Paamulians go for Gold...

The Yucatan got into the Olympic spirit Monday as the Paamul Olympics joined the Games of Vancouver 2010.
Our IOC organizing committee, Dale, Sue, Ron, Sandy, Dave and Brenda put in many hours devising and designing the afternoon of competition and fun. In addition there were another dozen volunteer IOC officials who kept scores, and tried to keep the order.
In all there were 80 players divided into 8 “countries”, along with several cheer leading squads.  Each team had a t-shirt colour and a came up with a fictitious country name such as Rango Tango (orange), Thongo (white), Turtleonia (green), ROOF - Republic of old Farts (pink), Principality of Merlot (red), Blue Paradise (blue), Terra Nova (yellow), and our team the Pirates of Neverland (black).
As well each team added to their costumes, designed a flag, and brought an anthem or cheer.
The Games began with the arrival of the torch, carried by Richard, one of the oldest residents of Paamul, who then led us on a parade around the park, and then to the events:

1. Snow Plowing Relay Race (grabbing a handful of sand from your bucket, racing back and passing it hand to hand, then back to try filling your wine bottle)
2. Harpoon throw (with those spongy swimming noodles)
3. X Country skiing (in tandem groups of 5 strapped to long 2x4 boards)
4. Snowball Toss (a snowbird rv park classic - golf balls on a string tossed at the ‘ladder’ - they always fly off)
5. Hockey shot (another snowbird classic - washers toss)
6 Curling (with bumpy coconuts)
7. Icicle Melt (a team effort to run a frozen balloon on a string through all your team’s clothing, top to bottom, and all the way out again)
8. Aerials (throwing and catching small balloons filled with water, oops- splash)

All afternoon the park was ringing with chants and cheers as team spirit, fueled with a little of the other spirits swept through our participants and fans. The competitions were mostly on the silly side -- I have spent many hours on a curling rink growing up in Saskatchewan, but was dismayed when my rock (triangular coconut) did not reach the rings. Well, we had no sweepers, eh.
Can you imagine trying to get distance with those flimsy curved swimming floats in the Harpoon Toss?  Even the “classics” like the golf ball toss and washers take way more luck than skill, I’m convinced. ie. I scored no points on those.

The Icicle Melt brought our team closer, as we ended up tied together running a single string through all our shirts and shorts -- just following the rules, ya know?
The cross country skiing was a challenge, but a little planning and good team coordination with our coach calling out the ‘left’, “right” our Pirates easily prevailed in our heat. A couple of our members who had never played washers before tossed in 5’s adding big points to oour score. I think we won the Harpoon Toss and placed in a couple others too. Which brings us to the Finale and Awards.

We gathered back at the Centre for BBQ and more fellowship as the Ceremonies. Somehow each team got a congeniality award, as in best song, flag, costume, cheer, most enthusiastic, most obnoxious, etc. All good fun.

And now for the real hardware, the medals for total team scores:
    Bronze: Rango Tango
    Silver: Principality of Merlot
    and GOLD to THE PIRATES OF NEVERLAND
    Hey, that was us!
    “We never give up! We never lose! We never grow up!  We’re the Pirates of Never, Never, Neverland!” “-- Arrgh, Argrh, Arrrgrh!!!”