We had another volunteer join us last night from Lehigh. Emily arrived into Managua around 9 and was quickly introduced to reckless driving and stray dogs with death wishes on the ride back to Granada. We put her to work early this morning as we trekked across town to a new school and ran three back-to-back PE sessions. Em is an avid juggler, and quickly developed a fan club. Our second session happened to overlap with recess, so just as we were setting up a field for the girls to play, about 200 kids came pouring out of their classrooms onto the field. Having learned from our previous chaos experience, we opted to not toss a ball blindly into a herd of rambunctious children. We are excited to have Em here and I'm sure she's looking forward to our combined Spanish/Salsa lesson tonight at Chepe's.
Speaking of Chepe, it occurs to me that I haven't really done him much justice on the blog. Chepe, whose name is technically Jose, worked with Ben last year when he was here in Granada, and is truly inspired to be a lifetime "Director of Futbol Sin Fronteras en Nicaragua" (self-appointed). Chepe is a pretty typical 17 year old, meaning that he knows everyone, loves that his job is to walk around town with three older gringas, and is constantly trying to protect us from being hit by taxis, overcharged for avacados, and hollared at by creepy men. He's incredibly resourceful and has found ways to meet all of our random demands: a constant supply of purified water, tacos at any time of day, matching green tshirts, baggies of sweet fruit juice after every PE session, a new tire tube for Elise's bike...he does it all. He's been an integral piece of this project and will no doubt continue to be crucial in the future.
This week we'll be spending our morning in three new elementary schools, holding three sessions with the girls' premier team, hosting another open clinic for girls on Saturday, and planning next week's events. Next week we'll be joined by six more volunteers, so we intend to host an open camp for anyone in Granada who wants to attend. The camp will have a session in the morning, for the kids who go to school in the afternoon, and a session in the afternoon, for the kids who go to school in the mornings. We're targeting players ages 10-15, boys and girls, and will ask our girls' premier team to help staff the camp. In addition, we'll be leading a coaches' clinic every evening. At the end of the week, each coach who attends the clinic will receive a coaches' kit with balls, pinnies, cones, a whistle, and a manual. We're hoping a few of the girls on the team will take the "course" and get excited about coaching younger girls!
Speaking of Chepe, it occurs to me that I haven't really done him much justice on the blog. Chepe, whose name is technically Jose, worked with Ben last year when he was here in Granada, and is truly inspired to be a lifetime "Director of Futbol Sin Fronteras en Nicaragua" (self-appointed). Chepe is a pretty typical 17 year old, meaning that he knows everyone, loves that his job is to walk around town with three older gringas, and is constantly trying to protect us from being hit by taxis, overcharged for avacados, and hollared at by creepy men. He's incredibly resourceful and has found ways to meet all of our random demands: a constant supply of purified water, tacos at any time of day, matching green tshirts, baggies of sweet fruit juice after every PE session, a new tire tube for Elise's bike...he does it all. He's been an integral piece of this project and will no doubt continue to be crucial in the future.
This week we'll be spending our morning in three new elementary schools, holding three sessions with the girls' premier team, hosting another open clinic for girls on Saturday, and planning next week's events. Next week we'll be joined by six more volunteers, so we intend to host an open camp for anyone in Granada who wants to attend. The camp will have a session in the morning, for the kids who go to school in the afternoon, and a session in the afternoon, for the kids who go to school in the mornings. We're targeting players ages 10-15, boys and girls, and will ask our girls' premier team to help staff the camp. In addition, we'll be leading a coaches' clinic every evening. At the end of the week, each coach who attends the clinic will receive a coaches' kit with balls, pinnies, cones, a whistle, and a manual. We're hoping a few of the girls on the team will take the "course" and get excited about coaching younger girls!
As a side note, we decided that we had waited long enough to ride one of the party buses around town. Yesterday after an afternoon a la playa, we had our first fiesta bus experience. Molly and I wanted to ride the tractor/train but Chepe's sister Suyen explained to us that there is no dancing on the fiesta tractor, only on the fiesta bus. So we let the tractor roll by and waited for the bus. The bus is an old repainted school bus with the top chopped off and replaced by a tarp, the windows blown out, and a DJ in the back. There is a small dance floor in the back of the bus for people like us who want to make fools of ourselves in foreign countries. Suyen will dance anywhere and everyone and therefore so must we. It's actually kind of nice to dance on a moving vehicle, because you can blame your own lack of rhythm on the bus driver driving like a maniac.
Hasta manana!
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