Belize Day 2: More Than Futbol

Good Morning from our balcony!

What a big day we had today! 

An early start with a 7am wake up call, out by 8am! We loaded up the golf carts with 7 bags of gear and were at the school by 8:30am. We were all decked out in our green volunteer shirts which looked great! It made it really easy for the kids to identify us. Not only the kids but the teachers and parents can recognize the coaches well! 

When we arrived at the school we saw Lydia who was coincidentally wearing a lime green shirt as well! We joked with her, "Did you plan to dress as part of the group today!" We went from once a cordial greeting a few years ago to now greeting each other with hugs! We were very excited to see Lydia. Lydia is from New Zealand and has lived in Cambodia as well. She now is the volunteer coordinator at Holy Cross- her story is so interesting I told her she should write a book! 

Anyways, Lydia greeted us and then while everyone started to unpack and inventory, we looked at our field options for the week. The first option was a very big field with patchy grass, those sticker-plants that you step on (you see them at the beach and cause a ton of pain in the bottom of your feet), sea shells, and rocks. Due to some of the potential hazards, we decided to take a look at the second field. The second field was right outside of the school but had huge deep puddles of sitting water and the playable areas were doable for small group drills but we could never do our big scrimmages there at the end of camp. We were shocked because we used the field in our first trip to Belize and it was great! Now it is really messed up. 
We decided to use the small space right outside the school for the 5 and 6 year olds that get out of school at 1:45 and play with us until 2:45. Then the 7-14 year olds get out at 2:45 and their camp begins. Once we are all unpacked, and field locations determined we took a walking tour through San Mateo. This is where many of the kids live. The people were so friendly with us as we walked through their community, saying hello and waving. We felt welcome and safe touring the neighborhood. 

After we finished touring the community, we went around to each classroom. Once the teachers gave us permission to come in, the whole team entered each classroom, welcomed the kids to come out to play at camp and learn some cool skills, and then we introduced all of the coaches. After all of the classroom introductions we had a couple of hours to go into town and get some food. We hit up "My Secret Deli", it has great food, reasonable prices, and large portion sizes! My Secret Deli also has great smoothies served in huge chalice cups! 

After lunch we headed over to the big field to set up for the older kids coming out. We reviewed all of the drills and stations for each coach and then we left Luke and Kevin to watch the gear while the rest of the team headed over to the field next to the school to run the camp for the younger kids as they came out of school. The kids trickled out of school and as they came out we had Scott, then Deb, and then Cille start games of "Head it, Catch It." This was a big hit with the kids. Then we learned some skills and played a fun scrimmage at the end! Some of the kids even decided to come over and try their luck against the older kids after their camp was over! 

The second field space was a little down the street from the school so we made a chain of coaches to the field to direct the kids. Once the kids reached the field we gathered them all together and tried to get them to sit down but since they cannot sit on the ground in their school clothes, they all stood and kind of listened. After we got them to quiet down and listen up, we started the opening camp speech welcoming everyone to camp, discussing camp rules of behavior, and reintroducing the coaching staff to everyone. We divided the kids up into 7-8, 9-10 boys, 11-13 boys, and older girls. we had 4 groups adding up to about 50ish kids. Very manageable and a little less intimidating than the original sign up sheet of 112! 

The five stations were Shooting, 1v1 defending, Passing, and Dribbling. Deb and Cille ran a station on "team building" utilizing Cille's vast background in social work. The kids spent 20 minutes at each station and once each team had completed all 5 stations, we split the groups up into teams for 3 scrimmages. The 7/8s played boys vs. girls and then the older boys and older girls played separate scrimmages. All of the coaches had a blast and the first day went smooth like butter! Given our past experiences I expected some poor behavior and acting out by the kids but was very happy surprised to have ZERO behavioral issues today. The kids really seemed excited to see us when we visited their classrooms and I think that this being our 3rd year, the kids know the deal now and they were just all very excited to come out and play soccer. How wonderful to see such a positive change in the kids! 

