For the five-member Guatemalan team at this week’s JCC Maccabi Games in San Francisco, visiting the Bay Area afforded them not only a chance to compete with other athletes, but also an opportunity to shop.
And shop they did.
In fact, a visit to a Target store was a huge highlight for teens — as was the peaceful pace of the Bay Area.
Fifteen-year-old Clarissa Tenenbaum explained why. “It’s very dangerous, so you cannot walk,” she said, referring to many of the areas around her home in Guatemala City. “You don’t have anything to buy.”
The team planned to hit the customary tourist spots — the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, a cable car — but high on its list was a visit to the outlet mall in Milpitas.
All five were hosted by Guatemalan-born Debby Harris in her Richmond District home. And even she was able to glean a new adventure out of the experience.
“I’ve never been to Milpitas before,” she said.
Besides Clarissa, the other team members are Galia Kelman, 14, Susie Altalef, 16, Debby Velleman, 15, and Ariella Tenenbaum, 14 (no relation to Clarissa). All are basketball players and the sole members of the Guatemalan delegation, which had never sent anyone to a Maccabi Games in the past.
In addition to the five girls, Team Guatemala added three more athletes, two from Memphis and one from Denver, to form a complete basketball squad. The team ultimately lost the four games they played Aug. 3 and 4.
The 2,530-mile journey from Guatemala City to San Francisco began in the house of Clarissa after a San Francisco Maccabi representative traveled to Guatemala.
“He mentioned the Games and what the idea was,” said Clarissa, who, like the rest of her teammates, speaks fluent English but converses mainly in Spanish. “We started talking about it and my mother was the one that actually got the info.”
The nature of the Jewish community in Guatemala made it easy to find other athletes to join the team. Clarissa and Susie are classmates, and with only 200 Jewish families in their area, they persuaded the other three to join.
After researching the games, which included watching videos of past games, the girls decided to participate.
That was the easy part. While the girls are all close friends, talent was the great divider. Clarissa is the star of the team — she has been playing for more than six years, and has competed across the U.S., including Florida, Washington, Las Vegas and Arizona. Susie has the second most experience on the team, after Clarissa convinced her to join their school team two years ago.
Galia plays for her school, but her coach is “very bad,” she said. For Debby and Ariella, the last five months of team practice under coach Beni Wolman represent the bulk of their basketball experience.
San Francisco did not make a good first impression. The girls called the flight here “horrible” and the “worst ever.”
“The six-hour flight from Miami turned into a nine-hour flight,” Susie said. Harris picked up the girls at midnight July 29.
After sleeping in until noon the following day, Harris and the girls walked across the Golden Gate and around Sausalito.
“We’re very excited to be here,” Susie said. “Since we got the opportunity, we feel very fortunate.”