¡Necesito una pared!

The Fútbol sin Fronteras year is quickly wrapping up down here in Granada. We only have two weeks left of official programming and practices before the office closes for December! Before we shut down at the end of this month, the girls, with the help of the staff are going to plan and paint a public mural that promotes youth and women in sports!

My main task in the last few weeks was to find a wall, and find some city official who would be willing to donate said wall to us for our community outreach project. The subsequent search led me through multiple offices in the mayor's office, had me talking to the committee in charge of the highest quality local sports complex and writing multiple drafts of multiple official letters. The entire process took a long time, but was a lot of fun and provided a great way to get to know how different city programs and offices run.

After a few failed requests with employees within the mayor's office, we found an in with the assitant of another official. After an initial meeting with her and her boss, she quickly became my ally, revising letters, inviting me to meetings and telling where and when I needed to be to get permissions signed. In the end Larkin and I went to a meeting at Granada's Children's Wellness Fund where we met with a commite in charge of the local baseball complex, multiestadio. The committee is made up of older men who are very protective of their baseball fields and the leader (and most senile) of the group especially doesn't seem too concerned with promoting girls sports in the city. Thankfully, our ally from the mayor's office helped me navigate the presentation to him. In the end, the group gave us permission to use a portion of the wall in the multiestadio complex. The only catch is that there MUST be some image of baseball somewhere in the mural.

Fútbol sin Fronteras plays in the city final!

Since July, a group of the grandes from Fútbol sin Fronteras has been playing in a Granada women's soccer league. The playoffs lasted all of October and culminated in the final this past Sunday at multi-estadio. Fútbol sin Fronteras squared off against Las Gran Sultanas (the great sultan's). Prior to the final we had lost to them in penalty kicks at the peace day tournament, but beat them during regular season play.

Both teams and the refs walking onto the field to sing the national anthem.

The game started off pretty slowly, the first half being a series of break aways and offsides calls more than anything. Samari, from FSF, was able to capitalize on one of the fast breaks and score the first goal of the game. Going into half time, we were up 1-0.

The action, intensity and quality improved a lot in the second half. In a span of three minutes Las Gran Sultanas scored to tie the game, FSF responded to re-take the lead and Las Gran Sultanas scored again to tie the game but again. Halfway through the second half Las Gran Sultanas scored another goal to take their first lead of the game at 3-2. We had some good opportunities at the end of the half, but couldn't finish any of them and ended up losing 2-3.



This season was the fourth season in a row that Fútbol sin Fronteras had gotten to the league final and lost! I think we're cursed. After the game, there was an awards ceremony for both teams. Our girls were comforted by the fact that the second place trophy was prettier than the first place one. Afterwards we headed back to the office for a pizza party to celebrate the season and the second place finish.

A Smattering of FSF photos

Angela, me, Doña Chilo and Larkin in Doña Chilo's kitchen before eating lunch.

Chepe and a group of participants from Pipitos a Nicaraguan NGO that works with handicapped children. Fútbol sin Fronteras equipped a group of kids from Pipitos with shoes and uniforms to compete in the Nicaraguan Special Olympics, "Los Olimpipitos."

Year-end dinner with all of the coaches and youth-leaders in the office.

Chepe and Cesar painting the background of the soon-to-be Fútbol sin Fronteras mural in multiestadio.

Cesar, Larkin and Chepe assessing the mural wall before painting.

Our street, calle Santa Lucia, taken from the top of the office.

"Folkloric" dancing by some of the younger girls to celebrate el día de la raza.

Playing tiro blanco (butt's up) at practice.

Relay races during practice.

Sweating profusely and buying cleaning supplies for the office in the mercado.

Office hours at tres pisos.