After camp was over we were WIPED out! We came back to the condo, showered up and then went to Lonestar for dinner (since its right around the corner). Came home to blog and here I am now sitting in the living room with the salty breeze coming in off the ocean. Very much looking forward to having the morning free tomorrow. Today was our only full day for the week. From here on out we will be able to have some lazy (or adventurous) mornings! I will say this… tomorrow morning= LAZY for this girl. 

Signing off from Belize! Thank you all for following the blog. I hope you enjoy and we really appreciate your support! 

Belize Day 1: More Than Futbol

So picking up at the water taxi… Caitlin, Cille, Deb, and I caught a taxi to the ferry and bought our round trip ferry tickets for $30 round trip. The ferry ride was beautiful and gave us all a great chance to catch up about life and the trip! We took pictures of the sunset and eagerly awaited our arrival to San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye. 

Scott (my brother), arrived earlier to Ambergris Caye. Unfortunately, two of our volunteers missed their flight. So when we arrived we picked up some groceries, headed to the condo and there was Scott to meet us! We met our old friend Mark at Lonestar. Mark moved down here with his wife, both formerly from the Boston PD, bought the restaurant, "Lonestar," and now live on the island! He was really enthusiastic about our camp and wants to help by providing water to the kids (which is actually harder than it sounds). It has to be purified water and there has to be a way to distribute it so having a local take this on is really helpful! 

Caitlin and I went into town, got some food at Caramba's, and then came right back to crash. 

Private yoga studio

Scott holding a "frustration pencil"

A WONDERFUL night's sleep and we woke up to a very nice and sllllllllow morning. Yummy breakfast and long yoga sesh on the balcony and then we showered all met in the living room for our orientation meeting. We discussed "what to expect" when coaching and working with the kids, the format of camp, and our goal as a team of volunteers and our mission for the future of the program. We will be running stations where each coach is responsible for 1 drill and 1 topic each day. This really caters to some of the coaches on staff who have very little soccer experience/coaching experience. Cille has a very extensive background in social work and her station will be "team building" and "confidence/self-esteem building." She shared several of her games and crafts for camp this week and we are very excited to have her and Deb on this trip. Their station will be very beneficial for the kids! 

Scott taking pictures on the dock

After the meeting we decided to head into town for a late lunch/early dinner. On our way we ran into my other brother, Luke, and our friend Kevin who had just arrived! We were so excited to see them and so excited that we crossed paths via golf cart! They went back to drop off the bags while we walked around town for a little and then we all met at one of our favorite spots, Fido's! After a great dinner, ice cream, some fun laughs and a little bit of dancing we headed home! 

Sleepy Scott

We gave out all of the volunteer shirts, hung out at the condo, and then shut down for the night for an early 7am wake up call! Tomorrow morning we are meeting at the school to inventory the gear, stop in to all of the classrooms to say hi to the kids, and then tour San Mateo, the community where the kids live! Then, of course, we have the soccer camp! We have a very excited and enthusiastic group! Wish us luck! 

3 Andrzejewski's in Belize :-) 

Nicaragua Day 6/7: More Than Futbol

Last day in Nicaragua… It always goes by so fast and at the same time feels so long because there is so much packed into the trip. It's perfect. 

We woke up this morning and due to an uncooperative spatula, I kind of botched our breakfast eggs… but how bad can you mess up eggs really? ok, don't answer that….. the point is, we ate. After nourishing ourselves with sustenance, Luis picked us up and we all headed over to the center church to meet with Katia, "La Jefa" (that means: "the boss"). Katia is the Bishop's daughter and runs the operations of the center church. She also, always participates in the camp each year as "La Jefa" but this year when I arrived in Nicaragua I found out that Katia was in the hospital. It was a bit frustrating because they said the many of the doctors were on vacation. They are supposed to check her ever 5 hours and one day, when she wasn't responding well to her medicine, the doctors didn't even come by for over 12 hours! Everyone was very worried about her. I was shocked to hear that she was coming into the church to do some work on Friday morning. Even more surprised when I saw her and she looked great! She looked healthy and vibrant! She did say that she still needed to rest a lot. 

