Texan Independence Day Hash – Friday 2 Mar 07

Today Wesley and Martina sent the Hash. It was Texan Independence Day so we had a themed hash. Its very hard to dress Texan when you don’t have any gear here!

A few people dressed up, but it was boiling hot so one guy (Erik the Frog) who’d cut a hole in a blanked and put it on like a poncho only last about an hour in it. It looked really good. Lots of people wore jeans with big belt buckles and there were even a couple of Stetson hats. Wesley had a ‘gun’ belt that was custom made to fit a bottle of tequila in it. He was giving people shots before the circle started… one girl ended up with about 5 shots and then 4 down downs – she was half cut before the circle ended!

It was quite a hard hash – we had to walk up a mountain! Martina was at the front of the group and Dan, Neil and I were quite close behind (we’d decided to bolt the moment we left the check because we didn’t want to be stuck behind 60 sets of labouring lungs). One of the older hashers yelled out to Martina – “What did we ever do to you?!” and then “When I catch you…” to which another Hasher responded “Yeah, good luck” there must have been about 400m between then on a 65 degree angled mountain! She just laughed :) I like it when they are a little challenging – make me feel like I’ve earned the beers at the end… In fact I prefer the steep going up than the steep going down. At least when its steep going up its just my lungs and legs that are under pressure – coming down requires balance and agility, both of which I seem to be lacking in the desert :)

Leeann was in Syria this week so I was solo for Song Frau duties. I was much more comfortable this week than previous weeks. I think it was because last week, or the week before Leeann had done it and she was no better than I am at choosing which song to sing and no one seemed to care. During the walk Dan (embassy guy) and Neil (actual proper Texan) and I were discussing the songs saying we needed a Texan song but I didn’t know any. They couldn’t’ think of any but in the end we decided Rawhide would be good… unfortunately we couldn’t remember the words.

During the circle Tom got all the Texans, plus the dressed up people and anyone who could vaguely be considered to be from anywhere close to Texas into the circle. Then he asked for a song… I said either the standard true blue hasher song or Rawhide if anyone knew the words. Fortunately Tom knew the words and promptly burst into song.

Mary Fran and the two Mexican hashers had made chilli and tex mex appetisers so people were slopping chilli all over themselves during the circle. Unfortunately the Mexicans had gotton sick on Thursday night (thankfully not from the food they cooked!!) so couldn’t make it. Wesley got MaryBell (Columbian) to fill in for Eva (because she could speak Spanish) and Wael (to fill in for Mexican Erik) coz he’s ’tanned’ (oh the reasons we’ll come up with on the spot for people to get a down down!). So all the Hares (and fill in Hares) had a few down downs and were gratefully thanked by applause from the hashers for the snack.

The On-On was at the Red Onion – very nice food. Then most of us went on to the Rugby Club because they had a band playing. I think they were a jazz band, but they did a lot of covers as well (even U2 ‘The streets have no name’ with an interesting jazz beat!). It was a good night. Loads of people were there and we didn’t leave til bout 1am.