Visit to American Nicarguan School

Last week a group of 21 grandes and five staff members went on a field trip to American Nicaraguan School. American Nicaraguan School is a K-12 college-prep school in Managua, the capital. All classes are given in English and students are largely children of Nicaraguan diplomats/government officials or international students. A former Soccer Without Borders volunteer, Hailey McCarthy is currently a teacher there and started a Soccer Without Borders Club among her seventh and eighth grade students. In an effort to introduce the Fútbol sin Fronteras Granada group to the Soccer Without Borders Club, the school invited our group to their campus for a friendly soccer tournament and diversity day celebration.

The day began VERY early. I was really impressed that all 21 girls and 5 staff members (César, Cindy, Karen, Larkin and I) were there and ready to go by 6:45! We experienced a minor hiccup when we got to the bus station and there were no buses, nor any busses coming in the future. César ended up going to a different bus station, getting a bus for us and we met him and the bus driver in the center of town. In morning traffic it takes a little over an hour to get from Granada to Nicaragua. The girls were very excited for our big city adventure, and spent nearly the entire bus ride shrieking at every turn or practicing our new FSF cheer.

The ANS campus is physically impressive and clearly well funded. If any of you readers have ever watched the TV series the O.C., it reminds me a lot of that, terraced land, open-air classrooms, multiple sports fields, a pool, etc. We were a little worried about the visual shock/intimidation value that might impact our girls upon walking into the school and interacting with kids their age of such different economic backgrounds. Because of that apprehension we spent the two activity nights before the field trip talking about respect for others and diversity.


To encourage the two groups to get to know each other, upon arriving at the school, we split the kids up into four mixed teams (half FSF Granada and half ANS Soccer Without Borders Club). The fútbol sala tournament was organized so that each team played each team. As the games progressed you could see the two groups beginning to interact a bit. Even though our girls were a bit hesitant and nervous to interact with the kids from ANS,

The kids from ANS did a great job of being welcoming; including our girls and asking them a lot of questions about Granada and Fútbol sin Fronteras. Our girls were definitely hesitant and nervous initially, but by the end of the mini-tournament many of them were engaging more with the kids from ANS. It was great that they had soccer to rely on as well. Most of our girls are very competent soccer players and some our really good. I think having soccer to rely on throughout the process of meeting new people gave them some confidence.



Once the soccer-playing portion of the day ended we watched the school's assembly to celebrate diversity day. The event was quite varied, ranging from poetry readings to electronic music performances to a rendition of "I Have a Dream." Unfortunately, most of the program was in English, so our group generally had no idea of what was going on. The eighth graders did the finale and sang Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror"...a little bizarre but enjoyed by all.

Once the assembly wrapped up, we headed back to the bus station and back to Granada. The event was pretty typical of how events have been unfolding here: seemingly well planned out, very chaotic at first (especially when we couldn't find a bus) but ultimately ends well. The girls definitely enjoyed themselves, the opportunity to go to Managua and the soccer tournament. All in all un éxito.

Torneo de Paz

On October 2nd, Soccer Without Borders held a city-wide women's tournament to honor the 2010 Global Peace Games for Children and Youth. It was the tenth anniversary of the games which are held every fall in conjuction with the United Nation's International Day of Peace. The point of the Global Peace Games is to highlight the power that sport can have in uniting people of all races, genders, social classes, religions, etc. Another goal is to demonstrate to youth that by coming together in sport they can have central roles in working towards global peace.

Our tournament went pretty well. Preparations for the day itself were a great lesson and demonstration of the slow pace of life and slow pace of work here in Granada. The tournament was played at a stadium called multi estadio that is almost always occupied by a boys baseball league. In order to host the tournament there we needed to get permission from the Mayor's office. Doing so required multiple and often fruitless trips to the office and didn't actually come through until the morning of the tournament. Other logistical obstacles included trying to formally register the teams and getting a guest speaker to read messages from the president of FIFA and a UN advisor.

On the afternoon of the tournament however, things managed to come together. Six different teams from throughout the city emerged upon multi estadio where two small-sided fields and even refirees were awating them. Before the soccer playing started, the two messages about the Global Peace Games were read to all participants (see links if you're interested in reading them).
Message from Fifa. Message from UN Advisor Wilfred Lemke.

