Nicaragua Day 3: More Than Futbol

3:30am wake up call by roosters, put head phones in, 6:40am wake up call by appropriate alarm clock. 

Breakfast today was awesome- they made us omelets! yum. After breakfast we had the morning devotional and then all of the campers signed up for 1 of 4 different stations on HIV and AIDS: "Stigma and Discrimination", "STI's", "Family Planning", and "Risk Factors". All 4 groups went to different areas of retreat center to learn about their topic for about an hour and then all four groups came together and the youth participants were responsible for teaching the other groups what they had learned. 

View from my dorm looking back at the other dorms on the right and main hall straight ahead. 

During this time I got an awesome work out in, showered, and set up the field for the soccer tournament. For the tournament today we have a little glitch. At the end of the day yesterday when we went to pack up the shoes there was a pair of shoes missing. We only counted 27 out of 28 pairs of cleats that were being used for the tournament. This year we had youth from 13 different communities in Nicaragua and we had 3 guests from the church in El Salvador. Each community has a leader and each leader was responsible for discussing the situation with their group and giving the person who stole the shoes the opportunity to anonymously turn them in without punishment. Eventually everyone's rooms were searched but the cleats never turned up. We suspect that it was one of the new players because they don't understand how the camp works and how dishonest behavior affects the entire camp. If the cleats were not turned in by this morning then no one would be allowed to wear the cleats for the rest of the soccer tournament. 

I was very disappointed this morning when the cleats were not turned in. I did not expect that they would be, I just did not want to see the rest of the camp suffer due to one person's poor decision. Regardless, the tournament continued as usual. Campers played in everything from bare feet to socks, to dress shoes. Missing the cleats did not slow anyone down! 

Players juggling behind the goal on the field while they wait for their game to start!

Today, we had 6 games to get through for the tournament and then 4 games for the semifinals. The games went very well. The girls, who started out yesterday very timid, were very confident and bold on the field today. The boys also played very hard and surprisingly, very clean! This year I reffed without a whistle (which is my preference) and I think it calmed the games down a lot. Players were listening for my voice rather than a whistle and it seemed to control things a lot better. 

Both Enmanuel and his brother's team were in different semifinal games. After his brother's team won, all the pressure was on Enmanuel to win and…. they lost. But it was still a lot of fun. We brought the big speakers out and had Rabin commentate from the side. He should really consider doing radio because he has such a knack for it! It really added a lot of fun and excitement to the games! 

Once the soccer tournament ended for the day we showered up and met back in the main hall for dinner, the evening devotional and the night of festivities! The night started with a piñata! The invited campers up one by one and blind-folded them. This was the funnies piñata game I've ever seen. Esvin was pulling the string to make the piñata go up and down and would also swing it side to side so that the campers were swinging at nothing or getting hit by the piñata! Once the piñata finally broke everyone ran out while the blind-folded person was still swinging! No one got hurt and it was VERY funny! 

After the piñata, it was time to crown the king and queen of camp. Each of the 13 communities elected a male and female nominee who had to go through a "pajama round", "sports round", and "evening wear" round. After King and Queen were selected it was time to party. Well, time for the youth to party. The snacks and drinks were laid out, the music was pumping, and despite having the championship game the next morning, the party did not wind down until after midnight! 

Nicaragua Day 2: More Than Futbol

After lunch yesterday we started to set up the field! This included lining the field with cones, finding 4 large tree branches for goal posts and then digging the post holes. You might ask, in dry rocky ground, how did we manage to dig goal posts? Easy… we just get some of the youth players from the farming communities- they can do it no problem. What would take us 30 minutes per hole took these guys 5 minutes. Very impressive, and with nothing but basically a metal rod!

Once the field was prepared I had about an hour before lunch to get a work out in. For all of my Premier players who are reading this- yes, I did my 10- 200yd shuttles here (all in under 40)! If I can make it work here, I hope you guys are keeping up with your workouts at home!

A workout is exactly what I needed to loosen up and get ready for the long and tough afternoon of reffing 12 games in a row!

