Over a year ago, while we were in
the States, John and Caedmon both took part in youth soccer through Parks and
Rec.
Caedmon enjoyed his first
experience playing soccer, while John gained experienced as the coach.
Little did we imagine the experience would
come into play halfway around the world.
Upon our return to Barat in 2016,
John put together soccer practice for first and second graders. Since there isn’t any type of youth sports
league here, the kids scrimmaged with each other at the end of each week. Last fall, under the social work branch of
the foundation he is working for, John organized a youth soccer league. The foundation sponsored four teams,
providing jerseys, balls, and cones.
Finding coaches proved more difficult than expected. The initial prospects expected to be
paid. After some time, John found four
men willing to volunteer their time to coach the kids, ranging from 1st
to 6th grade. The teams
consisted of 16 players, which due to the high level of interest were selected
by the coaches during tryouts. For two
months they practiced throughout the week and played games on Sunday
mornings. We ended the ‘season’ with a
tournament.
This past March, John began soccer
again, this time with four news teams from different neighborhoods. The previous teams wanted to participate
again as well, unfortunately they were left to find their own sponsors for this
season. Thankfully a man, who is the
equivalent of a State Representative, agreed to sponsor the additional teams,
so we now have eight teams participating.
Caedmon was selected to play with the team from our neighborhood. Twice weekly John takes Caedmon to practice then
Whitman, Evangeline, and I pick him up.
We then attend Caedmon’s games on Sunday mornings, while John acts as
the referee for half of the games. John has
been blessed by a recent college grad acting as his assistant to help with the
organizing and refereeing. Caedmon has
really been enjoying participating thus far and it has provided to be a great deal of
culture learning for John and I.
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| Caedmon's team warming up before a game. |
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John reefing and Caedmon #6, watching on the sidelines.
Caedmon is one of the youngest and newest to soccer on his team,
so he hasn't gotten to play much as winning is a high priority.
Thankfully he is still enjoying it!
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| Our walk to practice, it takes about ten minutes and is not accessible by car. |
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| We walk through a brick making area. |
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| Past multiple homes. |
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| Still walking! |
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| We made it to practice, slightly late, but it rarely starts on time. |
