Volunteering and traveling in Argentina to proclaim God's great love, and hopefully not getting sick along the way.

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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Truco!

When I was a teenager, I loved poker. It didn't take as long as chess, and it still required strategy and reading the other player more than the cards. I have Matt Damon to back me up on this one. haha.

I got into it too, from an ex-boyfriend, who taught me all the rules, and allowed me to play with all of his guy friends, despite not being very good. In general, I learned to like all sorts of card games as well from this. Add to that my competitive nature, and well, I'm hooked.

But the cards in Argentina are different. I remember Sarah buying a pack and thinking, "What are we supposed to do with these?" There are different signs, that seem to represent the different suits. But there aren't as many cards, and no Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces. Ahh! "We need to learn how they play cards here!" I said, eager to add to my Argentinian culture.

Then I met these boys in Chaco. Leo on the left, and Moncho (or Ricardo) behind us.
They were in my small group discussion. While difficult to go very deep in conversation, I noticed them playing a game in a group of four afterward. "Will you teach me?" I timidly had asked.

Two nights later, I found myself getting the basic rundown of the game. I had to ask for pen and paper to verify that I was learning the right thing, and saying the different cues correctly. Because Truco, as it's called, is a song.

That is, when you call a play, it's like a part of a song, and each person playing has to "sing" along. "Cantale," you will hear your teammate say. And you begin with "Envido" or "Truco." The responses build upon the other: "Re-Truco" and "Vale Cuatro." etc. etc.

Learning to play opened up the door to spending more time with these guys. And with Moncho, I got to spend an entire afternoon playing with him, his father and younger brother. It was so fun. Fun for me, because I was getting pretty good at it. Everyone was laughing to see the student become the master, surprised a girl could catch on so quickly to this male-dominated game. ha.

I just enjoyed the time, and was flattered at the compliments from both my maestros about learning the game so fast. I still have a lot of practice, and I need to learn the signals that people use in teams, but for now I'm excited to introduce a new game to the Northern Americans in time.

Oh, and I was also excited when Moncho handed me my very own pack of Truco cards on the last night:
Aww shucks. Which is cuter? The gift or the packaging?
They warned me that I can't practice too much, because I can't go around winning all the time. They also said I could teach them the odds and ends of poker when I come back, so that way it's more even. lol.

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