On my way to the field I held out the yellow and red cards and asked Luis which one he preferred and he said, "neither, I'll take the green one"!
Once the tournament started it was one game after the next of fun competition. We had a few yellow cards mostly from the players being silly with intentional hand balls or horsing around on the field with their friends. Other than that, it was great competition! Awesome footwork and passing, teamwork, and a lot of fun being had by all. Enmanuel did step in and referee a couple of games to give me a second off my feet, thank goodness- but one of the games he landed reffing his brother's team and ended up red carding him out of the game. Goodness gracious! (from what I understand, the red card was warranted)

We also had 2 of the female church pastors participate in the girls division of the tournament! It's definitely fun watching the kids get competitive, but its even more fun watching the pastors running around on the field!

All and all, the first day was a huge success and everyone had a ton of fun! After dinner and the movie, "the Lorax" (in spanish) it was time for "Talent Night". Everyone is required to do a talent and its amazing how fun and goofy everyone can be and how supportive everyone is of those who are nervous. It creates such a fun community vibe and a great environment to cultivate awesome friendships. If you ever travel here, you will undoubtedly leave feeling like you are part of this community forever. They still ask me about my sister, Phil Sheehey, Danny Shaifer, Caitlin Willard, Cara Chisholm and other volunteers that have traveled down here with me in the past.

A late night tonight and an early morning tomorrow so I'm signing off for the evening! Good night everyone! Thank you all for your support and following the blog!

(It's morning now as I am finally posting this entry and I can already hint at a major drama in the soccer camp that is really going to affect the tournament today and everyone in it. I will try to post it up tonight, internet cooperating, and you can read about what happened yesterday that hasn't been revealed yet, how the camp leadership responded and how it will affect the rest of the tournament!!!)

Nicaragua 2014: Day 1

Saturday/ Sunday/Monday Morning

Last week we packed 10 bags to bring down to Nicaragua and Belze- over 400 pounds of soccer gear! The amount of gear donated was incredible. Almost 20 volunteers showed up to help pack and immediately got to work. We had all 10 bags packed, inventoried, and stored for the trip within 3 hours! 

Go Eagles!

1 week later and I was on the flight to Nicaragua! Usually, when flying down to Nicaragua I fly American Airlines. This time, however, I ended up on Spirit Air. I was already worried because I have heard of others having negative

experiences flying to or from Central America on Spirit. Despite being delayed, I ended up running into an old high school friend, Go Eagles! Annnd, despite the duck-tape holding the seats together on the second flight, I landed in Nicaragua safely! Needless to say, that will probably be the last trip on Spirit Air for me.

I landed in Nicaragua at 3:30am and as soon as I stepped off the plane I could smell Nicaragua and a happy feeling came over me, like the smell of "home". Not a negative or positive smell, just different front he US. With 4 enormous gear bags in tow, I had to get through customs all by my lonesome. Usually, this quantity of luggage would raise a red flag for security, potentially launching into a lot of questioning. However, my friend Helen's cousin, works at airport security on the luggage ex-ray machine and so I came through without any problems! 

Tonny and Enmanuel

Mike and Luis picked me up at the airport. I was so happy to see them and this was only the beginning of all the happy and exciting greetings of with beloved friends here. Poor guys, had to wake up in the middle of the night to get me. I stayed at Mike's house Saturday night and then we woke up Sunday morning, ate breakfast, and picked up some groceries for the week of camp! Sergio, Helen's brother, picked us up back at Mike's house with a big hug and a new haircut! We headed over to the Central church in Managua. 80 youth from all over the country met us at the church at 12:00. Some had even had to leave at 4am from their communities to get there by bus on time! Here I saw Enmanuel, our friend that stayed in Maryland for 6 weeks this past summer, Tonny, who stayed for 4 weeks the previous summer. Kevin, Alexander (Luis's brother), Helen, Solliette, Rabin, Esvin, and several of the campers from last year! (I will introduce all of my friends later)

From here we left for the youth camp in Rivas, Nicaragua- about 2 hours south of the capital city, Managua. Sergio, Solliette, Mike and I  were in the truck with the gear in the back of the pick-up, the youth were in a big yellow school bus, and all of their luggage and a few more youth were in a big truck. So our caravan of pick-up truck, bus, and school bus drove through 2 hours though Nicaragua countryside- fields of farm animals, crops, mountains, and volcanoes. 

Upon arriving here, Mike and I unpacked all of the gear, laid it out and everyone who wanted to participate in the soccer program signed up. We ended up with 32 girls and and 32 boys! Which makes 6 teams of 5 or 6 players each! Last year we only had 4 girls teams, so its very exciting to see more girls step up and be interested in the program! 

