And the organized chaos begins...from Becky

AHHHH! It is Monday, the first day of camp and I can hardly believe it! Since Hubs’ last entry so much has happened and so much has changed. There are 10 more people here and lots of things going on, so let me fill you in on what you’ve missed.

Wednesday night Mary and Ann arrived to an unseasonably cool Nicaragua (I think it was just a little windy and for once it was less than 90 degrees, but we panicked knowing that they would be hoping for and needing warm weather). Not to rub it in, but they definitely made us feel tan. We were so excited for their arrival, for a number of reasons, but one was for them to finally see the office. We had everything ready for the unveiling (even a few picked flowers waiting in a cup on the table) and made them close their eyes as they entered. When they finally saw everything, they loved it and said they could hardly recognize the place because it looked so different. We were pumped.

On Thursday Mary and Ann were on lock down to get all of the millions of details and plans sorted out for the coming week, and Myra, Ali and I ran random errands and had our usual Thursday practice at the field near our barrio. All in all it was a pretty uneventful day, but we all knew we were gearing up for a big week.

Friday morning Myra, Ali, Chepe and I walked through all of Granada (or so it seemed) to do some last minute advertising for the camp as well as sign up gym teachers for the coaches clinic/training. We had our Friday game that ended in yet another tie, but our team was ecstatic afterwards because we didn’t give up any goals. In the evening, we went to the office to test out the new projector. We popped in a short video about Marta and everyone was in awe at how SALVAJE(awesome) and clear the video looked projected onto the white wall into GIANT SIZE. When we finished watching the Marta video we wanted to see more so we put in short FIFA video and watched that. But we didn’t stop there. Ann had brought “Bend it Like Beckham” to see if that would be a good video to show the girls, so we thought we’d try that as well. Really, we just thought the projector was SO COOL that we couldn’t take our eyes off it. So we started watching the movie and I guess we were hypnotized by the projector because we just kept watching… until it was over! We watched the whole movie. All of it. Afterwards, Ann commented on how strange it was that we had just watched the whole movie, and I pointed out that we watched it all in SPANISH! We had English subtitles on and we literally read the entire movie. All in all it was a strange night, but if we learned anything it was that the projector is amazing and potentially hypnotizing.

On Saturday we had our usual Saturday practice with our highest numbers yet! There were almost 60 girls there and we had a great time with them. We told them all about the camp and hopefully we’ll see all the girls either in the morning or afternoon everyday this week. After practice we brought Mary and Ann along to our weekly tradition of Kathy’s waffles. It was as delicious as ever, though not the best pre-game meal. Our game this week was noteworthy. We went down 1-0 early in the first half, only to have Hubs score the goal of the season on an awesome header goal. The second half was full of red and yellow cards and almost a real fist fight, but the game ended 1-1 without any punches being thrown. Phew.

And then Saturday night came – with 8 more volunteers!!! Myra and Ali went to the airport with Suyen and Chepe to pick up Steph, Sari, Kay, Janice, Julie/Scary, Ali/Daus (or Ali dos as Chepe and Suyen call her), Sarah, and Zoe. They arrived at the office in a mini bus/van with all of their bags on top of the van. I’m not sure how everything made it from Managua to Granada but thank goodness it did – it was quite the sight. We showed the girls their houses and left them to enjoy their first night of sleep in Nicaragua.

We started Sunday a little earlier than expected (Zoe, Kay, Sarah and Daus didn’t set their clocks correctly and were waiting for us an hour earlier than planned), but it worked out just fine. We had a thorough orientation at the office in the morning and then walked through the market to catch a bus to Catarina. After a sweaty ride where we were constantly told that we were 5 minutes away, we actually arrived in Catarina. It was beautiful! It is a small town that sits on top of the beautiful Laguna de Apoyo. We took pictures and took in the beauty and then sat at a restaurant for a big pre-camp lunch. It was quite the experience to listen to live music being played centimeters away from our table… but it was worth it to see Suyen and Chepe shake their shoulders in true Nicaragua form. Lunch was amazing with lots of typical Nicaragua food shared family style. Afterwards people walked around or took in the sun, and then we took a bus back into town. The plan was to get back to the market and buy groceries for the week, but unfortunately the grocery store was closed (we were literally 5 minutes late). So instead of going to Pali (a typical super market for Nicaragua),we had to go to the much more American and ritzy grocery store called Colonial. After groceries the new volunteers experienced their first fritos/food in a bag and no one was left disappointed.

And now it is Monday, day one of camp all the madness. So let the organized chaos begin! Because we know that no matter how much we plan for the camp and the coaches’ clinic, there are likely to be plenty of changes and bumps in the road all along the way –but that’s the fun of it!