All participants also signed a Peace Manifesto who'se pilars are respect, rejecting violence, listening to arrive at understanding and contributing to community development.


Once the soccer started, the tournament began to develop the feel and energy of so many summer tournaments I participated in as a kid. Teams that were not playing in the first round of games were warming up on the sidelines, friends and siblings cheered for their respective teams, coaches disputed with the referees when they disagreed on calls and the crowd was captivated every time a game went to penalty kicks.



For both Larkin and I, the day was a very nice opportunity to relax, enjoy soccer and enjoy the company of many of our participants and co-workers. So often, especially with the girls in the program we are instructing or leading them in some manner, however once the soccer playing started and our responsibilities for the day more or less wrapped up, we got to just hang out with them and watch the soccer games unfold. In the end, the Soccer Without Borders won the tournament and a new set of jerseys!

The winning team! Fútbol sin Fronteras.

Mes de la Patria

This month, as was the case in most Latin American countries, Nicaragua celebrated its independence. The Granada celebrations for Independence Day were pretty underwhelming. The main festivity was a parade in which every school in Granada is represented with a combination of marching, a band and dancing. Besides that, the city more or less shut down for a few days, schools were closed and people relaxed. When I asked Angela, a woman I live with in Doña Chilo's house what they were going to do to celebrate she said the women planned to "wake up, gossip, eat, fall asleep and the following day will be another day."

At Soccer Without Borders we kept our schedule and activities open as usual. The independence week off from school actually allowed quite a few girls who's school schedules conflict with our programming to attend all of our activities for the week. That Tuesday at soccer practice we had a mini five versus five tournament with the girls and coaches playing together on each team. A curveball for that day was that the majority of the field flooded from all of the rain we've been having lately (see picture below), but the spacing worked out well and no one got too muddy.

Our field at the Malecón. In the background is Lake Nicaragua. In the middle of the image you can kind of see a huge puddle on the field.

Being the mes de la patria, the theme of the office activities this month has been Nicaraguan history and independence. Each week we've chosen a different theme within that theme, ranging from national symbols, to important people to tourism. For the first half of the month, Cindy, a Nicaraguan, and I worked with the pequeñas. I've finally gotten all of their names down and am starting to learn more about each girl and her personality. The pequeñas, although often a chaotic group, are fun to work with because as long as you mirror their energy, they are enthusiastic and participate in the activities. The first week of the month, we split the group up, and each group was assigned a different Nicaraguan myth or legend. Within these groups, we read the stories and then had to figure out how to act them out for the rest of the group at the end of the week. My group got a myth about hunters on the Miskito Coast denying their traditional hunting tools for guns and the consequences they dealt with because of that decision. I give a lot of credit to the girls; they were enthusiastic and generally had a strong presence on the stage, but the performance itself was a bit of a disaster. No one knew which line to say when, and I was left unsure of whether or not to laugh or cry.

The following week with the pequeñas, we talked about national heroes and each girl made a mask of her favorite national hero...and a confused girl drew Abraham Lincoln.

Some of the pequeñas showing off their masks.

At the midway point of this month, I switched gears and worked with the grandes (older girls) and their current leader, Veronica. These girls range from 12-20 years old. Within them, there's a consistent group that comes to every session, practice and are also part of the Soccer Without Borders team that plays in a Sunday women's league. I was excited by the prospect of working on the activity nights with them for the first time. They are definitely a harder crowd to win over then the pequeñas, but that makes a good conversation or activity with them give me a lot of momentum. My first week with the grandes, the theme was symbols. We started off the week by introducing international symbols (recycle, peace sign, etc) and then had each grande make her own symbol and present it. The week concluded with a trivia night, in which we split the group up into four teams and quizzed them on Nicaraguan history and symbols. Nicaraguan history and geography are greatly stressed in schools here, so they had no problems fielding most of the questions. Last week the theme was tourism and for most of the week we worked on tourist pamphlets of different cities in Nicaragua.