Enmanuel, Tonny, and Alex were responsible for assembling the teams making sure that people were not put on the same team as someone from their hometown community. Also, to make sure the teams are fair and balanced. This way, everyone makes new friends when they would otherwise spend the camp with their hometown friends and stay in their comfort zone! Last year was the first year we decided to mix up the teams and at first the players were very bummed out and skeptical but everyone ended up having a great time playing with new players and against their friends. It was a big hit! While we were making the teams, the mosquitos came out. When I asked them if they would like bug spray, they said, this is "normal"! 

Last year, LTRC Baseball donated 700 jerseys which were also very good for soccer and they were a big hit last year. This year we had a lot of LTRC soccer and SAC soccer jerseys and a lot of variety in brand: adidas, diadora, etc. This was also a very big hit with all of the players! We called each player up on each team individually and presented the team with their jerseys in front of the entire camp. Everyone cheered for each other when their teams were up! It was fun to see the camaraderie and to see the players get excited over which team they would be on! 

After a delicious beans and rice dinner (and a cucumber I brought from the supermarket), Sergio gave the rules of the camp- no going in other peoples rooms, no romantic relationships, in bed at 10pm, breakfast at 7am, and NO cell phones! 

Finally, it was bed time and boy did I need a shower. The rooms here are awesome. Everything is clean and white tile and I have my own room and bathroom! When I was getting ready to get in the shower last night I saw a HUGE spider. I don't know what spiders are dangerous in Nicaragua! All I know is that this was a spider and it was BIG. So I ran into the hallway and got my friend Kevin to come in and get rid of it. He pretended to kill the spider and turn around and scare me but what he did not realize was that the spider started chasing him when he turned around to scare me! Luckily he crushed it with his shoe in time! Very funny. 

Nothing like following up an awesome shower with a shower of bug spray. Last year I literally had hundreds of mosquito bites all over my legs, ankles and feet after one tortuous night with the bugs- it was worse than the chicken pox. (and the mosquitos only come out at night!) Not likely to make that mistake again. Luckily, OFF! now has the "clean" spray that is not sticky at all. So I slept like a baby. Well, until the roosters started going off at 4am! I was ready for those roosters with a pair of headphones next to me! 

This morning all of the campers are participating in a "spiritual retreat" where they spend half of the morning in bible study and the other half of the morning with the bishop doing an exercise. This is my perfect chance to work on the blog and set up the soccer field for the afternoon tournament! Enmanuel wrote the game schedule and all of the team names on a huge white board and we are ready to go! 

Thanks for tuning into the blog! I hope you enjoy the stories throughout the week and continue to follow! 5 days more in Nicaragua and then off to Belize where I will meet a team of 6 volunteers that includes my 2 brothers and best friend! 

Wish me luck this afternoon! The referee is also in the hot seat, especially here in Nicaragua! I'm still hearing about calls from last year that they disagree with! 

Youth Camp in Nicaragua

 So I am finally back to internet service now with exception to a quick checking of my email a few days ago. So I'm writing one Bigggg blog post instead of a daily. 

We met all of the youth kids on Sunday morning and packed 2 buses of 70 people to head out to the camp located on Mt. Sinai in Rivas, Nicaragua. I was really excited to see There was a lot of buzz in the air as we traveled to the retreat center. No one had been there before and no one knew what to expect. When we pulled up I was amazed at how beautiful the locations was. We were pretty high up so we had an amazing view over the land which included an active volcano that had a constant white cloud right over the top of the volcano. The retreat center had 4 dormitory buildings, a main hall, and each room had two beds and a bathroom. It beyond exceeded my expectations. Usually at camp we are sharing communal bathrooms at the dorms and the dorms are a ton of bunk beds. This was very very nice. On the center quad area between all of the buildings there were papaya trees, banana trees, and behind one of the buildings there was even an orange tree! 

Once we got settled it was time to eat and organize all of the soccer equipment. So what was on the menu? Well, they might vary it up with some chicken or veggies now and then but what is consistent about the meals we ate at the retreat center... every single meal had rice and beans. rice and beans. rice and beans. i'm going to turn into a bean. 