Katia has been an amazing supporter of the soccer program and extremely hospitable of me every time I'm in Nicaragua. Even if I have the vision, if I don't have the support of the church the program would not be possible. It is wonderful to talk to Katia and hear about her enthusiasm for the program and all of our big plans for for bright future. We spoke about how the camp went. We also spoke about the league that was jus started last October. 2 years ago we brought down uniforms, enough for 8 full teams of 15 with the hope of starting a soccer league for the youth. Finally, it has begun and the church has connected it to the HIV and AIDS mission. In order to participate in the league you must participate in the HIV and AIDS education. The church does a lot of work in communities affected by HIV and AIDS and is very dedicated to helping those afflicted by it as well as education the public to help with stigma and discrimination, education on risk factors, family planning, and STIs. 

Ride to the Bus Station after the game!

After our meeting we said "goodbye until next year and see you on Facebook!" and then we jumped in the truck and went to the market. After a little Nicaragua shopping we picked up lunch at Subway. I know that's not very authentic but I was playing in the big soccer match later and wanted to make sure that I didn't have anything that would cause an upset stomach. 

We went home changed and headed over to the turf field. There is a turf field in Nicaragua that you can rent for $15/hour so we rented it for 2 hours and had the youth from Managua and the youth from Caraso (40 min away- Enmanuel's home town). We had 15 players divided and played first to 2 goals wins then loser switches with the team thats off. Max 3 wins in a row. It was a TON of fun! I was so excited to get to play with everyone after watching and reffing all week! 

We went back to Mike's where Hellen was already cooking dinner. All of the central church youth were coming over for dinner. After showering up, people started to arrive and when the food came out I was so excited to see that Hellen had made chicken caesar salad! In an effort to keep the meal healthy in support of Luis and Alexander. As surprised as I was to be eating a caesar salad in Nicaragua, I was even more surprised that it was the best caesar salad I have ever had. The trick was that Hellen added a touch of balsamic vinaigrette- it was great (I'm definitely going to try that out pronto)! 

Every hung out joking around and then we started our evaluation of the camp and the league. Small critiques were made and then Hellen, Rabin, Chicho, and Alexander each stepped up and said something nice to me about our friendship and how I am more of a sister to them. They also gave me a Nicaragua tank top, and 2 engraved bracelets from the market- one that said "Ali in Nicaragua 2014" and the other said "More Than Futbol". It was so sweet. I thanked them and told them that they were more than friends to me, they were my brothers and sisters. I told them how much it meant to me to come down each year and spend time with them, that it is always my favorite part of the year, and how much I look forward to it. 

After the dinner was over everyone congregated once last time in the living room. They asked me to stand in the center and then they did the laying on of the hands one more time. They all came over laid their hands on me and then said a prayer for a safe travel home. 

That night I went to sleep, sad to have said goodbye to so many close friends until next year. I slept the most and best that I had all week, which was great leading into a long travel day. We woke up in the morning, packed up the car and Mike, Luis, and Alexander took me to the airport. Check-in was a breeze and after hugging everyone goodbye one last time I went through security to my gate. 2 cinnamon rolls later, I was on a plane to El Salvador to catch my connecting flight to Belize! 

Once I was on my connecting flight, I saw that there was a bunch of Amish men on the plane- that looked similar enough that I could tell they were Amish, but slightly different to the Amish we are used to seeing. All speaking dutch! Once we got to Belize they had 50 Amish waiting for them! The Amish settled in the US (PA) but there is also a huge Amish population in Belize. It is crazy because amidst the Belizeans they are all blonde with blue eyes! 

The customs man was not too friendly with me until he saw that I was a "soccer coach" by profession an then asked if I played professional soccer. When I said yes, you would have thought he was my best friend! 

Caitlin, Cille (Cait's Mom), and Deb (Cill's friend), all waited 2 hours after their flight came in for my flight so I would not have to take a taxi to the water taxi by myself and as I exited with my bags, Caitlin was waiting for me! We jumped in a taxi with all of our luggage and donations for the kids and were en route to the water taxi which would take us to the island… 

(We are here now safe and sound but I will save Saturday night and Day 1 in Belize for the next entry!) 

Welcome to Belize (Ferry ride)

Thanks for tuning in again and for all of your support! 