After having spent time with both the grandes and pequeñas, I am excited that I will be able to continue to alternate between the two groups throughout the year. The energy of the pequeñas is exhilarating and a hug or joke is usually enough to win them over. The grandes are good at having attitudes and being teenage girls, but the depth of activities and discussions that can be done with them and amongst them is a lot greater.

¡Tres Pisos!

The last few weeks have been busy as we've been moving into a new office space! The now former Soccer Without Borders office had been home to our programs for about a year and a half. Although it holds a special place in T.E.A.M. Granada history, the space itself had become too small for our activity nights. So a few weeks ago we moved down the street to the office space, which is affectionately called "Tres Pisos" (three floors). The building is a former hotel and offers ample space. On the first floor, there's a coach's office, intern office, kitchen, and bodega where all of the soccer equipment is stored. On the second floor there is ample space for the pequeñas and four bedrooms which will soon be inhabited by Larkin, myself, Cesar and Chepe. The third floor is a wide-open space where the grandes have their activity nights.

The former SWB office.

The move is very exciting for many reasons. The space itself is a lot bigger and more comfortable. Every room has a fan and there are many windows, which help ventilate the place. It's been really nice to have so much space available while running the activity nights. Now that we have a kitchen, we're hoping to host some sort of holiday dinner for the girls and their families and also have a Nicaraguan feast at the end of this month to conclude the month of the patria. All in all the hope and expectation is that Tres Pisos will become much more of a community center than the former office ever was. The old office was only ever consistently open for the activity nights. Now that we’re in Tres Pisos, the office is open much more regularly and we have made available office/drop-in hours for the girls throughout the week.

The excitement throughout the Soccer Without Borders community surrounding the new office has been impressive and given me great momentum. We probably average around 30-40 girls at our activity nights, but at the first activity night in the new office more than 70 girls showed up! It was really chaotic but a lot of fun.

Tres Pisos.

In October, Larkin and I will be moving into rooms at Tres Pisos. I'm pretty excited for that. Living with Doña Chilo and the rest of her crew has been generally fun, interesting and a good introduction into Nicaragua, but I am looking forward to having a bit more privacy. Although it sounds counterintuitive, I think having my own space within the Soccer Without Borders office will create more of a separation between a home life and work life.

Getting to know Granada

I've been in Granada now for just over two weeks, and in that time have been keeping myself busy getting to know as many people and getting involved in as many activites as possible. Last Thursday, Chepe (one of the main coaches) and I went to a local public school, Padre Misieri and taught soccer in the sixth grade gym class. Chepe coached the boys and I led a group of 10-12 girls in a couple of different games and then a scrimmage. I held the attention of the girls for almost the entire class until a girl fell and ripped her jeans, and the drama that ensued was much more intersting than me or soccer. Once we finished playing, I talked to the girls about Soccer Without Borders and the different programs and practices we offer throughout the week. Our plan throughout the fall is to visit to at least one school a week, teach soccer in gym class and then recruit the girls to come to our events!

This afternoon, SWB is hosting a community meeting for different organizations throughout Granada that work with youth. Every organization that comes will present their mission and bring information sheets about themselves. The hope is to begin to build relationships with these other organizations, and to be able to partner with them or refer girls to them in the future. I spent two mornings this week walking around to the different organizations, meeting their employees and inviting them to this meeting. It helped me get oriented in the city and also get to know some of the organizations we'll hopefully be working with throughout the year.

For the last two weeks the theme of our office activites (girls night, language night and arts & crafts night) has been music. We've had all sorts of activities: an exercise where the girls changed the lyrics of "Nicaragua, Nicaraguita" (the national anthem) to make their own songs, a presentation of folk music and dance from throughout the world, and the grandes are making themselves a warm-up mix. Tonight is the last night of our music theme and we're concluding with a concert. Cesar is playing guitar and singing and the grandes and pequeñas are each singing a song as well.

