An old Hippie named Bill

His arrival had been hyped up for at least a month if not longer. We had seen pictures of him and seen the list of the movies, TV programs and commercials that he had been in. He was coming to Guatemala on the day of our belt promotions… the sensei of my sensei’s sensei was coming. It was probably my only chance to meet him. He has the 10th degree of black belt, one of only 8 in the world. He is this old hippie from Hawaii and totally gone Hollywood… long hair, big beaded necklace with a big tiger tooth on it… tall and lanky, face creased with wrinkles and his waist wrapped with a tattered black belt. Since he was there everyone showed up… students, parents, other relatives… and it was chaos. The first promotion hour went well… Sensei Bill Ryusacky helped with some of the promotions but from then on… well first he wanted to teach a self-defense class to the parents. All the parents took off their shoes and entered the Karate area with the 3 to 13 year olds behind them trying to see what was happening through the legs of the adults. Then after the class it was time for picture… and from then on the promotions took second to getting a picture with Sensei Bill. Horacio and I helped translate (Horacio much more than me, I more provided a person for the kids to look at when the photographer took the pictures) since Hippie Bill does not speak Spanish and frankly his English was hard for me to understand… He would pose people as if they were dolls so that the pictures would look better… and then get into position right before the photo was snapped so that he would look more impressive. At one point due to the heat of so many in the gym, he asked for a fan and when I put it up on a stool so that the air would reach him, he said that’s better, now its more Hollywood. Crazy. He even asked to have his picture taken with one of the women there to support one of the students… for him. I had pictured Mr. Miagi… humble, very talented but humble and not one to show it off… wax on wax off… you know? Well… I got a Hollywood version of a Sensei but not the Mr. Miagi model. One good thing resulted due to the chaos… Horacio and I missed our promotions with our group since we were helping with translations, etc. So once the chaos had died down, pictures had been taken and autographs received… we had our promotions. All that were left to be promoted, other than us, were the brown and black belts. The black belts surrounded the two of us. The sensei’s in front of us and those who would be promoted after us were behind us. They were all in black… I was all in white and Horacio was white with his yellow belt… so we stood out. They take off your old belt, tying it in the knot we use around your hands (for me it was a bit different, they did not tie the know, since I was going up to white belt with degree instead of to orange belt like Horacio). Then you hold your belt in the middle and have half a minute or so of meditation with the sensei’s hand over yours and your heads bowed. Then the sensei puts on your new belt, or for me puts on my old belt with the mark of degree on it. You stand up and get into position (legs shoulder length apart and fists at your side ready to punch or be punched), and the sensei kicks you in the stomach. Then you do the formal bow to the sensei and then turn and receive bows from those behind. It was cool… and only Horacio and I, other than the black belts, received kicks that day!