Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Final Days
I know it has been a while since my last blog and for that I do apologize, I wish I could have written more myself. Since my last blog a couple of weeks ago, I have had to make a lot of decisions concerning when to come home and how to rap things up before I leave. On my last blog I informed about the tennis progress I was making in this area. Well one of the decisions that had to be debated was that the director of sports for Zacapa did offer me a job to work at the training facility as the tennis director. At the moment I did not give him an answer. After being here for three months and making a lot of progress, a part of me did not want to stop and wait until next summer to pick up where I left off. On the other hand, I have numerous responsibilities back in St. Augustine that I can not avoid. So after seriously considering the offer, I declined. I wanted to stress to the director and students that I want to see this program succeed and I will do everything in my power to help it along. The biggest need for tennis to succeed in this area and complex is a qualified instructor to take charge and build a program. The response from the children and a few adults are positive with motivation to get better. So after a month's worth of clinics, Wednesday and Saturday's, this past Saturday was my last clinic. After getting to know a couple of students and watching their progress over a month's span, it was difficult knowing that this will be, for some of them, their last time on a tennis court. Not very often do these kids get an opportunity to get a free clinic to learn a new sport, I am just hoping I instilled an interest in them to continue the sport that they have been taught. I did want to find an instructor to continue clinics or to create some type of league play, but since I did not I entrusted one of the students to hold on to some of the equipment until I return. I made all the kids exchange their phone numbers so they could keep in touch with the people they met and try to create a time where they come out and hit around or run some of the drills I showed them. So needless to say, this was one of my greatest accomplishments since I have been down here and I have high hopes for the future of this program.
On a different note or decision, I am proud to say that the multi-use court is finally taking shape. After the fall and the weeks worth of picking up the pieces, I decided to try and rebuild it before I left. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a good idea because for one, I wasn't sure if it could be done before I left since there was so much to do and two since I was not physically able to do any of the work myself, hiring is always a sticky situation. One of the biggest obstacles in rebuilding the wall and bleachers is finding the right help to do it. Finding a trust worthy mason and working crew is a task within itself. I must have had a dozen locals come up to me and ask me to hire them for the job. But with my horrible Spanish and not knowing them personally, I did not want to make the same mistake twice. So after a couple of weeks of searching and debating, I found someone to do the job. He was recommended by a friend here and he lived 45 minutes away which means he had to stay at the site until it was done. So we decided to let them stay in the empty room of the school up above. All they asked for was a hot plate to cook food on(think about that for a minute). So I found some extra mattresses and gave it to them to sleep on something other than hard cement. So within a couple of days of hiring them, progress was unbelievable. This time I wanted to make sure this wall stood up against the toughest of rains so one night I went down to look at the court when we had a good rain and saw first hand where all the water ran. So I decided to make some changes to the original plans. Within a week and a half the job was complete and the second wall was up and standing. Not only did this one have a wall, we also put concrete bleachers in front of the long wall. After that job was complete I decided to re-hire them to put concrete between the wall and the court where there was dirt originally. I did not want any of the dirt washing on to the court and causing more problems. So I am happy to say that the court project is mostly complete except for some minor cosmetic touches. This project was one of the hardest obstacles, physically and mentally, that I have ever encountered but one of the most gratifying as well. I met some of the most amazing people building that court and made some hopefully life long relationships.
One of the last accomplishments I made at the work site had to do with the local kids in the area and all the donations from everyone in the states. At the beginning of the summer, I wanted to develop some kind of system to let kids have access to some of the sports equipment S.I.M. has. I did not want to come down and just give away soccer and tennis ball, uniforms, shoes, etc.. As much as I wanted to, I know in the long run it would not serve the vision I see for sports programming in this area. Because to be honest, the minute I give away a bunch of free sporting equipment, I will be known to them only for that. So I wanted to develop at first a lending system. I first started out with lending them soccer balls during the day. While we were at the worksite working I would let them use some of the equipment to play with other kids and then towards the end of the day, we would join in. But at the end of the day, I would ask for all the equipment back. Only a couple of times did something get stolen. So after that worked, the kids were asking for soccer balls after we left so they could continue playing. So I picked one kid in charge of taking care of the ball until we returned the next day. For a while this system was working. The kids were sharing the ball and returning it the next morning. But after a while, excuses were coming up along with the balls missing and eventually they lost there trust with me. So I decided that if I was going to loose a ball either way, either by donation or renting it, I came up with another system. Some of the kids not only wanted soccer balls but some of the kids on the school's soccer team did not have shoes for their games. So I decided to make a work system where the kids would have to work for what they wanted and then it was theirs. For the kids that needed soccer shoes, they had to work five afternoons after they get out of school( for the ones that went to school). For other articles such as clothing and soccer balls, less days were assigned. So I decided it would be best if they worked on their own soccer field and basketball court. This way, they were all working on something that belonged to the community and they would be proud of where they put so much time and effort in to. So I think from now on, if the kids want something, just like everyone else they are going to have to work for what they want. I believe this is a much better choice than coming down here and handing out a bunch of free stuff. So that has been another one of my better accomplishments.
