Futbol "practice"

  I came here knowing that there would be the possibility for me to coach soccer or to try and start some sort of program for kids within the schools that this organization teaches at.  I was going to give myself a few weeks to get settled in my own routine, to really feel as though I could focus my energy on getting to know my kids, get adjusted to life here, etc. before launching in to this soccer project. After my first day, the orientation, I learned that there were basically no organized sports for any of the children at any of the school; and once seeing the schools, this came as no surprise to me, as none of them truly have school yard to even play in at recess let alone hold a sports practice (not to mention the fact that if they can’t even control their kids in a classroom, i’d hate to see any attempt at a structured practice). Before I even began thinking about the possibility of starting a team for girls in the rural area right outside of Granada, I was approached by another volunteer asking if I would be able to travel out to Juan Diego (one of the schools farthest away from the city) to meet some girls who were interested in playing.  Though I wasn’t yet even settled in my life here and felt a little overwhelmed by what had just been put on my plate, I knew this was a great opportunity for me to get a start on this project. 

  I have officially been here for two weeks now and have already settled in with my eight students who I am tutoring every day, I had a meeting out at Juan Diego with several girls who seemed enthusiastic about starting a team and, on Friday, I traveled out to the school again to play around and have a ‘practice’.

  When I talked to the girls during our meeting, I thought that I had 12 girls committed to playing twice a week for one hour. I assumed that this was reasonable, seeing as though at home, this would be asking for hardly any dedication from my players. As with many things here, I quickly learned that the words ‘team’ and ‘practice’ hold very different meanings here than at home.  With a gallon of water in my backpack for them to have since there is no water at the school (as well as my own water bottle), my dictionary for all of the soccer terms that I was going to need to look up, a bag of four [ratty] balls, and my 10 cordobas to get to and from soccer.. I traveled an hour out to Juan Diego on Friday.  We decided on 2:30 and so at 2:25 I arrived, ready to see what this ‘practice’ was going to bring. I thought that this would be a good chance for me to really meet the girls, to have them warm up and play around a bit without too much instruction, so that I could see where I really needed to begin with them once we figured out a more routine schedule. At 2:45, 11 girls came to the field, still in their school uniforms (blue skirts and white blouses, white socks and black dress shoes), ready to play. With smiles on their faces: “tenemos 25 minutos!”. Twenty-five minutes. That’s all I had with them, before they had to return to class. I had NO idea that I was showing up in the middle of their school day, during their ‘free’ period, rather than for the hour that I had requested at the end of their school day. Miscommunication #1. At this point, I had to make due with what I was given and so I instructed the girls to get in to groups of 2 or 3 and to pass the ball around for a few minutes before playing a small pick-up game. The girls got themselves in to groups, took off their shoes, and began. Balls were flying across the field, over the barbed-wire fence, into the bushes, hitting other girls in the back of the head. Girls were screaming, laughing at each other, chasing after balls, sitting down when they felt like they needed a rest. I had to take a deep breath and take this for what it was, let go of whatever expectations I had coming in to this.  The 20 minutes after our ‘warm-up’, passed quickly as the girls played a game of kick and run. Though I tried to get one incredibly small part of the entire field, the boys (who were playing their own pick-up game of soccer) continuously ran through the middle of our game, teachers and other students walked freely in between all of the girls as they tried to play... so it would have been nearly impossible to have any sort of instruction or demonstrations, organized plays or even direct passes to one another even if we wanted to.

  The girls seemed to enjoy it, but at the end I felt frustrated and defeated. I had traveled out to coach soccer but there was little coaching that was actually done. I had no field and no equipment, I felt bad that they were playing in their skirts and bare feet and responsible for not providing them with the right clothing and gear, the interferences and distractions were far too overwhelming, and I was upset because I felt like I was merely a supplier of balls more than anything else- and did not really get to accomplish anything.

   I needed this weekend to think about everything, about all of the glitches that I came across on Thursday and Friday, and to re-evaluate whether or not it will be possible to work something out with this particular school. Though I plan on pursuing this project of starting a girls soccer team (and hopefully assisting in the start of a league in Granada), I will need other volunteers to step up to the plate to assist me... for this is FAR too big of a project to take on alone.