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| Abby at breakfast... she likes to talk with her hands. |
With torrential downpours all night long, we did not know what we were going to wake up to. When we checked the forecast last night it was a high chance of rain all day. 7:30am…. Sunny Skies… alright, alright, alright :-)
We enjoyed a great breakfast down the beach and a relaxing morning before heading to the school. We picked up water for the kids on our way to the field and set up for the first wave of Infant 1 and Infant 2 (1st and 2nd graders) who get out an hour before the rest of the school. I posted up at the entrance/exit of the school and ushered them over to the field next to the school as they came out. Once we gathered all of the little guys over at the field we started with some fun small games and skills and then moved onto some teamwork drills and a fun scrimmage. What an amazing transformation from yesterday…. wild… that is what they were yesterday. Today they were fantastic. We had a great time and several of them stayed to continue with the camp as the older kids got out of school.
We set up into our 4 stations… Dave had the playing/possession station, Scott was on shooting, Abby on dribbling, and Maria and Kevin on team building. We had no trouble dividing the kids into age groups and starting with the stations. The entire session went great today. Turns out that this year, the kids didn’t need 2 days to adjust, just 1 day. The coaches also did a fantastic job with their stations... You could feel so much positive energy in the air!
There is a lot of excitement around the upcoming league and program expansion. A group of boys were out practicing to prepare for the league and we had to ask them to move from the field to make space for camp. I asked them if they would like to join us and they were very upset that they could not play anymore. They said they had “just finished picking up all of the glass off the field.” I went to the side with them and talked to them all about the league and the upcoming program and the leadership team. I told them all about what we were learning in camp and how much it would help them. I put my “trying to be one of boys” hat on and by the end of the conversation they were running over to join their age group. These boys enjoyed themselves and thrived in the camp for the rest of the afternoon… it was a great thing to see. I also had a group of really little 7 and 8 year old girls that I called “my good girls” because they were so well behaved and sweet they were following me around camp like little ducks :-)
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| Salif jumping into the action |
All of the coaches did such a wonderful job today running their stations, when it came time to play the game I did not think that it could get any better. Then Salif started walking up to the field. Salif is a friend of mine from the LTRC adult soccer league who set out to come on the trip but could only make it from Tuesday-Saturday. He flew in and came straight to the field changing his clothes in the cab. I introduced him to the campers and announced that he would be the coach of one of the teams for the scrimmage. Salif played on the Cameroon National team and when the kids found this out they erupted in a round of applause! Salif brought such a great and positive energy into the camp with his arrival! We scrimmaged for about 40 minutes with 3 teams rotating and then brought all of the campers in to tell them how much improvement we have seen from yesterday and especially in just the day today. I said how proud of them we are and how we can’t wait to see them again tomorrow. “Can you
After camp, I walked back with Salif to the hotel and told him all about the program in Nicaragua and Belize and the expansion plans we are beginning to execute now. Salif’s enthusiasm for the difference this program can make and the potential for its growth was so inspiring. I can tell that he will be such an amazing addition for the volunteer staff this week.
Dinner and relaxing night once we got back. Nothing too exciting to report other than good conversation and an opportunity to really relax (and write the blog).
EVERYTHING must be done face-to-face in Belize. This is something I realized on past
trips and I am so grateful we have been able to accomplish so much to help move this program move forward.
Looking forward to another great day with the kids tomorrow… it’s amazing how fast you become attached. This time when we leave I will be able to sleep well knowing that Abby is carrying on the good work and the kids can continue to grow and develop!
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