It IS a sport (in Latin America)
THE SCENE:
It is not summer here like it was in Chimbote, Peru.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
Bienvenido a F3 (efe tres). Descargo de responsabilidad: no soy profesional. Conoces tu cuerpo, modifica según sea necesario. Todos los ejercicios son meramente sugerencias. No te lastimes.
As I explained to the 5 PAX present… In Chimbote, the gringos led all but one workout. And they could not disclaim in Spanish, so, to help those in attendance understand what it was like to participate in a foreign language workout, I said several things in Spanish.
WARM-O-RAMA:
F3 Chimbote Warm-o-ramas were fun. It was a giant circle of chaos. We did the typical SSH, arm circles, imperial walkers, daisy pickers, etc… but the last day, Son of Sam (18 years old) called out 15 burpees OYO, and nobody was happy about that… So, to pay tribute to the best of the best in Peru, we did 15 OYO Burpees after some other basics.
The other fun aspect of the Warm-o-rama was seeing all the stragglers show up. There was rarely more than 15 Chimboteans present at 6AM (later start time because they are later culture). One morning I heard a few guys talking about how many more would show up by the end of the workout. So, I counted those present at WoR… 39. By the time we hit NoR, we had 81. They showed up all throughout the workout. We also would occasionally have a gringo PAX or two have to bail on a workout or show up late because of the need for a toilet (I showed up a few minutes early one morning, just to find myself sprinting back to the dorm room for relief… stomach issues abounded).
The gringos did their best to count cadence in Spanish. The Q was always on track with “uno, dos, tres”, but the PAX often got lost around “seis, siete”, then again around “once, dose, trece”, then again between “dieciseis-veinte”. This morning, Landline helped me out by starting WoR counting in Spanish even as I was saying “one, two, three”. So I quickly switched over and helped us count successfully (mostly) to 25 in Spanish.
THA-THANG:
Behind the mission we stayed at was a nice futbol (down there it IS a sport) field. Their typical workouts occur on that field. But, the gringos often had different ideas. We moseyed a few places nearby and most workouts included some prescribed exercises followed by a mob mosey around a large curbed median, ad infinitum (some walked… What’s the saying? You can take a horse to water…? Well, you can take a Peruvian to F3, but you can’t get them to give their all). The Qs were pretty creative and there were 3 guys that led who had never been on this trip. Flexibility was key.
Because I was not at the Lair where we have really nice turf field, nor was I in any way familiar with Arcadia, I too had to be flexible. I had an idea of some things we could do and just went with it (thanks F3 for giving me the confidence to lead without having this Q perfectly mapped out like my first few). We moseyed over to the playground behind the school because we needed an “island” to run around. Exercises were prescribed and performed, followed by a lap around the playground/court. (Sidenote… it felt like Hobo was trying to beat everyone on every lap, and I’m pretty sure he succeeded.) Exercises performed were: wall sit w/overhead press, wall stand, merkin, carolina dry dock, Mike Tyson, J Lo, donkey kick, box step up, and more (?).
As I was about to have us crab walk and bear crawl from curb to curb with some Mike Tysons and LBCs on each side, a car came around the corner and I decided that our safety was more important. We moseyed back to the pavilion and moved some tables to perform a variation of the car interrupted session. Ten merkins, followed by a bear crawl across the dry pavilion, then ten more merkins and a crab walk back (x2). Pretty sure Hobo was slowing down at this point because he didn’t want to embarrass the rest of us. He even made mention of his kids doing crab walking at school.
In the middle of one workout, led by the Shiniest Sunshine Bazooka you’ve ever met, a question was posed to the PAX… What are the 5 core principles? Problem, he asked in English (speaking louder and slower didn’t help either). He was hoping to introduce Chimbote to his style of educational Qing. The gringos chastised him as he proclaimed core principle 2 and he backed off of the English language education. But he was eager and made sure he told some of the Peruvians about the core principles, the credo, Q Source, etc… He even stayed a day extra and helped them clean up all the litter around the mission.
MARY:
Everyone got on their seis. We performed flutter kicks, hello dolly (which we also did in Chimbote with women present and “participating”), box cutters, LBCs, American hammers, and shoulder taps (at the request of Hobo).
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA:
5 PAX: Chuck E Cheese (who apparently almost slept through this workout but his wife woke him up after his alarm had been going off for 15 minutes), Black Diamond, Landline, Hobo, Slater
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Yesterday’s workout at the Lair ended with me smiling during the flag pic. Skids called me out for smiling so big after Pops tried to hurt us. I realized that the smile was genuine and I truly enjoyed being back out there with my guys. Go check out my response in the Lair channel if you want. Suffice it to say that despite all the problems I’ve caused and have been around me, God is good. Without His grace, I’m not sure where I’d be. When we struggle, we have to remember that God intends ALL THINGS for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. We aren’t promised ease (don’t believe me? Read the Bible and see if you can find a story of ease and comfort for God’s people). During your suffering, remember that God doesn’t change. Encourage others. Reach out for help. Stay involved in your faith and with your brothers. We are here for each other. God created us for community.
MOLESKIN:
Make some changes. Do some things differently. Consider going to Peru! It will not only help change the lives of those you serve, it will change you if you are willing.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Events are happening. Check out the amazing new calendar feature on the F3 Memphis website. Also, there is another trip to Chimbote in June. It is being led by Hostage (F3 Houston PAX, who has now been twice). Here is a link for more information: http://f3houston.com/f3-texas-mission-to-peru-2020-be-the-dynamite/.