As I am tying up some of my loose ends, I am having many emotions run through. I am grateful for every experience I have gone through here, good and bad. I am frightful that all the work I have down will be lost in time until my return. I will miss all the friends I have made since my arrival. All of these emotions are good I guess because it shows me that we did make an impact here. I pray that the people I tried to help learned from me as much as I learned from them and take that with them throughout their life. I will try write another follow-up blog before I leave with all the heart filled words about my stay. Until then...
On a different note or decision, I am proud to say that the multi-use court is finally taking shape. After the fall and the weeks worth of picking up the pieces, I decided to try and rebuild it before I left. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a good idea because for one, I wasn't sure if it could be done before I left since there was so much to do and two since I was not physically able to do any of the work myself, hiring is always a sticky situation. One of the biggest obstacles in rebuilding the wall and bleachers is finding the right help to do it. Finding a trust worthy mason and working crew is a task within itself. I must have had a dozen locals come up to me and ask me to hire them for the job. But with my horrible Spanish and not knowing them personally, I did not want to make the same mistake twice. So after a couple of weeks of searching and debating, I found someone to do the job. He was recommended by a friend here and he lived 45 minutes away which means he had to stay at the site until it was done. So we decided to let them stay in the empty room of the school up above. All they asked for was a hot plate to cook food on(think about that for a minute). So I found some extra mattresses and gave it to them to sleep on something other than hard cement. So within a couple of days of hiring them, progress was unbelievable. This time I wanted to make sure this wall stood up against the toughest of rains so one night I went down to look at the court when we had a good rain and saw first hand where all the water ran. So I decided to make some changes to the original plans. Within a week and a half the job was complete and the second wall was up and standing. Not only did this one have a wall, we also put concrete bleachers in front of the long wall. After that job was complete I decided to re-hire them to put concrete between the wall and the court where there was dirt originally. I did not want any of the dirt washing on to the court and causing more problems. So I am happy to say that the court project is mostly complete except for some minor cosmetic touches. This project was one of the hardest obstacles, physically and mentally, that I have ever encountered but one of the most gratifying as well. I met some of the most amazing people building that court and made some hopefully life long relationships.
One of the last accomplishments I made at the work site had to do with the local kids in the area and all the donations from everyone in the states. At the beginning of the summer, I wanted to develop some kind of system to let kids have access to some of the sports equipment S.I.M. has. I did not want to come down and just give away soccer and tennis ball, uniforms, shoes, etc.. As much as I wanted to, I know in the long run it would not serve the vision I see for sports programming in this area. Because to be honest, the minute I give away a bunch of free sporting equipment, I will be known to them only for that. So I wanted to develop at first a lending system. I first started out with lending them soccer balls during the day. While we were at the worksite working I would let them use some of the equipment to play with other kids and then towards the end of the day, we would join in. But at the end of the day, I would ask for all the equipment back. Only a couple of times did something get stolen. So after that worked, the kids were asking for soccer balls after we left so they could continue playing. So I picked one kid in charge of taking care of the ball until we returned the next day. For a while this system was working. The kids were sharing the ball and returning it the next morning. But after a while, excuses were coming up along with the balls missing and eventually they lost there trust with me. So I decided that if I was going to loose a ball either way, either by donation or renting it, I came up with another system. Some of the kids not only wanted soccer balls but some of the kids on the school's soccer team did not have shoes for their games. So I decided to make a work system where the kids would have to work for what they wanted and then it was theirs. For the kids that needed soccer shoes, they had to work five afternoons after they get out of school( for the ones that went to school). For other articles such as clothing and soccer balls, less days were assigned. So I decided it would be best if they worked on their own soccer field and basketball court. This way, they were all working on something that belonged to the community and they would be proud of where they put so much time and effort in to. So I think from now on, if the kids want something, just like everyone else they are going to have to work for what they want. I believe this is a much better choice than coming down here and handing out a bunch of free stuff. So that has been another one of my better accomplishments.
As I am tying up some of my loose ends, I am having many emotions run through. I am grateful for every experience I have gone through here, good and bad. I am frightful that all the work I have down will be lost in time until my return. I will miss all the friends I have made since my arrival. All of these emotions are good I guess because it shows me that we did make an impact here. I pray that the people I tried to help learned from me as much as I learned from them and take that with them throughout their life. I will try write another follow-up blog before I leave with all the heart filled words about my stay. Until then...
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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