was sure that we must hate Canada for some reason. For all of our Canadian friends: we do not hate Canada (in fact we really enjoy y’all) we just love the passion for futbol!
As soon as the game began our banging on drums, whistle blowing, and chanting began again! We all went even crazier with the second goal!! R and I were literally soaked from head to toe in Panama beer. It was amazing and everything I had hoped for in a futbol match. As soon as the game finished, with Panama the victors, the crowd went crazy! Everyone was dancing and screaming and loving life. We stormed the streets honking horns to make the noise of our chant “Panama Panama”! We had won and we were all trying to get back to our homes.
R and I were so jazzed from the game we were dancing and singing with the locals as we exited and then decided to hop on my favorite type of transportation, Los Diablo Rojos! It was all lit up and blaring music, how could we not want to take this bus!? Well, it took us to who knows where, where we jumped onto another bus to find ourselves in the middle of El Valle (or so we think, all we know for sure is that we were located very far from the city). We went to the bus driver asking if he was going to Albrook. He looked at us and asked where we were trying to go, telling us to stay on the bus.
We made one detour at his family’s shop for a soda and cigarette and then realized we were in transit and he was just talking us to Cinco de Mayo because he was a sweet guy!
All in all this was a wonderful day full of awesome Panama. And in case you were wondering we came home sticky, covered in beer and food particles, in the middle of the night to still have no water! Another pool shower!
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Rule #2: Don't Die. 