Jamie Gillis '10, Assistant Women's Soccer Coach at UMass Lowell, and Margaret McSpiritt '14, a captain on the 2013 team, will blog periodically on their trip to Nicaragua, where they are spending a week with the organization Soccer without Borders.

Follow Jamie (@Jamie_Gillis) and Marge (@MargeMcSpiritt) on Twitter

Sunday, January 19 (Jamie Gillis)
Saturday was our last full day in Granada. The interns and staff took us on a boat tour through the isletas (small islands created when the volcano, Mombacho, erupted thousands of years ago). It was beautiful! We stopped on one islet that had a restaurant and pool and took a couple hours to relax, swim and eat lunch. When we got back to the office, a few of us went shopping to pick up souvenirs. That night was spent having lots of laughs and reminiscing on such a great week!

Sunday morning Marge and I took a trip to the market since our flight wasn't until the afternoon. Imagine a flea market times a thousand.....jam-packed, selling everything and anything from shoelaces to pig heads. We managed to find flowers for our host family and we headed back to say our goodbyes. 
 
This experience was something that we are both very grateful for and will never forget. We want to thank everyone who helped make this trip possible. We will definitely miss giving piggy back rides, getting hugs all day long, hanging out on the porch after practice, laughing at our struggles speaking Spanish and seeing how much the girls really looked up to us. We were able to meet so many great people and learn so much about such an amazing organization!

Friday, January 17 (Jamie Gillis)
Today was by far my favorite day of the trip, but also probably the saddest. The day started out with Soccer Olympics. The volunteers were split into groups and were asked to come up with a game for our specific topic. Marge, Val and I decided to play a game we call Minefield. One player on each team is blind-folded and the rest of the team must direct her around the cones and to the other side to collect a pinnie before they all run back to switch turns. We incorporated dribbling with communication and trust. I think the girls really enjoyed our station and we had a lot of laughs.

Later in the day we all met at the office to get ready for the big trip to Managua for the game against their national team. Most of the girls and a few of their family members were there to join us. We boarded the two buses and off we went. There was a lot of screaming, singing and dancing. When we arrived at the stadium, we were brought to our locker room to prepare. Tetro then put us through a warm up and gave the starting line-up. Marge started at right back and I was at forward. I switched into goal 15 minutes into the half and Marge got a look at center back in the second half!

The girls were so awesome. I can't even describe the feeling I had hearing them chanting each of our names, screaming so loud whenever we even just touched the ball and also threw in some U-S-A chants. I really feel like in such a short amount of time we were able to create such good relationships with so many of these kids.

After the game we headed back to Granada. Marge and I were on the younger girls' bus and while many sang and dance, some of the girls passed out in our arms after such a long day! Once we got back, we had to say our goodbyes to the girls. Today was the last day we would get to see them. The girls gave us big hugs and some told us they didn't want us to go.

We ended the night with dinner at Claudia's and ice cream at Eskimo's. Each volunteer and intern went around and said their Rose (Best), Thorn (Worst), and Bud (Impact) parts of the week. It was cool to hear everyone's thought and safe to say we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and learned so much through these awesome girls, Nica coaches and interns.

Tomorrow we have a trip to the isletas and some shopping planned. This week is quickly coming to an end and I wish I could rewind it already!

Thursday, January 16 (Marge McSpiritt)
One thing that amazes us everyday is that the girls show up as early as 8:30 to borrow cleats, help carry equipment and just hangout when their camp doesn't even start until 9:30. Today's camp was all about teamwork. One activity everyone really enjoyed was a relay. It was a circle of cones with three people at each and when a person's number was called they had to run around all the groups and get to the center first.

After camp we had our usual lunch at the office and started to plan the Olympics. The Olympics is the last activity we do on Friday, the last day of camp. The staff allows the volunteers to plan this activity.

The girls showed up back at the office right at 3:00. This was personally my favorite indoor activity day. We did teamwork-style games that made you have to work together and think. For example, one activity had two pieces of cardboard on the ground and then everywhere else on the floor was lava. We had to get everyone across the room but one person could only go back and forth three times. The girls had a lot of fun because they just climbed on the backs of the older girls; we managed to carry 2 at a time.

After the activity we rushed to a church in the center of Granada to see the sun set from the very top. This was incredibly beautiful. You could see the whole city and in the distance the volcanos. On our way to dinner we stopped at a hammock store. The hammocks are hand made by the deaf, blind, and mute.

Buenos noches!!

Wednesday, January 15 (Jamie Gillis)
Buenas dias! Tuesday started off with our usual breakfast of eggs, fruit, oatmeal, local sweet bread and coffee. On this day, we facilitated activities that emphasized teamwork and cooperation and ended the morning session with a scrimmage. The staff stuck around and played small pick-up games.
Once the girls left for the day, we organized the bodega with all of the donations that everyone had brought with them. We had very efficient assembly line to organize all of the different cleats, uniforms, balls, shin guards and school supplies.

At night, we had some local professional salsa dancers come in to teach us how to salsa. Marge stole the show and, unfortunately, we were partners. We were the worst dancers in the room. After a couple private lessons, we finally managed to get in a couple steps and spins. When we got home, we played with our host brothers and sisters for a bit before getting to bed.
 
On Wedneday, we continued our daily morning schedule. Today was the last goalkeeping session. We went over proper catching technique and distribution. We ended with an exciting game of Goalkeeper Wars that the girls really enjoyed.

