Some April Activity Pics

Build the tallest structure competition! 

 

Winning team! 

Writing suggestions for our conversation box...

Painting our activity space!

First Day of week-long workshop on Nutrition

Nutrition Dinámica

Food Pyramid game

Welcome to the Market! (Day 2 of our Nutrition Week)

Grow your own bean! 

El Poder de la Mujer

Starting two Sundays ago, I began playing on a local men's team, FC Carrilera. Two of my co-Team Leaders, Techo (to my right in the above picture) and Cesar (to my left) invited me to come play on their team. I was flattered that they jumped through so many loopholes to get me on their team. I am the only girl in the league.

I played in my first game with them this past Sunday. Techo invited some of our players to come watch and one of my players did and walked with us to the field. "You are playing with the boys?!" she asked wide-eyed. When we arrived, I was called to and heckled by several spectators..."You are going to be the goalie?!" one man asked with a mocking smile. 

I can't say I played my best game (final score of the game 2-2) or that I wasn't I little taken aback by how much faster many of the guys were than I am. The whistles and cat calls and shouts in my direction were also not lost on me. Playing in a very competitive game was exciting, but being what I presumed to be the first woman, Nica or otherwise, to step foot in this league, felt special, despite the crowd (or maybe especially considering the attention from the crowd.) My thoughts were confirmed as my player watched intently from the sideline from start to finish, waiting with high fives at each break. 

Am I a pioneer woman playing in a men's league or am I just a random girl who happens to play goalie when they needed one? I am not sure if my presence on the team will have any sort of lasting impact, but I thought a lot about how me playing on this team relates to our organization and our mission, particularly given the presence of my player at the game. We endeavor to empower girls in all facets of their lives. Yet we separate them from their male peers. And often for good reason. An organization for only girls gives them a space that is just their own and the opportunity to succeed in a male-dominated society. But the reality as it stands right now is that it is still a male-dominated society and of course it is a society, like most where males and females coexist, unlike the environment of SWB programming

What is coolest though is when females are taken out of the pristine SWB safe space and put in a space with men and they succeed in an even bigger way. When a girl like me is able to play and keep up with a boys soccer team, that says something to my players and to girls at large, but also to all the guys.  Likewise, when my Estrella team beats a boys team, as they did this past Friday, they are making a statement, not just to themselves, but to the boys they beat. 

This statement of "We can and we will" has been made by women the world over many times, but ought to be made many, many more times. Because women's empowerment is not a women's issue, it's an everybody's issue. And the way this world will progress is by tapping into the power of women. 

I hope my girls winning last Friday was one of many such statements in their lives. I hope in some way they take a self-belief with them, beyond the field... to the classroom, to their relationships, and to their jobs.... And I believe they can and they will. I know they face and will face so many obstacles in their lives, but I am optimistic that, particularly as our program develops, we can help give them some tools to surmount them. 

March: Activities and Games with the Estrellas

Keeper!

Last Wednesday and two days ago, I ran my first rather impromptu goalkeeper practices. Any FSF participant who wanted to try goalkeeper could come. Last week I had three girls, this week only two. But last week there were no players who play goalkeeper in our games, and this week both players were "goalkeepers." Goalkeepers who had never had an ounce of goalkeeper training in their lives.

These two particular participants are also sometimes tough. They put on an air of indifference almost all the time, they are slow to listen, to act or to act like they care at all. But Wednesday was a totally new practice for them. And I think as a result, they showed a different side of themselves. We did a couple fun competitions and went over some of the basics of getting set, footwork, balls on the ground and balls in the air. Instead of their usual faces of indifference, they both laughed and smiled throughout the 45 minutes. And instead of their usual slow amble during exercises and to get water, they hustled and sprinted. They listened to the directions with eager interest and looked to implement them. By the end they were shuffling to get behind a ball on the ground and trying to catch a ball in their air at it's highest point.

