The Basketball Game

On Tuesday, 7/5, we, as in Paula, Jocelyn, Danny, Onno, Elahdio, Juliet, Karen, Hailey, and I, all went to watch this guy Matt’s basketball game. Matt is someone that Anna met randomly and the other groups met him at her lunches, so they all asked if we wanted to go. He plays on a semi-pro basketball team here in Cochabamba, and they were having a game against the other team from Cochabamba. So, we all went, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I’m glad I went because it was honestly hilarious. First of all, basketball is a really new sport here in Bolivia, so not very many people are into the sport/know how to play. So they people on the teams had ages that ranged from high schoolers all the way to like 50 year old men. Huge range of age and athleticism I might add. Anyways, honestly, except for maybe 4 of the players, they all sucked. Like I could’ve dominated on that team and that’s saying something because I am not very good at all. But, Matt’s pretty good I must say, except the rules with basketball here are kind of weird. They do play with four 10 minute quarters, but the shot clock is set to 24 seconds (random amount of time) and everytime the ball hits the rim and is reset, it resets to 14 seconds. I’m not sure why, but that’s how it is here. Also, the players don’t seem to know how to play very well either, so it was kind of just a huge foul-fest during the game with coaches and players complaining the entire time. Very entertaining experience I must say.