Nicaragua Day 5: More Than Futbol

Early 3:30am wake up call by mosquitos again. How do they keep getting to me! I'm in a screened room! Mike said it was because we had the door open. I'm going to take his word for it and cross my fingers that since the door has been closed I will have a bite-less night tonight. So after I sprayed down for a third time I threw pants on, despite the heat, and went back to sleep. 7:00am wake up call and I cooked eggs in a basket for breakfast and then we headed off to Lake Apoyo in Masaya!

The Monkey Hut is one of my favorite places in Nicaragua. It has a $6 entrance fee for free wifi, kayaks, tubes, lake access, bar and restaurant, hammocks and picnic tables. It's on an ecological reserve so everything is very nice- beautiful view, crystal clear water. The lake was formed from a collapsed volcano thousands of years ago so the ground is a bunch of small smooth rocks. We went last year for the first time and when we were discussing what to do with our day off it was everyone's top vote. Luis, Alexander, Hellen, Mike, and I piled into the pick up truck and headed to the Monkey Hut.

We have been talking throughout the week about exercising and healthy diet for Luis and Alexander who are both very overweight. They both said they wanted to get healthy and I asked them, if I were to put a 15 minute work out for them to do, would they do it? and they both said yes! So they brought a change of clothes and after we hung out for a while, did my nails :-) and ate lunch, we digested and then geared up for a our 15 minute work out! High knees, Dips, Squats, Push Ups, Crunches, Flutter Kicks. 4 x 3 minute rounds and everyone worked really hard. We all did it together! Alexander, Luis, and Hellen were so tired at points during the workout that 1 person would start laughing which would just start a chain reaction. They thought it was funny how foreign and difficult the exercises were to them! At the end, I promised major poundage lost if they did this 15 min routine every day! 

We decided that tomorrow when we meet up for our final soccer mini-tournament we would have everyone do the work out as a warm up to support Alex and Luis in their weight loss! 

We built up quite the sweat and eventually made our way down to the lake. Alex and Luis had said earlier that they did not know how to swim! Luckily they had tubes to lay in and so with their  tubes (ilke "floaties") we did a little mini swim lesson that just turned out to be more a fun joke-around than anything else. 

We spent the afternoon laughing and relaxing, enjoying the company, and enjoying the lake. What a great day! 

On the way home we stopped at one of the best restaurants in town for some Carne Asada- my favorite :-) $5 a plate? I'll take it. Lunch earlier was $23 for 5 people and it was awesome- chicken fajitas! 

When I got home I FaceTimed with my Mom who could not get over "FaceTime". It was the first time she has ever seen it or used it! :-) and it was really fun to see my grandmother's face on FaceTime when she saw me looking back at her from Nicaragua! My oh my, technology! 

Tomorrow is the last day here. We will host a small tournament for the central youth leaders where we rent a turf field. It's nice to do something for the older youth leaders that are responsible for running the camp for the younger youth participants all week. Looking forward to seeing everyone one last time before I fly out to Belize on Saturday morning. 

Thanks for following the blog! 

Nicaragua Day 4: More Than Futbol

I woke up this morning feeling kind of nervous. The Championship games are here and I was just hoping that I wasn't going to have to pull any red or yellow cards out or make a call that would really upset one of teams. Yes, I know its part of soccer but I just want everyone to have a good time :-) 

Upon arriving to breakfast I was approached by one of the boys championship players, Isaac. One of his players had tripped and cut his foot open the night before. They had to take him to the hospital to get stitches and although he could walk he could not play soccer. So Isaac hoped that I would allow another person to stand in for his missing player. Well, his is not the first team to have to play a player down in this tournament and adding someone to the team who has not played throughout the tournament with the team would be very unfair so I told Isaac that he would have to play a player down. 

After some more beans and rice for breakfast I turned to Mike and jokingly said, "after we leave camp today, no more beans and rice." Usually, I can take it, this year, I'm getting a little acid reflux :-/ Since today is the last day of camp we don't have to eat the food provided anymore we can make something from the grocery store or pick up whatever we want to eat :-) 

Anyways, back to the tournament. After breakfast and the morning devotional we started the tournaments. With the speakers set up, and Rabin ready to go on the commentating, we started out with the girls game first. We ended up with 2 White teams in the finals! Luckily one team was wearing "SAC" uniforms while the other was wearing "LTRC" so it made it easy to tell them apart. The girls game was fun and competitive and all of the campers spectating set a great cheering atmosphere! Freidy's team won AGAIN this year and she was named MVP AGAIN for most goals! 

