Chamba

I don't know how people ever got along without Facebook. I went back to see if I could trace when I joined and I think it was somewhere around January 2007. Since then, I have reconnected with 480+ people and counting! It's really made the world feel like a much smaller place, especially being all the way over here. I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook ends up in Merriam-Webster as a noun and a verb with the way people abuse it these days.

Case and point - 2 weeks ago I "facebooked" a handful of friends I knew in Guatemala. It had been about 13 years since we last saw one another, making the reconnection process a lot of fun. I was not sure who I'd find, but I think I got lucky with about 7 successful friend requests. Since then we've been going back and forth, sharing pictures, comparing passport stamps, and reliving the sweaty-palmed, jean jacket, snap-at-the-crotch leotard, middle school dance parties via youtube and the help of this top hits list from 1993. really brings you back...

Everyone turned out to be pretty awesome, spending their years after Colegio Maya everywhere from the Philippines to Hungary, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Holland, and Costa Rica. The list goes on... One of my friends ended up playing professional soccer in Monaco, eventually starting his own sports apparel company based in Orlando, called Chamba. During his time in Costa Rica, Jason was part of a movement called freestyle soccer, which he continues to play and promote today through the Chamba culture. Below is just an example of what freestyle looks like, as demonstrated by Jason Utley Madrigal himself. The Chamba web site has some other fun multimedia links on it. Check 'em out here (cool, cooler, coolest).