Don Francisco's home has AC in the rooms and sleeping in a cool room for the night was AMAZING. I slept like a rock and could barely get out of bed for the 6:30am wake up call... but i did and decided to take a shower to wake... another amazing shower :-) We stopped to pick some of the youth up on the way to the field and grabbed what appeared to be the best orange juice- the most real orange juice- only to come to find out while we are drinking it that the primary ingredient was water and there was only 35% vitamin C... to be honest, it tasted more like a orange freezy pop... and who doesn't like an orange freezy pop?
Once we had picked up the youth from the central chuch of Managua (there are youth from several different communities but these are the overall youth leaders that traveled here with us) we went to breakfast at a small cafe naturaleza (natural cafe) where the options were chocolate, banana, and cookie shakes and bologna sandwich or hotdog. lol. Quite the breakfast options! My hotdog was the longest, skinniest hot dog on the world's largest bun... and I have to say that my banana shake was AWESOME!
Once we arrived to the field we set up the cones to create two soccer fields for the tournament and started the Nicaraguans with one Central church youth leader for each of the teams (from other communities). First I taught the leaders skills and then once they were able to do all of the skills they collected their groups and taught the skills to the groups! Yesterday I played "World Cup" with everyone, which they loved... BUT in an shocking turn of events, they loved the skills better! they enjoyed learning some legitimate moves and technique for passing. The youth don't have access to any proper instructions so they seemed to listen very well and very much enjoy the skills, even more than the fun game World Cup that everyone loves at home!
After the skills we began the tournament games. Phil reffed one field and I reffed the other just like yesterday. The games were a little more competitive today until we had a slight disruption in the last game of the morning. Luckily, the team on the side of the problem was "Los Veteranos" (the veterans- the name of the leaders' team from the central church). A group of young men who were not involved with the church communities had been sitting there watching the games with machetes. After a while a ball went out of bounds near these men and they threatened Luis that if another ball came over they were going to take it or else use their machetes! For the afternoon we decided to contain the games to the other field away from those men but then Mario, the assistant to the pastor, came through with a big move. He slipped out during lunch and found some police officers (because in Nicaragua if you need the police then you need to go find some to help you). He told the police about the men with machetes and said if they came to help us we would give them lunch and water. This was enough of a bribe to keep the police with us for the entire afternoon! They said that had we not bribed them, they would have left quickly.
During lunch we had a short devotional with a couple of songs and prayers. Much of it involved holding hands in a circle with everyone. This was extremely difficult for Phil and I because the heat was so bad and we were just dripping sweat. Not to mention that the flies were around the food and we were standing right next to it but we were unable to wipe the sweat dripping into our eyes or swat away the flies because we were all holding hands! haha. Finalmente, we ended and began to eat lunch. Rice, beans, and chicken. This should be the international meal of Nicaragua because we have had one or all of these things with every single meal since we've been here! Lunch was great and we were able to spend some time with the small children of the community.
After lunch we began with the championships for the girls. Because there were not enough girls for a tournament, we did fun games and the girls accumulated points as they one various games. The girls have been struggling a little bit with the heat and running around so today we decided to play the shooting game,"Challenge" or "Power Finess." The girls absolutely loved this game! Everyone else seemed to also as they surrounded the game cheering! After the games we awarded two soccer gifts as awards for the two girls who had the most points at the end of all of the games! Next we began the last tournament games of the day. Everyone had a great time and the boys especially LOVE the tournament. They are so competitive and get so into every game and the point system and what place they are in. At the end we announced the semifinal games for tomorrow based on the standings!
The camp is a really wonderful thing for the youth. It gives them a way to connect together in a fun way outside of the church but with the foundation of faith. As you can see, many of the youth do not have much aside from work in their lives. This is a great opportunity to have a fun soccer tournament, give out some clothes and shoes and soccer balls, and have do something special with the youth. You can tell that it means a lot to them.
Mike said that it is even good for the rest of the community, who also do not have very much. They are able to come out and watch the camp and see that the church is involved in the lives of the people of the church and provide great opportunities and also people outside of Nicaragua care and want to be involved. This will not only strengthen the members of the church but also grow interest in the church. This is really important for the people in Nicaragua because they have nothing but their faith and their relationships with other people. This is extreme poverty here.
After camp we came back to the hotel and stopped on the way for a cantelope on the side of the street (a person sitting on the sidewalk with a mound of cantelopes and a mound of oranges). It was awesome! Phil and I ate it as soon as we got back. Around this time the sun was going down and it started to feel much better outside so we decided to go out back of the house to the amazing basketball/futsal court that the family installed (I think this family has all of the money in Nicaragua) and do a little exercise. Eventually the rest of the youth showed up and we ended up playing a futsal game- the youth and I versus Don Francisco and his family! It was a ton of fun and I'm not even going to say who won, you know.
The shower was amazing again and I washed off a few pounds of dirt and then we all went to grab some dinner, had a meeting to discuss the day, and then came back to the hotel to rest.
Today was an awesome day with the youth- they had a great time learning new skills and playing soccer and we had a really great time with them as well. It's amazing the difference you can make by making the small effort to collect some old soccer gear and give it to people who will take it miles farther than you ever could. Thank you so much again to all the people who donated to this effort. I can't tell you how far all of the donations are going and how much it means to the people we work with here.
Hasta Manana!
After the skills we began the tournament games. Phil reffed one field and I reffed the other just like yesterday. The games were a little more competitive today until we had a slight disruption in the last game of the morning. Luckily, the team on the side of the problem was "Los Veteranos" (the veterans- the name of the leaders' team from the central church). A group of young men who were not involved with the church communities had been sitting there watching the games with machetes. After a while a ball went out of bounds near these men and they threatened Luis that if another ball came over they were going to take it or else use their machetes! For the afternoon we decided to contain the games to the other field away from those men but then Mario, the assistant to the pastor, came through with a big move. He slipped out during lunch and found some police officers (because in Nicaragua if you need the police then you need to go find some to help you). He told the police about the men with machetes and said if they came to help us we would give them lunch and water. This was enough of a bribe to keep the police with us for the entire afternoon! They said that had we not bribed them, they would have left quickly.
Mike said that it is even good for the rest of the community, who also do not have very much. They are able to come out and watch the camp and see that the church is involved in the lives of the people of the church and provide great opportunities and also people outside of Nicaragua care and want to be involved. This will not only strengthen the members of the church but also grow interest in the church. This is really important for the people in Nicaragua because they have nothing but their faith and their relationships with other people. This is extreme poverty here.
After camp we came back to the hotel and stopped on the way for a cantelope on the side of the street (a person sitting on the sidewalk with a mound of cantelopes and a mound of oranges). It was awesome! Phil and I ate it as soon as we got back. Around this time the sun was going down and it started to feel much better outside so we decided to go out back of the house to the amazing basketball/futsal court that the family installed (I think this family has all of the money in Nicaragua) and do a little exercise. Eventually the rest of the youth showed up and we ended up playing a futsal game- the youth and I versus Don Francisco and his family! It was a ton of fun and I'm not even going to say who won, you know.
The shower was amazing again and I washed off a few pounds of dirt and then we all went to grab some dinner, had a meeting to discuss the day, and then came back to the hotel to rest.
Today was an awesome day with the youth- they had a great time learning new skills and playing soccer and we had a really great time with them as well. It's amazing the difference you can make by making the small effort to collect some old soccer gear and give it to people who will take it miles farther than you ever could. Thank you so much again to all the people who donated to this effort. I can't tell you how far all of the donations are going and how much it means to the people we work with here.
Hasta Manana!
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