Ch-ch-ch-changes

Sunday marked 3 weeks since I arrived in Nicaragua to begin my work with Soccer Without Borders. If I'm doing my math right, that means it has been 5 weeks since my last blog post (which probably nobody has even seen yet because I didn't bother to make it known that I started a blog) It's hard to keep up a blog when every single day here leaves me with a million things to write about and reflect on, but I will do my very best to pick out the good stuff and write on a more regular basis. I have been working with a fellow intern, Mady, from Seattle and our local director- Larkin Brown, Bowdoin alum '10, former captain and Bowdoin teammate and one of my best friends, and five local staff members who I have already started to form solid friendships with.

Some memories from week one:

• After a long day of traveling (and after an even longer five days of job training in Boston) I left my backpack sitting on the ground at the Managua airport and didn't realize it until I arrived at my new home, la casa de Tres Pisos in Granada 45 minutes later. I was missing my laptop, my camera, my epi pens, some clothes, and most devastatingly Kitty (my ratty stuffed animal that I've had since birth, for those of you who don't know) Rough start. Two days later, the airport called and said they had found it, and everything was still inside except my laptop charger and a donated computer that I was bringing down for the office. Awwwww yeeeeah. It was nothing short of a miracle.

• We rode from the Managua airport to Granada in the bed of a pick up truck with all of our luggage, and that is the only mode of vehicle transportation we have been using since. It is truly liberating, and refreshing

• Day two, we met the local staff of coaches: Hassell (pronounced Hazel), Helen, Flaca, César, and Techo. Flaca and Techo are nicknames for Veronica and Estefan, respectively. Nicknames are a big thing here and we learned that they would soon give us nicknames, and they wouldn't necessarily be creative, but rather blunt and obvious and sometimes not very nice. It's just the way things are here. Past interns have received nicknames like "la Muda" (the mute girl), "la Roja" (the redhead), or "Dos metros" (two meters, referring to height). I should mention that at 5'10", I am a solid head above everybody in this city, men and women alike. Luckily I didn't receive the Dos Metros nickname, but lately they have been calling me "la Loca" (crazy) after seeing a few of my dance moves, or Flaca calls me "Kelly Maria" for some unknown reason. 

• I coach the Estrellas (Stars) with Techo, Flaca, and Helen. The girls are ages 12-16 and I love them. Mady coaches the girls ages 7-11 called the Mariposas (Butterflies) with César and Hassell. Day three we went on house visits to introduce ourselves to the girls' families with the other coaches. It was a little shocking and upsetting to see the homes and environments that these girls live in. The 'wealthier' girls on my team live in stucco houses with solid tin roofs, and upwards of 8 people living in a two room space. The poorer girls live in tin shacks, sometimes with only a few slabs of wood that act as a roof. The floors are non-existent, just the mud of the ground under their feet, and only one room to accommodate a large family. Now that we are entering the rainy season in Granada, it is heartbreaking to think about those girls that most likely get rained on at night in their homes.

          The rest of the week was more logistical lessons of how to pay our bills, where the grocery stores/market is, and which street vendors' food is trustworthy and which ones will most likely give us parasites. We had to learn quickly because this past week we ran a camp for a group of high school volunteers from the United States. It was a very similar trip to the one I did two years ago, except for high schoolers rather than college kids. Naturally, the night before they arrived I came down with a 101 degree fever and stomach issues. It was my first lesson in powering through, faking it til I make it, and a serious exercise in teamwork for me and the rest of my coworkers. Mary McVeigh, the executive director, and Shea Morrissey, a coach for SWB in Oakland came down to help out and work with Larkin Mady and me. The 5 of us had to plan every meal, sleeping arrangements, day-time activities, and some tourism for the 12 students plus the 5 of us, and at times our 5 Nica coaches. On top of all that, we had to run our normal nightly activities for the girls in our program. There was no rest for the weary, and I was up by 6:30 every morning either buying groceries or taking a group of students to run gym classes in schools around the city.
          The theme of the week was Los Olímpicos and we split the girls (from our program) into 5 teams, each team representing a continent of the world that is represented  by one of the Olympic rings: Oceania, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The coaches and a few high schoolers were each assigned to a team for the week. We started the week off with an Opening Ceremonies video (http://vimeo.com/46704843) and had the girls recite the Olympic oath in Spanish. Throughout the week we had a lot of different sporting events and other team building challenges, and Saturday we organized a big soccer tournament for all the teams to finish up the week. Flaca and I led the Oceania team to a gold medal victory! The whole week was a lot of fun, and I felt very accomplished by the end of it after running gym classes completely in Spanish, taking the lead on organizing some event nights and seeing my plans in action, and feeling my relationships with the girls and the Nica coaches really start to grow. That being said, I was definitely happy for it to be over. That it was a grueling 7 days would be an understatement.

Shea, Mady, me, Mary, and Larkin with the signed Nicaraguan flag that the high schoolers gifted us at the end of the week

Idania and Alejandra (some neighbors that live across from Tres Pisos) and me on the last day of Los Olímpicos! I was the Spirit Judge for the day

View of the Volcán Mombacho that overlooks Granada

View of la Calle Santa Lucía from our second floor balcony

More pictures to come! It has been a LOT to take in, and I think my role and my understanding of my impact in the community will take a long time to sink in. I'm getting there though, and loving every minute of it so far. 

Amor, paz y fútbol,

KPope