The boys game started off with a goal for white in the first 10 seconds and then the green diligently worked there way back into the game and eventually beat the white team 3-1! It was fun to see their determination and team work. The two boys teams that made it into the final were truly teams. They really worked well together and supported each other on the field.  Funny thing is the white team ended up playing with all of their players after all. In a brave (or stupid) move they put the guy with stitches in the goal! 

Both games went off well and easy with no big calls to make and no arguing from the players (thank goodness). 

After the games were over we presented the award to the player with the most juggles (at over 400), to the partners with the most passes in the air back and forth, and to the two MVP's of the tournament. Ericcson, who is probably one of, if not, the best player in camp, was given a very weak team this year. After being the MVP last year it was tough for him to play on a less competitive team this year. Not only did they struggle but they played a player down in the last game. I was really impressed to see him never give up, work well with and encourage his teammates, and he stayed to watch and support every game in the tournaments that he was NOT playing in. So we decided to give him the camp "Sportsmanship" award! 

After the individual awards we gave out the prizes to the two Champion teams. Usually, we give out shoes as prices but since the shoes were taken away this year, we gave up t-shirts, trophies, and warm-up jackets!

Before we closed the ceremony Rabin asked me to come to the middle of the floor and when I did everyone got up and started walking towards me. What was about to happen was probably one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. Everyone "laid hands" on me or connected to me through the person standing in front of them and said a prayer for me. I was so touched in that moment. I don't even know what to say about it, it was so amazing. 

I have felt very connected to the Nicaraguan community since I started making trips down here. However, now I can truly say that I feel like a part of the community- a friend, a sister, a coach. I don't feel at all like an outsider or someone who is just coming to visit, I feel like "home" here. One of my friends here is getting married to someone he actually met in camp last summer! When he told me the news my first thought was, "I'm going to have another new sister" (my brother also just got married in Baltimore). I felt like this because I really do feel like he is my brother. 

I'm so thankful for my friends and community here in Nicaragua, I only hope that more of my friends and family back home can come and visit some time in this little slice of heaven. 

So, we packed up the school bus and sat 3 people to every seat! I sat in the seat in front of Mauricio, my 3 year old little friend, and Julianna, his older sister. These two are Anyelca's children. Anyelca is a pastor from Somotillo (where we have held camp in the past) and although Julianna (12) and I are very close, Mauricio doesn't remember me :-( I spent all week trying to get him to tell me my name and talk to me but he was not having it, acting shy all of the time. I played with him on the bus a little and finally when we had to say goodbye he gave me a kiss on the cheek :-) Victory! Yasmine, another pastor also brought her two children. Francel is a very cute little 4 year old and this week we learned how to count all the way to 39 (Her old record was 15)! Although their children are so cute, what is most cool about these two pastors is that they both played in the soccer tournament! 

  

Once we arrived back in Managua we unpacked and inventoried the rest of the donations for the year-round More Than Futbol soccer program. As we unpacked someone brought in a liter of Coke and as we drank it I explained to them the difference between sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (which they have never heard of before). 

Finally, we arrived back to Mike's house where we started the trip from the beginning. We arrive back here at 3:30, walked to grab some groceries for dinner and breakfast- Mike made me chicken and I'm going to make some eggs in a basket tomorrow morning! After we got back from the store we literally sat and talked and relaxed for 5 hours. Now, Mike is sleeping and I am very ready to hit the sack but first I wanted to write this to all of my friends at home! 

Tomorrow, we go to one of my favorite "chill" spots in Nicaragua. At the Lake there is a place called "The Monkey Hut"- $6 entrance fee to hammocks, outdoor bar and restaurant, wifi, kayaking, and swimming. A nice rest day after a very busy week that averaged 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Then Friday we are hosting a soccer day for all of the youth at the central church. We rented a turf field and are going to put on a mini 5v5 tournament! (and I'm going to play :-) 

Good night all! Thank you for your well-wishes and your support!