As we finished up, one of them asked "When is the next goalie practice?" "Next Wednesday!" I exclaimed. "And every Wednesday after that!" I am so excited for the potential of what these goalkeeper practices could become and how much our participants who are goalkeepers or who want to be goalkeepers could develop as players and people. I think they are excited too.

A Familiar Face

Two weeks ago, we were lucky enough to be part of the Inter-American Women's Soccer Exchange in which a team of former collegiate American soccer players came down to Nicaragua to run clinics, play in several exhibition games and generally promote women's soccer in Nicaragua. The week reflected a an important development in both the acceptance and popularity of women's athletics here in Nicaragua and a growing interest among female athletes in the United States to advocate for the same athletic opportunities we all enjoyed.

One of the coolest parts for me, however, was that one of my college teammates, Kathryn Nathan, decided to be part of this Exchange. Nate is a friend of mine through soccer at Amherst, but seeing her in this totally different context was really special for me. Although I have not been here for very long myself, seeing her take in all the new sights, smells and sounds of different parts of Nicaragua for the first time was a reminder of how striking certain aspects of life are here. Further, to see her learning some Spanish and befriending locals, I felt excited and weirdly proud.

And of course, it was great to get to play together! Miss you already Nate!

Dogs

There are many creatures wandering or hovering around Granada, including lizards, chickens, horses, and cats. More than any other animal, however, are dogs. You can hardly walk a block without seeing a dog snoozing on the sidewalk, trotting down the street, or rummaging through trash. Many of the dogs are have shorter legs and shorter fur/hair than many dogs in the US (probably a natural selection phenomenon given the heat). Some of the dogs have collars and belong to families. But many more do not.

Many of the dogs have fleas that cause them to incessantly itch, gnaw at their legs or rub their backs against the iron grates that many people have in lew of front doors. Many of them have scars from the past, the details of which I am sure are disconcerting at best. Some of the dogs appear calm and friendly, some grown menacingly and make you wonder if you should begin to run. All of them are thirsty enough to drink out of the rancid water and waste streams and hungry enough so that their rib and hip bones protrude from their thin bodies.

Yesterday, several extremely off-putting incidents occurred regarding dogs that I cannot seem to shake. The following story is pretty gruesome, so I apologize in advance. On our way down to practice, we walk through an area that is littered with garbage. Sometimes there is burning trash in piles there (people burn their trash here) and it always reeks of rotting waste. On our walk yesterday, we spotted smoke rising from an area in the litter. As we got closer though, we realized it was not trash burning, but rather the carcass of an animal. As we got even closer, it was clear the animal was a dog. My stomach immediately did several turns and for several minutes, I thought I might puke (I even feel nauseous writing about this now.) I have no insight into why this dog had died or was being burned right near where children play soccer and baseball.

I wouldn't say I am an extreme dog lover, but I do love dogs (who doesn't!) generally for their companionship, cool factor, cuddly factor as well as practical benefits. But seeing this burning, rotting dog carcass was one of the most gruesome and upsetting scenes I have ever witnessed.

Later, on the way back from the field on the road, a dog ran alongside a trotting horse pulling a wooden cart on which two men and their goods sat. Both held massive rocks in their hands and as the dog sprinted alongside the cart, one of the men hurled his rock at the dog, who recoiled in a series of whimpers after it nailed him (or her) in the torso.

I do not know if my love for animals, dogs in particular, got the best of me, but I think from the latter incidence I can gather that the abundance of dogs here can sometimes be regarded as a nuisance, similarly to how I think of the rats who sometimes scurry around the first floor of Tres Pisos or the infinite mosquitoes that we sometimes get in the summertime at home. To think that dogs, "man's best friend" are at once considered pets and nuisances here is confusing to me and still fails to provide any answers for the dead dog on the way to the field. I think maybe what was more off-putting was that while my fellow interns and I felt sick to our stomachs at the sight of the dog, our Nicaraguan participants who walked in front of us hardly seemed to notice it. I hope they actually did not notice it, but the reality may be that such acts of cruelty are more commonplace than I would like to think.

Night Tour of Volcan Masaya