Hockey Night

Yesterday on Friday night, the Canadian Medical Students Association (CMSA) held a school-wide hockey tournament to help fundraise their new organization. As hockey was Arif’s national sport (he’s Canadian), one of Chris’ favorite sports and something he used to play, we decided to go check it out and cheer for our friends.

The tournament was held at the basketball court of the Caribbean International Academy (CIA), which is the Canadian-run school right next door to AUC which has grades K through 12. There were many teams playing that night, and a lot more cheering them on. Each of the teams got different colored T-shirts to represent themselves on the court. CMSA also sold hotdogs and drinks at the fundraiser event.

I personally am not very familiar with the game of hockey, and this style of hockey they played was unlike any I’ve seen, or expected. The players had hockey sticks and the goalie wore the mask, gloves, and those cuffed boards they wear on their legs. But there was no ice, there was no puck… there was not even roller skates. The players ran around on the court, swinging the hockey sticks to get a small ball into the goals. It looked quite fun and the crowd was really into it.

Because a player on the light-blue team injured his leg, Arif got the opportunity to play for the team. Their team won one round.

Eventually after more than four hours of battling, the two last remaining teams in the game were the infamous fourth-semester black team and the only all-Canadian team, the red team. The tournament ended with the all-Canadian red team winning the “Stanley Cup,” which the CMSA built out of containers, buckets, and cups, and fashioned with silver spray paint.

It was a fun night, and although I may not have understood everything that I saw on the “hockey” field that night, I understood that it was important to spend time with the people you care for, before we all leave the island and part our own ways.