Once the training was done, we headed back to the bodega for lunch and a chocolate-making lesson. Larkin showed us all the steps in order to create chocolate bars, fondant or milkshakes. It was really interesting....who doesn't like chocolate!

The girls quickly arrived back anxiously awaiting the afternoon activity while all of us volunteers were trying to take a quick nap. The afternoon activity was based on the program the Costa Rican volunteers use in their training (We have 3 Costa Rican girls joining us at camp on an exchange). After a slideshow and some history of their program we broke into groups and did different activities. The theme was confidence. On the different floors of the house the girls did competitions, drawings of what soccer meant to them and teamwork activities.

After the girls left we hurried into our groups for pot luck preparations. Everyone was spilt up into a group with one of the Nicaraguan coaches and we went to their houses to put together a pot-luck dinner. I was in Helen's group and we were in charge of salad and beef. We cut up tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, onions, and beets to make an enormous salad. The beef was seasoned and cooked over an outside fire. Once we were finished we went back to the bodega to enjoy the meal. There was so much food to choose from and everything was delicious. My personal fave was the guacamole from Cesar's. We finished off the meal with the chocolate fondant we made and some fruit to go along with it.
 
Buenas noches!

Monday, January 13 (Marge McSpiritt)
Sunday was our first full day in Nicaragua. We woke up and had breakfast before orientation at the office with the rest of the volunteers and coaches. We learned about the expectations from us for the week as well as more details about the program itself.

Afterwards, we went to soccer field and played Amazing Race, which is a scavenger hunt game that had us take pictures of different parts of the city so we got to see more of Granada. We were split into the groups that we would be in for camp. I am working with ages 10 to 12 while Jamie is working with 12 to 14 year olds.

After lunch we had a fiesta at the office for the girls in the program. We played musical chairs, chocolata and piñata. To end the fiesta, we watched a slide show of the Soccer Without Borders Recap of 2013. The girls were so happy and excited to see pictures of themselves.

We had dinner at Donna Chillis, which is the house at the center of the neighborhood. The host fed all of the volunteers, the Nicaraguan staff and the US staff an amazing meal of chicken wings, rice, and plantain chips. To end our night we played some games in the street (soccer, hide-and-seek, and tire-jumping). After a long first day we went to bed.

Monday was the first day of camp. We woke up bright and early to get ready for our big day with the girls. We met up for breakfast and then headed to the field with the rest of the volunteers and coaches. The girls came at 9:00AM to start camp. It was quite hot (over 90 degrees) and the field was mostly dirt as it is shared with a baseball field, but it was amazing to see the girls so excited to partipate despite the heat.

At camp we start with a large group warm-up before splitting up into our different age groups. In our small groups, we played a game called Stop-Light, did some 1 v 1 and some defensive drills. Jamie hosted a goalkeeper session....good to see so many girls interested in goalkeeping.. Camp ended at 11:30 with some lunch. Afterwards, we got to be tourists and wander the city of Granada.

The girls came to the office around 3:00 for some snacks and trivia. All of the girls are so cute and just want piggy-back rides and people to play with.... We've learned that they have a lot of energy. Once everyone was spent, we went back t our host families for a nice stay-at-home dinner. Jamie and I helped prepare the meal, feeling extremely comfortable and welcome event with the language barrier. After dinner we hung out with the other volunteers, coaches, and people that live in the area.

Check back soon!

Sunday, January 12 (Jamie Gillis)
We arrived safely in Managua yesterday after an eight-hour journey.

We met the three other volunteer girls on the plane and were picked up at the airport by one of the interns and local coach. After the hour trip to Granada, we hurried to our home-stay families to change and get to the field to play some pick-up soccer.

The family is wonderful and they were so welcoming. Marge and I are staying together in a house with 20 or so family members. We played until the sun went down and we could hardly see the ball, not to mention the horses that were grazing the sidelines. Afterwards, we went back to the organization's headquarters for dinner and took the opportunity to get to know the other volunteers.

Once we got back to our homes all the kids on our street wanted to play. Everyone gathered at one of the houses until late in the night, listening to music, playing soccer in the street, setting off mini-fireworks.... We did our best to ask each other questions. After an amazing first day, we were off to bed.

Today we have orientation at the headquarters and then a kick-off party to meet the girls we'll be working with all week!
 
Hasta luego!

Tuesday, January 7 (Jamie Gillis)
On Saturday, senior captain Margaret McSpiritt and I will travel to Granada, Nicaragua with the organization Soccer without Borders. We will join several other current and former female collegiate players and coaches from all over the US for a weeklong camp, teaching the skills of soccer while doing team-building exercises with the participants.

Soccer without Borders is a non-profit organization that uses soccer as a vehicle for positive change, providing under-served youth a toolkit to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion, and personal success. They currently operate four core programs in the United States, Nicaragua and Uganda. They also run four seasonal programs and twelve camps in four different countries. Their programs help young people come into a greater understanding of themselves, creating avenues toward individual growth, new opportunities, and the achievement of personal goals. 
 
Margaret and I are extremely excited for this opportunity and we cannot wait to get there to start sharing our love and knowledge of the game with the local girls. Not only will we be leading clinics for the girls but we will also get a chance to play as well. We were recently told we will be playing against the Nicaraguan women's national team. Check back next week as we will try to update you on our daily experiences!
 
To read more about Soccer without Borders: http://www.soccerwithoutborders.org/