So for lunch we had some rice and beans and then we wrote down everyone's name who wanted to participate in the soccer tournament which was almost everyone. In the past everyone has been on teams with their friends from their communities but in this camp we decided to mix the teams up so that the youth had the opportunity to make new friends. As you can imagine, they were a little resistant to this in the beginning because, of course, everyone wants to play with their friends, but we stuck to the plan and after the first day it was like the whole camp became a more cohesive unit. People were making friends with people outside of their own communities and had the opportunity to play with other players that they don't get the opportunity to play with. It worked out very well. 

So we set up the uniforms on display with the shoes and the trophies and invited everyone down to the main hall and announced the teams for the tournament and had them come up and get their uniforms. 

Announcing the teams was fun because all of the players got really excited when their name was called and everyone cheered for them. Then they had to meet with their team and come up with a team name for the tournament. We set up the tournament chart on a huge dry erase board and left it up for display throughout the week so people could see the standings. 

Finally, after the tournament was ready it was time for dinner. Rice and Beans. 

I crashed hard and woke up Monday morning starving. After my rice and beans for breakfast we went got a post digger and dug the post wholes and then cut some long sticks up with machetes and put them into the holes for our soccer goals! It was quite difficult between the Nicaragua dirt and large rocks in the ground. Good thing I have some Nicaraguan friends willing to help me out! Then we stuck a cone on top of each stick and we were set! 

We had some downtime before lunch because the campers were in class. In the morning they took a class on a topic to learn information on a world issue like Gender Equality or HIV and AIDS to take back to their communities. So Danny and I decided to do a little work out on the steps of the main hall. Felt great to work out after all of the traveling- my legs were heavy and tight and it really loosened me back up! … and to get ready to referee the tournament in the afternoon. We still had a few minutes so Danny and I grabbed a couple of brooms and went into the dorms to sweep out the hallways. Everyone pitches in to keep the camp nice and with all of the loose dirt in the air things can get pretty dirty pretty fast if you don't stay on top of it. Here the bigger problem is the sugar cane. After they strip off the sugar they burn the rest of the plant here so there is a lot of black sugar cane ash in the air which is all over the place and covers the floors. 

After we showered we met back for lunch. Rice and beans haha. and then we got everything prepared for the tournament, set up the field, and then convened the whole camp. Once everyone met in the main hall we went over the rules of the tournament: no profanity, listen to the referees, no arguing. The spirit of the camp is to create fellowship and friendship and enjoy ourselves playing soccer. While we want it to be competitive, we need remember that soccer is our fun way of bonding and building the community! 

The first day was a lot of fun. The format of the tournament is there are 5 guys teams and 4 girls teams and each team has 5-7 players on it. Each team plays each other once (boys vs. boys only and girls vs. girls) and then based on points they advance to the play off semi finals (1st place vs. 4th place and 2nd place vs. 3rd place) and then the winners play in the championship. All of the championship games are on Wednesday. Each game is 20 minutes long and the championship round games are 25 minutes long with 5 min overtime then PKs  if necessary. 

It was fun watching everyone play and all of the youth had a really good time. I was happy to see the teams gel pretty quickly since they did not get to play with their friends. High fiving after goals, team huddles before games and at half time with their arms around each other in the huddle. It was awesome to see the bonding going on which was the whole purpose of mixing everything up! 

Each night there is a talent show which everyone at camp is required to participate in one night. Its fun to watch the kids go up and sing or act or whatever they come up with- they are all so creative and outgoing! I was fading fast though- almost falling asleep while watching so I was sooooo excited to put my head on the pillow once I reached my bed. 

What I wasn't prepared for was the 100-BITE NIGHT. I woke up with maybe a hundred bug bites on my legs and feet. No where else, not my arms or my neck or my face or my face. Just my legs and my feet- ever get a bug bite on your feet? You know how uncomfortable that is? Well how about 30 bites on your feet? I looked like I had the chicken pox on my legs. Ahhh. We weren't sure if it was bed bugs or mosquitos or ants so just to be careful we went and bought raid and bug spray and I had to raid all of the clothes that had come in contact with my bed and my sleeping bag and then I had to put it inside a plastic bag to hold in the fumes to kill the bugs if they were in there. Since the mosquitos were becoming an issue for other people as well we think that it was more likely to have been mosquitos that got me. 

