Alas, we still have a rat. Since we saw the first signs of
one in the house, we have covered our trash can, boarded up the sides of the
stove where they always crawl in to hide, and we’ve been sticklers about not
leaving dirty dishes in the sink or any kind of food scraps laying around. We
even put a large amount of rat poison in a bowl of oatmeal and left it on the
floor of the kitchen one night. In the morning, the oatmeal had been licked
clean but the rats still live. Absurd. I’m at a loss for why they keep coming
back, but also what they can possibly find to eat. They’re obviously eating
something because our countertops and the top of our fridge are littered with
rat feces every morning. Yummm, who wants breakfast?
Last night, the rat weaseled it’s way into Mady’s bedroom
through a hole in her door. It ran up on her bed and around 1:30am she woke up
to a rat scurrying over her feet. She jumped up, whipped on the light, and
shooed it out with a broom, and then understandably couldn’t fall back asleep
for the rest of the night.
Would you rather: have a giant black lizard crawl up through
the pipes in your bathroom and come home to find it parked on your bed OR be
woken up at 1:30am by a fat gray rat crawling over your feet in bed?
I think I’d almost prefer the lizard. It’s a toss up.
Anyways. It’s war in Tres Pisos now. Tomorrow we are headed
out in search of these extremely sticky pads that you can put out and
apparently when the rats run across them they get stuck and can’t escape. I’m
skeptical after the rat poison fail, but willing to try anything at this point.
Time to make some serious moves.
Speaking of making moves, big things are happening within
the next month for Fútbol Sin Fronteras. A week from Friday (the 28th)
the Mariposas and the Estrellas will have their first off-field workshop. Off-field
workshops are more educationally driven rather than team-building oriented and
they almost always involve a special guest from the community to come talk to
the girls. We aim to run three of these workshops per season with each team,
and I am the point person in terms of contacting outside people to come be
special guests and organizing these interactive special events for the girls.
(Mady is the point person for Cultural Exchange and Civic Engagement Projects-
the teams aim to do one of each of these per season as well) Tying in with the
Inspiration theme this season, I invited members from the Nicaraguan Women’s
National Soccer team to come to Tres Pisos to run a workshop for the Mariposas
and the Estrellas. I was so lucky to receive their contact information from a
past volunteer who had played on the national team for awhile, and even luckier
to receive a relatively prompt response saying they would be happy to help us
out! I have a fun day planned complete with some soccer, some Q&A for the
girls to learn more about what has inspired these incredibly successful female
athletes, and some arts and crafts to create inspirational locker room/activity
space posters and decorations for the girls and the national neam members to
swap. We can’t wait to make the big announcement to the teams sometime this
week!
On October 13, the Mariposas, the Estrellas, and the
Veteranas are all signed up to participate in the Global Peace Games held at
the American Nicaraguan School (ANS) in Managua. “The United Nations’ Global
Peace Games for Children and Youth are an opportunity for young people all over
the world to demonstrate their commitment to make the world a better and
healthier place and their central role and solidarity in the mission of global
friendship, peaceful solutions and nonviolence.” (taken from the website) FSF
and ANS have co-hosted this daylong tournament for the past three years, and
last year the Estrellas took home the championship for their age group! We have
a lot to live up to, but the girls are already so excited to go back, and
players and coaches alike can’t stop telling me how much fun they had and how
it was such an amazing day both in terms of helping to celebrate this important
international event, as well as helping the girls gain a whole world of
self-confidence. I can’t wait to be part of the action this time around, and
see my girls take some names.
The past few Wednesdays we have been taking advantage of some
free time to do some professional development training to help steer the Nica
coaches towards a positive reinforcement approach rather than the negative one
they are so accustomed to. They all struggle in this area so Larkin has been
creating mini-workshops to show them the difference between the two methods of reinforcement,
and to provide them with creative tactics that they can use for behavior
management when dealing with the Mariposas and Estrellas, rather than the
punishment without explanation and embarrassment in front of their peers
tactics that they know so well. They are starting to get the hang of it, but
Larkin and I wanted to create a solid and systematic way of doing behavior
management rather than just giving suggestions and tactics for how to deal with
the girls. With our Bowdoin brains plus our Pixar-loving child-like
personalities, we came up with what we believe is the best idea EVER:
On the last Friday of every month, nobody has school (pretty
good deal, eh?) SO. We decided that we should take advantage of these days to
have a GIANT WATER BALLOON FIGHT! Estrellas vs. Mariposas. It would be a change
of pace from the normal soccer and activities- a day of pure fun with no need
to be quiet and listen to directions, no hidden educational lessons, just fun
with reckless abandon (and a nice way to cool down in this heat). It would be
something for the girls to look forward to each month AND we are going to use
it as a way to keep them on their best behavior. Each girl will start the month
with 10 balloons to her name. Balloons will be deducted for instances of bad
behavior, and if she runs out she won’t be able to participate in the fun. However,
the idea is that the girls will strive to keep all of their balloons because
they will be so excited for when the big day arrives. Next Friday after the
national team players leave, we are going to have a trial water balloon fight
with just the coaches. Helen, Flaca, Techo and me against Mady, César, Hassell,
and Larkin. They are going dowwwwwwn.
Keep posted on all the fun! (and rat updates)
Amor, Paz, y Fútbol
KPope
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