Day 6: The Last Day in Somotillo :-) :-(

Sitting down right now to write about this morning seems crazy because this morning seems like a week ago after everything we did today! So the day started when I accidentally woke up at 5:00am. We were supposed to wake up at 6 to get the day started and I set my phone at this time and my phone is still on Maryland time and Nicaragua is an hour behind! I didn't realize this until I was already in the shower and so I got all my stuff ready and then went back to sleep. Before I knew it it was time to get up again. We packed up the car and said goodbye to Don Francisco (who invited us back for next year! Definativamente!) and headed over to meet everyone for breakfast.

Breakfast was the same as the day before, an excellent Banana Smoothie and Hot Dog. The world's longest skinnies hot dog on the world's largest hot dog bun. I attacked it a little differently today. Phil switched it up and got a hamberger and after our nutritious, stellar Nicaraguan breakfast we headed for the field! When we arrived the field was buzzing. Usually, when we arrive there is no one there. Today we were 30 minutes early and most of the kids were already there ready to go. After all, today was the playoffs of our tournament! In the semifinals we had El Bonete vs. First Lutheran and El Rodeito vs. Acentamiento.

Before we got started with the tournament there had been several small children hanging out during the camp and so we decided to play a fun game with them! We paired each of the children with their choice of one of the older central church leaders and then we played a world cup game where only the children were allowed to score.



They had a great time and we were able to award the winners with balls and give all of the participants a jersey or shirt. The kids couldn't get enough- they cheered on the sidelines for all of the games and even wanted to play more so we set up a game for them during the championship game that was really fun!
We anticipated that the playoffs of the tournament would be pretty intense so we sat everyone down and explained what exactly is a foul and smaller things like throwing the ball in correctly. Because these kids do not have very much organized instruction, they don't understand exactly what a foul is and so they yell at poor Phil and I! Once we were confident that everyone understood the rules we began the semifinals.

The semis were ridiculously awesome. It may as well been the actual world cup championship for all it meant to the players! It was really fun to watch/ref!The keepers were flying out of the goal to save goals and everyone was working incredibly hard. Unfortunately, the team I was secretly rooting for lost in the semis. Before the championship game we had a fun consolation game and after the championship.


El Bonete won the tournamet, which was very exciting because they beat the team in the finals that beat them 8-1 yesterday! Impresivo! We had an awards ceremony where Phil and I had the opportunity to thank everyone for their kindness and say how much fun we had being a part of their community. Phil is really adamant about returning next year, which is awesome. This trip really is a life changer- you will see things that you've only ever heard about when it comes to extreme poverty and at the same time you will see how happy these people are with almost nothing- way happier than people in the US that have everything they could possibly ever need. You will also have the opportunity to see how much of a differnece you can make in such a short period of time.

Each team was awarded a bag of shoes beginning with the tournament winners. Then we took a bunch of pictures and said good bye to everyone. It was sad! The ninos (children) were especially sad. A group of the girls were following me around as we were preparing to leave and one almost followed me into the bathroom (or outhouse)! We promised to see them again next year and in the meantime we hope they practice their skills!

Once we got everything loaded up we began the long and hot journey back. After about an hour and a half of driving we stopped in Chinendega for lunch. A town smaller than Managua, but bigger than Somotillo. We ordered lunch and realized that the owner was an American who lived in Miami- not just any American. I'm pretty sure that is the closest I've ever been to someone with some serious gang tattoos. He was nice though :-)

After lunch we loaded back up for another couple of hours in the car and then we arrived in Leon, a city about an 2 hours outside Managua. This city was very nice and you could tell a little more affluent than the places we had visited. There was a big catholic church that had been built in the 1600s and a really neat square in front of the church with all kinds of little stands selling jewelery, gifts, and all kinds of things. The church was beautiful inside. Phil said it looked like a church you would see in Italy. Beautiful.

Otra Vez (again), we packed up the car and headed for Managua. Once we finally arrived home I took a shower and here I am. What a day, what a day! By the way, it's 12:15am right now and the roosters have already started.

We have only one day left in Nicaragua before Phil goes home and I go to Belize. I am so sad to leave here... not just because this was a great experience but also because I've become so close with all of the people from the central church... Chicho, Sergio, Luis, Alex, Kevin, Mario, Mike, Alex, Ravin (pero es un poco loco ;-), and Lester... it will be so sad to leave them :-(