After we got everything taken care of, new bed sheets from the caretakers and 2 cans of raid later, we got a quick work out in and then ate lunch. After lunch we started up with the tournament! The games were very fun and competitive and went off great with the exception of one boy hurting his knee. It is crazy how hard they play every minute of every game here. I think because it is such a rare opportunity to participate in an organized soccer event, it means a lot to them. Well, this boy came to tackle from maybe 10 yards outside of the play and when he came through he did a kind of ariel karate kick which put his knee on the underside of another players cleat. It was bad. They both ended up getting pretty hurt from the play and the boy who hurt his knee was out for the rest of the tournament. After checking out the injury it seems like it will heal and his knee seems stable- just a really bad bruise so hopefully he will be okay! 

Since we hadn't had the chance to work out we did it after the tournament and then took a quick shower before dinner. It was my turn to participate in the talent show since literally everyone has to and so I went up with the guitar and sang a couple of songs, which was fun! Even though they couldn't understand it, they seemed to like it! haha. Everyone here is really supportive so there is a lotttt of cheering and encouragement for everyone who participates! 

Bed time and I am terrified. Maybe that's why I was so awake because I soooo didn't want to go to bed. Argh. I sprayed myself down with bugspray and despite the heat slept in pants and socks and shockingly, did not get bit! Thank you God. I was a little sweaty when I woke up but, hey, 100 bug bites less than the night before is wellll worth it! haha. 

The next morning I spent examining the boy who got hurts knee. I'm not a doctor by any means, which I told them about 10 times, but I have seen my fair share or soccer injuries as well as received them and have spent a TON of time in the training room so I did some basic tests and his knee seemed stable in the ACL and MCL and meniscus tests, I didn't to the LCL because I didn't want to put pressure where the big gash on his knee was. It was quite swollen but I think moreso because he was trying to walk around on it. Once he iced and laid down for a couple of hours the swelling went down.

Next,  I met with Katia, the leader of the church here in Nicaragua to discuss the future of the soccer program. I have a huge vision for where I would love to see it go. I would always like to keep this camp because I feel like it is very special but I would love to add a program for different age groups that meets more on a regular basis throughout the year as well as a league for kids 15+. Of course, it doesn't matter what my vision is, if it doesn't fit in with the direction of the church and what they want to accomplish then it won't happen. 

I was very very very encouraged and excited when Katia took my "once a week" mindset and wanted to start a program that ran on a daily basis. Not only that, but combine it with a studying program to help get kids out of the street and help educate them and provide confidence/life-skill building recreation (futbol) in a safe and encouraging environment. So I was hoping to talk her into once a week and thrilled when Katia said she wants to try and build it in as an every day program! So we discussed having age groups: 3-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-15, and a league for 15+. We discussed starting the league and the younger age groups first (3-4, 5-8) and making it a requirement for the players in the league to help with the younger kids programs as a way of giving back which is beneficial for both the younger and older players as well as the program as a whole! 

So the plan is to begin planning the logistics between now and this summer. Getting people signed up to participate, location, etc. Katia will work on this in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, I  will bring someone to the United States this summer from Nicarauga that will train in coaching with me and to prepare them to come back to Nicaragua to run the program for the children. So the program will begin in August/September. It will be a long time to build this up but in 5-10 years More Than Futbol could be doing something really amazing in Nicaragua. I'm so excited to see how it all unfolds! I feel like I'm finally breaking the ice. Katia knows that I'm invested and want to help that its not just a 1 time trip. This is my 6th time down and now we are really getting the ball rolling! 

After the meeting I still had about an hour and a half before lunch (did I mention we wake up every morning at 6:30- we get a FULL day in every day- awesome). So since I had some time left I did some yoga, worked out on the steps and then showered up. Every shower feels like the most amazing shower of my life. There is no hot water here so it feels so refreshing. 

After lunch we convened the camp once more to reiterate the tournament rules. Everything always gets more intense during the championship games! 

Luis and Alexander

The games were a ton of fun. Luis and Alexander are brothers who are two of the youth leaders here and they were against each other in the semifinal match which was fun to watch. All the players played their hearts out. Each game was very intense and the championships for the girls and boys were very fun to watch and ref. 

Since this was our last night at camp we had a lot of closing ceremony type things going on. Everyone who had not yet participated in the talent show needed to step up and do something, there was the crowning of Mr. and Mrs. Camp (not sure exactly what they called it). They did a whole beauty pageant theme where the kids had to dress up in "pajama wear" then "sports wear" and then "formal wear" then everyone else voted for them. Then we awarded the soccer trophy and let each of the winners choose a pair of cleats to keep for themselves. The rest of the cleats we are keeping at the church so we can use them in the programs. 

