The Eating Contest

A few weeks back, I went to an All Vounteers Conference (AVC) where it gathered all the Volunteers serving around Panama together for a couple days. The conference allowed for a couple things – sharing experiences, getting to know more people, and have a little fun.

That last one is what I’m going to talk about today. One of the highlights of the fun time was the “Campo Olympics”. What’s the Campo Olympics you ask? Well, it was a series of events that pitted each of the different groups of Volunteers. There were five different groups (58, 59, 60, 61, and 62). My group is Group 62 and our chosen colors were green.


Now the events were a mixture of contests that are commonplace in the country side (campo) of Panama. They included a three legged horse race, slingshot contest, chowing down some mysterious food, opening a can of tuna with a knife, skinning an orange with a knife, grita or yelling contest, a dance off, tug of war and finally a banana eating contest.

While the rest of the events were great fun, I’m going to focus on the banana eating contest because yours truly was the representative from my group. Now originally I was not planning to try this one out - I mean who wants to try to scarf down 10 bananas as fast as possible - but nobody stepped forward, so I said I would do it. I do have a history of being able to eat a pretty good amount of food, so why not?

So I was joined on stage with my four other opponents. The 10 bananas were laid out before us and we were charged with the task of unpeeling them and eating them as fast as we could. Giddy up. Or so I thought.

The whistle blew and I reached for my first banana. As I was unpeeling my first one like a nice slow stroll through the park, the person next to me was thrashing through his first two like it was his last meal on Earth. I quickly realized this wasn’t the gentlemen’s banana eating contest.


I picked up my pace, but had trouble trying to chew and digest them fast enough to keep up with my competition. Eventually, I was smoked. I finished 7 ½, before the top three had gobbled and mashed there way through their ten.

I was loser. There was no doubt. I had let the other members of my team down. It was a low moment for me.

Like everything else, I just have to pick myself up and hope to be ready for next year. That is if my group selects me next year.