Celebrating Year One...with a Blog

Palillos de bocadillo con queso

Today, in Barrio Los Fundadores, the youth of the Santa Marta neighborhood Los Fundadores celebrated the Escuela de Fútbol Los Fundadores' one year anniversary. Approximately 50 children gathered in the patio of a gracious family from the neighborhood who leant us their space and contributed their time to the distribution of snacks and drinks.





The day prior, during a makeshift practice that included more than 70 children due to the cancelation of both morning and afternoon classes* for the Colombia vs. Argentina game, children were asked for mil pesos or a 1000 COP (about $0.53 USD) contribution for the following day's festivities. Approximately half of the children's families were able to contribute to the successful chaos of the party. No child is ever excluded due to his/her inability to contribute to water, snacks, or buseta costs (1200 COP one-way).

The kids had an opportunity to exercise patience while food and drinks were being purchased and prepared. It was a definite challenge for them (and for me) but something that we are working on with each day that passes. Something I will have to continue to remind myself is that, for me, this is only day #4 and that this is the Colombian coast and definitely not the speed of New York.

After the costly** registration of the school with La Liga de Fútbol Magdalena, the soccer league of the Colombian department Magdalena of which Santa Marta is the capital, and its subsequent formal recognition, a primary objective of mine has been the expansion of the program to include the girls' teams. We have 26 girls ranging from 6 to 16 years of age signed up and are in search of a female resident to train as an assistant coach and who will also serve as a role model.

In the next few updates I hope to provide more background on the soccer school, its mission, its needs and our challenges (and how you can help--I'm in need of international e-commerce advice); on this project and the Davis Projects for Peace in general; and our progress towards what we hope will be a more secure neighborhood and a promising future for these youth. 

Special thanks to Juliet Robboy who helped develop this proposal but who unfortunately was not able to join me.



*An issue about schooling in the coast of Colombia expressed by involved parents and confirmed by a needs assessment, the Neighborhood Check-up, conducted last summer is the limited time that children are actually present in class. School is divided into two 5-hour sessions or jornadas and children attend either the morning session or the afternoon session. Furthermore, there is an abundance of holidays (the day before I arrived was a holiday, the Friday of the soccer game became a holiday, and the following Monday also a holiday). This also only really refers to the children that are 1) enrolled in school and 2) actually attend class. A requirement of this program is that all participants attend school; the school's director Marcos Nuñez Pachon has placed great emphasis on helping those not attending school get enrolled. A mission of the program is that every participant go on to receive a university education, which will be something tracked in the future for evaluative purposes.

**In addition to a costly registration fee and monthly dues, the league requires that all participants be dressed in uniform for games, meaning cleats, shin guards, socks, shorts, and shirt with the team's name and emblem. These excited children come to practice with what they own, ranging from a few lucky ones with athletic shoes to Sperpys (knock off Sperrys) to plastic slip-on shoes to older brother's or sister's mis-sized shoes to sandals to none at all.