I've started to get an idea of what types of activites the girls respond to and also to figure out how to best communicate and work with the coaches and staff. Communication with the staff is fine, but I think it will be a constant challenge throughout the year to integrate everyone's ideas while making sure practices and events are still fun and meaningful for the girls.

Living with the family is going well, I finally got all of the names down and have more or less figured out how everyone is realted. We're in the rainy season right now and almost every night there are huge downpours, along with lightning and thunder that make me think the roof is going to blow off, but so far so good.

Hope everyone is well.

Bienvenidos a Granada y Fútbol Sin Fronteras

My internship with Soccer Without Borders (SWB) began last week when all of the organization's long-term interns met in San Francisco, California for a weeklong training. We spent the mornings working at Soccer Without Borders' annual camp for refugees in the Oakland area. The camp hosted about 80 kids from fifteen different countries and was a great way to launch into the internship. The week was full of informative sessions about what to expect when working and living abroad, the formation and philosophy of SWB and a lot of practical sessions giving us examples of team building exercises, soccer drills, and activities to do with the girls that also implement life skills lessons. My favorite part of the orientation sessions was learning more information about my site in Granada and the goals SWB has for its development as the year progresses. There are already nine Nicaraguans on staff in the office and the programming is well organized and established. Therefore my main role down here will be to help bring SWB to self-sustainability by identifying and involving more locals and local organizations that can support its development.

Right now, I'm writing from Granada! I arrived yesterday morning and since then have been meeting all of the SWB (Fútbol sin Fronteras in Spanish) staff and getting to know the barrio where I am living. My "host mother" is Doña Chilo and has hosted interns from SWB for the last three years. Both me and my co-intern, Larkin live there along with seven other family members. The barrio is a street about 10 blocks from the central plaza of the city and is full of many families involved with SWB. They have all been very welcoming and I'm excited to get to know them better. This afternoon I attended my first SWB practice. Every Tuesday there is a practice for "las grandes" girls ranging from 14-18 years old. It was fun to see them play and help when needed. There are two main Nicaraguan coaches, Chepe and Cesar along with at least five youth coaches. They definitely seem to have a great handle on the practices and how to motivate the girls. I'll attend every practice and assist where needed but let the Nicaraguans lead the way. After official practice ended most of the girls, all of the coaches and a bunch of locals stayed to play pick-up soccer for an hour. The field where we play is on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, and as we were playing there was a pleasant breeze, making the heat a bit more bearable for this gringa. A great way to end my first whole day here!

That's all for now! Hope everyone is well!

Internship with SWB!

In August I will be moving to Granada, Nicaragua to be a long-term intern with Soccer Without Borders. Soccer Without Borders is an NGO whose mission is to use soccer as a tool for positive change in the lives of marginalized youth. SWB values the inherent potential of all young people and the unifying potential of soccer. Throughout the world, Soccer Without Borders combines soccer instruction with life skills education and gives thousands of young people the opportunity to reap the benefits of being involved in team sports.

The project site where I will be working is called T.E.A.M. Granada (trabajando en equipo aprendemos más). The site works exclusively with girls and offers them many opportunities to get involved with soccer: leagues, practices, futsal and an annual camp. Additionally, events ranging from movie night to girls night are hosted at the office throughout the week.



As a long term intern I will be working with the local staff on programming, administrative duties, special events and hosting short term volunteers.

I am really excited to start this internship! It combines so many of my passions: soccer, Latin America, Spanish, social service and cultural exchange. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to be able to apply so many of my passions in such a worthwhile environment.

Until August, I will be busy preparing for the year and fundraising. My goal is to fundraise $6000 before leaving. If you participate online be sure to indicate on the online note section that your contribution is on behalf of Lindsey Whitford.

Thank you so much to people you have already gotten involved and to people who plan to do so! I really appreciate your participation and support.