After the awards at least 5 of the campers stepped up to the microphone and gave very long speeches each thanking God for the opportunity to be at the camp and expressing their gratitude for us being here and how special it is to them. They said that they really value the shoes and the things we bring and they will take very good care of them. It's crazy to me because to us, its just someone's old shoes, shirt, shorts, etc. that don't fit anymore and here they are treasured. It was very touching. To anyone who donated gear- you have no idea how much it means to the people down here. Thank you. You are the ones who make all of this possible! I can tell that they enjoy the camp but to hear about how much it means to them and how special the experience was from a number of different people meant a lot. 

So then I stepped up and gave a speech about how much the people in Nicaragua have a place very deep down in my heart and I feel very lucky to be able to share this with them. I talked about how the program got started originally and where our plans are for taking it and said I was happy that they could all be a part of what is hopefully the beginning something incredible! 

Coming to Nicaragua gives you a completely different perspective on life and what the important things in life are. In the US we have some much opportunity that people become discontent with what they have and unsatisfied with their lives or money or relationships. Come spend one week in Nicaragua and you will realize how luck you are and that almost everything we worry about at home is completely insignificant to those things that really matter in life. Every time I come down here I grow as a person, my heart changes for the better. Its like they teach you how to live right, how to love right, and how to look at the world right. It's an amazing feeling. 

After the speeches it was time for the FIESTA! They brought out all kinds of snacks and the dancing began. I danced until probably 1am but Danny was dancing his socks off until 3:30am! I went to bed at about 1:30 and crashed, another bug free night. 

Even though this was the first day we could sleep in all the way to 7am, I was woken at 5:30am but a MUTANT CRICKET. Alright, it was normal size but this thing was honestly louder than my whistle and right next to my bed. I tried to sleep through it but couldn't, finally I got out of bed and found it and clocked it with my shoe. Fell back asleep only to be waken up at 6am by a ROOSTER! Right outside of our window! Oh well for sleeping in haha. So we showered had breakfast and then took some camp photos and I shot some video interviews with some of the campers talking about their experience. Freidy and Erickson were two of the best soccer players at camp and Armando is one of the younger kids but with a big personality! Then we interviewed Tony, of course, as he is the one who traveled up to Maryland this past summer! 

After the interviews we said our goodbyes which was very sad but told everyone "Hasta el proximo ano" (Until next year!). Then we jumped on the bus and began the trip back home. Coming down the mountain the wind was less and boy was it hot but we finally made it back. Since we've gotten back we've had the opportunity to rest up and I finally got to blog to tell everyone about the trip! Sorry if I'm missing some of the fun little stories and anecdotes that I usually tell but this is A LOT for one blog entry. and the crazy thing? after everything we've done this week? It's not over yet! We have another meeting with Katia tonight for dinner and then tomorrow we are going to meet with a group of younger kids to demonstrate how the program might work. That will only be for a couple hours tomorrow… hmmm what to do in the rest of our free time before we leave? How about VOLCANO SURFING! Yes, we are going to surf down the inside of an inactive volcano! haha. We also may stop by the market to get some small gifts :-) After that? Part 2: Belize! A whole other adventure! 

Stay tuned… and thanks for the support! More pictures up at www.facebook.com/morethanfutbol. 

My Meals: 

 

 
 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Welcome back to Nicaragua! January 2013

Nicaragua

Day 1: Saturday, January 5th, 2013

Off on an incredible journey to Central America! Thanks for everyone who follows the blog during the trip! I'm going to do my best in posting as daily as possible to keep everyone updated on the adventures we have along the way! I will also put a link to the blogposts up when I write a new one on www.Facebook.com/MoreThanFutbol,  www.Facebook.com/ChampionsSoccerTraining, if you want to get more updates check out those pages!

More Than Futbol continues to grow each year and this year is our biggest yet! Thank you to everyone for your generous donations! Thanks to all of the donations from local families and a generous donation of uniforms from LTRC Baseball we were overloaded with gear, more than we could take.

