Fútbol Sin Fronteras: A Day in the Life of Elle...kinda

Oops. I've been slacking on my blogging. Sorry to my few dedicated followers! Here are some October thaangs:

On Sunday, the Veteranas traveled to el Estadio Municipal de Fútbol Cacique Diriangen. Located in Diriamba, about half an hour west of Granada, it is one of the three national soccer stadiums in the country. We had the great opportunity to play against one of the Division 1 Women's Premier teams. My best friend from college, Ellery Gould, is currently playing Division 1 professional soccer for a club team in Sweden right now. At Bowdoin, she was the star of the team for four years and I was always just one of her groupies. We had an ongoing joke that I should just tell people I was going to play professional soccer too, in Nicaragua, but then it actually came close to true. Who'dofthunk? When Larkin announced it to the team a few weeks earlier, their response was one of fear. "But those girls go running and stuff," was one reaction. The idea of conditioning or fitness is rarely considered in Nicaragua, mostly because the idea of intentionally sweating more than necessary seems pretty silly when sweat pours out of your body even if you're sitting down. Nonetheless, there was a feeling of excitement in the air. We left from Tres Pisos at 7:30am in a private bus this time and I learned that the funny phenomenon of taking pictures of teammates while they are sleeping on bus rides extends outside of my small Bowdoin bubble. I also was able to experience a bus ride sans handheld technology; my teammates interacted with each other and took in the scenery from outside rather than getting lost in an iPod, text conversation, or homework. It was a refreshing change.

We pulled up to the stadium, and the reaction from the girls when we entered was pretty priceless. A hush fell over the group as they tried to absorb everything around them: the beautifully manicured field, the stadium walls that climbed up to the sky (or so it felt) and just the feeling of stepping into an arena that regularly sees the best players in Nicaragua and feeling privileged to be a part of that group. Larkin had me lead the team in a warm-up, so I traveled back in time to Pickard Field in my all-white Polar Bears uniform and began the team jog out to half field and back singing "We Ready" by Archie Eversole under my breath. The girls laughed at my high knees and butt kicks, and complained about the final sprinting at the end of the warm-up, but in that moment I felt such a strong connection to the role I have always played on my teams in the past; I've never ever been the best player but have always devoted my energy to bringing up the energy level of everybody else on the squad, and despite the radically different place and situation I found myself in, I could still find myself. I felt grounded before the game started, despite my wild nerves that were making my hands shake and my breaths short and quick.

I wore 25 on my back again, but this time wore 22 on my shorts (Ellery's jersey number). I figured if I was going to be in a Div. 1 game, I would need some luck from a fellow Div. 1 professional... but it turns out luck is only part of the equation. We also needed better conditioning, faster foot skills, and organized game play--all of which the opposing team already had pretty down pat. It was definitely a David vs. Goliath match up, but this time Goliath won pretty handily. It took us awhile to get used to the speed of play, and they took advantage of our first half jitters. In the second half, we settled in and it was a much more even keeled competition. We even scored! I crossed a ball into the box from the left wing and Larkin finished it into the back of the net! (and then the ref called it back because he said the goalie already had possession...but that part isn't important...) Despite the result, our team left the field with our heads held high because if nothing else, it was fun. It was fun to be challenged at such a high level, it was fun to play in that kind of location, it was fun to cheer each other on and work so hard as a unit to achieve a common goal. I had missed the full body soreness that followed in the days to come; a feeling of pride.

As for what's coming up:

This entire week we are celebrating the International Day of the Girl, which is a newly recognized day that falls on October 11. Girls in all the Soccer Without Borders programs around the world are also celebrating which is a really cool thing, I think. It's especially cool in this culture because being a girl that plays soccer in Granada has sort of a rebellious and revolutionizing context and our participants show up every day so eager to play and so proud to be a part of their teams. To give emphasis to this greater significance, I planned a week full of mini projects (a group art project, and some interview projects) that will culminate on Friday when we have a fiesta for our girls, full of cake and games, and show them a video that I have yet to make but it will include footage of them as well as footage from other young female soccer players around the world (and hopefully once I'm done I'll figure out a way to post it to this blog). I'm excited to give them the spotlight all week, they sure do deserve it!