Divide and conquer- from Myra

After our Saturday morning session, we were eager and anxious to have a productive afternoon. We spent a few hours working on each of our respective projects. Hubs has been doing a lot of work for our new office space. Among her many talents, she is really creative and artistic so she’s taking the lead on the blue-print for the office. She is in the process of sketching the Futbol Sin Fronteras logo, seeking the best (comfortable and cheap) furniture, and organizing all of the equipment so we can start giving cleats, sneakers, etc. to the kids who have earned them! Becky spent the afternoon working on the Life-Skills curriculum that we are trying to implement for the girls. She made a ton of progress and sketched out a hypothetical 4-week timeline filled with different trust, leadership, and teamwork games. Our goal is to run our very first workshop next week in the office! I spent a few hours trying to figure out how we can get school supplies donated here. I wrote a letter to my former high school principal and some contacts at my old middle school to try to get that going. It is obvious that so many of the kids here desperately need some basic school supplies. It seems simple, but these things (or lack thereof) keep kids here from obtaining the most basic education. We have already heard back from Mr. Hughes, my former HS principal, who is excited to get a drive going at Lower Merion.

After an afternoon in front of the computer, we were excited to get back to our barrio! It was a great night—some of the kids were celebrating their first communion and we were invited to food and dancing! So after quick showers, because the kids were anxious for us to join the party, we spent a few hours next door listening to music and dancing with the kids. It was a blast and a little bit of a role reversal. We were no longer the instructors on the soccer field. The kids were teaching us how to dance, and trust me, that required a lot of patience and strategy, to keep us from tripping over ourselves or losing the beat!

We woke up Sunday and went to San Juan Del Sur for a few hours. We spent the day with Chepe and Suyen and relaxed a little bit by the beach. It was a perfect day and was topped off by some ice cream for the ride home! (Ice cream has sort of become a part of our nightly routine, rather than a once-in-a-while treat… but it’s hard to turn down!)

Monday morning we took care of our food shopping. As usual, Chepe was the man and helped us with prices and bargaining. We went to Milton’s house Monday evening and had a successful and exciting meeting. Aside from the fact that Ali, Becky, and I could not stop sweating, and were called out for it, the meeting was all business and we are itching to get going on some of the projects we discussed. On Thursday we head to all 10 schools (each of which we will return to over the next month and teach gym classes) to pass out our curriculum, flyers for Saturday practices, and a schedule for the gym teachers. Chepe was the star of the meeting and really helped us get a lot out of Milton. He proposed the idea of a campaign to clean the field, Callejas, that we have practice on throughout the week. We also talked about re-arranging the field to get better use out of it. Maybe using the space for two fields rather than one so that the kids have a place to play, when older league games are going on. We wrote letters this morning to David Callejas, the owner of the property, presenting our ideas and seeking permission from him, and will keep our fingers crossed! Finally, we had practice this morning—the kids are in school half-days so we have been doing morning and afternoon sessions to accommodate their schedules--had 10 kids there this morning and played steal the bacon which is quickly becoming their favorite game. It was a really close and competitive game which made it a little nerve-racking to watch from the side. Looking forward to hearing how the afternoon session went!