When I say overloaded I mean over 1000 jerseys, 200 shorts, 200 pairs of shoes, and tons of soccer balls. This is a great problem to have since we travel down each year and all of the gear will eventually make its way down. To get the gear down the safest and securest way possible we must fly it down with us. I couldn't help but feel a little bummed that with all of these donations there was not a way to get EVERYTHING to the kids in Nicaragua and Belize. I was the only one traveling to Nicaragua and we have a group of 7 going to Belize. Since I travel to Belize from Nicaragua my "checked bags" would go to Nicarauga, which puts us down to 6 bags to Belize. Carol Phillips, a soccer mom and doctor traveling to Belize with us with her daughter is bringing down bags of medical supplies, which now puts our Belize bags of gear down to 4 and even if I check 2 bags of gear and carry my clothes on board I can only bring 2 bags to Nicaragua. :-( 

Well, someone must be looking out for this mission because less than a week before I was set to fly out to Nicaragua, Danny Schaifer, a 17 year old Junior soccer player from Boys Latin, was suddenly inspired to come on the trip and do whatever it took to make that happen. After lots of parental-convincing and school organizing, Danny's plane ticket was bought and 2 more giant gear bags were packed for Nicaragua! 2 days before leaving for Nicaragua I received an email from 3 graduate students at University of Maryland in Baltimore wondering if it was too late to travel down with us! The next day 3 plane tickets were bought and 3 bags were packed with gear. 

Is it bad luck to say that this trip must be fated to be something incredible? 

 As incredible as the trip is panning out to be, what is not so incredible is waking up at 5:00am. In this phase of life, I'm a night owl and my morning wake up call is no earlier than 7:30am. With a couple of items still unpacked, I scrambled to get ready in time to leave at 6:00am. I think anyone would agree that its the "getting out of bed" that is the hardest, once you are up you are up, and by 5:15 I was cranking and after my Dunkin Donuts morning beverage I was REALLY cranking. Flying out of Dulles this time, Danny and I walked in with 4 HUGE bags of soccer gear, and 2 small bags each packed EACH with our clothes and, let me tell you, the airline check-in lady's face was priceless… like, "Are you serious with all of that luggage?" As she ushered us into line, she wasted no time telling us that we were 2 bags over and the cost of each bag was going to be $135 and more if they were overweight. Goodness gracious, now what? Our ride is gone. What are we going to do with all of this soccer gear? …If you saw the bags you would know that they were absolutely packed to the brim but thanks to a little good ol' fashion ingenuity, we figured out a way to get one of the bags consolidated, that still left us with one bag over. Ugh. Danny and I were inching up in line and with each inch the anticipation grew as we looked at all of the check-in staff up and down, making bets on who would be most lenient with us. The older lady with soft features? The young woman with the make up? the lady with the high hair-do? The lone huge intimidating man. Definitely not him, he would be the worse by far… and guess who we got? The first thing I said when I got to the front was, "We are on a soccer mission working with the church in Nicaragua and we are one small bag over, is there anyway you can please help us?" How many times do we need to learn, "Do not judge a book by its cover!" This guy was super nice and helpful and really trying to do his best to discretely get us on the plane with all of our gear without paying extra. Walking away with our boarding passes and a huge sigh of relief Danny and I headed over through security and to the gate for our 4 hour and 20 min connecting flight into El Salvador. 

After we arrived to El Salvador and hustled to our gate we walked out to board the plane, but wait... at the end of the isle was stairs leading outside to a row of cones to take us to our plane. The plane had propellors. That may seem like a normal thing to say but I'm used to just the wings that somehow make the plane go, not two fans on the front! 


I have never flown on a plane like this and although we were a little scared....

 shockingly it was a pretty smooth ride the whole way! 


Once arriving in Managua we stopped off for a few snacks and then arrived at Helen, a youth leader's, house. Helen has become a close friend over the years helping us with our camps and she has graciously given up her own bed for me to sleep in and her brother has given up his bed for Danny to sleep in. When I asked her where she would sleep she said that she would sleep in her parents bed with her Mom and Dad- tight squeeze! But that is Nicaraguan hospitality. So nice :-) Thanks Helen! Helen fixed us an amazing quesadilla dinner Nica style! Yum. 


Unwinding now and about to fall asleep... great first day of travel! Tomorrow we will go to church in the morning and then load 2 buses of 70 kids to go to the camping location. After introducing the camp to the kids, the afternoon will be spent getting situated with the camp and unpacking all of the gear and organizing it and then Monday, let the games begin!

Good night!