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!