St. Lucia Service Trip

          Good news coach Porterfield, on our first full day in St. Lucia I started my summer training, kind-of. We were at Merigot Bay on Thursday, May 23 to spend the afternoon at the beach. There was a group pf young local men playing football (soccer as it is known in the US). Me being in love with the sport found a way to get in on the fun and play. All I had to do was start a conversation with one of the guys and ask if I could play some football. It was not a problem. When I took the field, or in this case the beach, I was happy to experience that gender was not an issue. No one said, you can’t play with us, your a girl or anything along those lines. I was the only female that was playing. To these guys I was just another person out there having fun playing a sport we love and that was all that mattered when we steped on the pitch.             The ball skills these guys had were incredible. I would even consider some of them to be the St. Lucian version of Cristiano Ronaldo. The made it look so easy. We were playing in sand, which made it insanely hard to get footing and makes one work extra hard to gain speed. On top of that there were obstacles in the way such as planters and palm trees that had to be maneuvered around with the ball. The goals were a trash can placed a food from a tree. There were 3 to a team and who ever scores first stays on while 3 other stepped on to play. 2 forwards and 1 defense / keep who could not use his hands because the goal was so small.

            Later on in the day Peter and John from LC also jumped in and played some football. Photos of them playing will be posted shortley.

            Despite the differences of gender, race, nationality and ball skills we were out there playing football to have fun, period. For that reason, I believe this was the sport at its purest. That was the best part of my day, even though I ended up cutting my foot in the middle of play and had to quit. This is one of the experiences that I value the most from this trip. When I return to college in the fall for intense soccer training to start my last season of college ball, I will remember this experience when I am waking up at 5:45am, sore from practice the day before. This experience has also encouraged me pursue the idea of athletics as form of building community and conflict resolution in my studies.

So we leave for St. Lucia tomorrow. I think it’s not going to hit me until I get up at 3:45 tomorrow morning. Or maybe it won’t hit me until I get to the airport and meet up with the rest of the team. It will be so good to be back in the Caribbean, exploring a new part of it. It will also be nice to live with out the internet and having that hassle and getting back to sunny weather.  It’s a crappy day in the DC area today; it will be nice to see the sun again. I’m concerned about the flight but I’ll be fine once we are in the air. I’m a little nervous about working with the young men at C.A.R.E. I’m worried about being able to relate to them. But we’ll see what happens. This is going to be an amazing trip and its going to look great on a resume.

St. Lucia here we come!