Three Taiwan warships and their 800 sailors are in Belize for three days and if you cruise the city it seems that they are everywhere. This afternoon we caught up with the sailors at the City Center where they went head to head with soldiers from the Belize Defense Force. Here’s how it looked.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This afternoon it was war between Belize Defense Force soldiers and Taiwanese sailors on the basketball court in the City Center.
Capt. Brandon Garcia, BDF Soldier
“They are all BDF soldiers, we have one person from the Volunteer element. All the rest are from the regular force. We’re just having a friendly match between the Belize Defence Force and Taiwanese Navy; a friendly basketball match.”
Keith Swift,
How is the game going?
Capt. Brandon Garcia,
“We’re leading and hopefully we can keep that momentum as the game continues.”
Friendly but still competitive. At the half – the Taiwan sailors were down by double digits.
Staff Sgt. Glen Vasquez, BDF Soldier
“So far so good. It is a very competitive game. We are working hard and once we continue working hard, we’re supposed to have a very good game. Really and truly it is isn’t the horse that leads who wins the race, we just need to keep up the momentum and continue playing the game to the best of our ability.”
Lt. Commander Simon Cheng, Taiwan Navy
“Our players are coming from three different ships and our mission is to try to get to know other officers from other countries. So it is a good opportunity for us to play with some other countries. So it is a good opportunity for us to play with players from other countries. This is the first time our players are playing together as a team. So they might have some problems. They don’t know each other so well but we are still having a good time.”
A good time – and so it didn’t matter who won – though for the record the BDF did. But it was that they played the game.
Lt Cmdr. Simon Cheng, Taiwan Navy
“We can’t shoot very precise, maybe because of the weather and we haven’t played for a long time but we are still having fun.”
Staff Sgt. Glen Vasquez, BDF Soldier
“Just give countries good relationship with each other and we get to know each other as for sports and probably some time in the future I end up in their country as well.”
Capt. Brandon Garcia,
“All I can say is that strengthens our relationship with the Taiwanese and that is good for our military because eventually we can see them as an ally.”
And that will be allies both on and off the court.
The game ended 51 – 26 in favor of Belize.
