Couva, Trinidad & Tobago
This was my first time in Trinidad for programs and I was prepared for a tricky travel process. I was warned by our contacts on the ground, Amiel and Yohance, that passing through airport customs in Trinidad could be very tricky and to expect some pushback or hassle with the number of soccer balls in our luggage. Amiel had prepared a letter detailing our itinerary and the partnership between Around the Worlds and their organization, The Can Bou Play Foundation. It said we would be carrying out sessions for the next week and change.
Fortunately, our extra preparation was not needed and I ended up walking right through, right past customs officers without any issue, straight from the baggage claim into the bed of Yohance’s truck. He greeted my mother and me with a warm embrace as if we already knew each other despite this being our first in-person meeting. I had been fortunate to link up with Hance, Amiel, and Can Bou Play through an old friend from my alma mater, the University of Connecticut – Julius James.
Julius excelled at the collegiate level and quickly broke into the professional game, becoming a veteran in Major League Soccer. He had also represented his country, Trinidad & Tobago, before settling down as a youth academy coach for Inter Miami and co-founding CBP with his close friends, most fellow professional ballers, back home in Trinidad. They wanted to use CBP as a platform to mentor their country’s youth both on the field and in the classroom. They held free soccer camps, similarly to us, lecture series, and eventually moved into equipping kids with internet access and tablets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Needless to say, excitement was very much in the air, and despite the boys coming through the crib the night before our first session to inflate soccer balls, which is never fun, that excitement was still noticeably palpable.
Introductions were made, followed by more introductions the following day. The boys were excited to welcome a new face onto their island, to introduce us to the people, their culture, their cuisine, and more. We feasted on shave ice, on roti, and more. We met old coaches, legends in the game, the very coaches who helped bring the boys up into the professionals they would one day become.
Between CBP officially launching their operations and this being the 25th country to welcome our free-of-charge programs and curriculum into it, this was always going to be a special collaboration. Meeting everyone, all the professional athletes, CBP’s trusty videographer and cameraman, Jono, and more – only solidified this. These guys were awesome. It was crazy because a lot of them had reached the heights of the professional game, representing their country, playing pro ball, even going to a World Cup. But they were as down to earth as anyone could ever be. I mean I was sitting here in a TGI Fridays, eating a burger and chatting with Yohance, as his buddies passed around a photo of him guarding Lionel Messi during a game between Trinidad and Argentina. Like what?!
I read through our itinerary ahead of time thanks to Amiel passing it along early for customs and man was it jam-packed. We had seven partnerships set up. Some of those would include in-person, organized training sessions, while others would be more of a chat, a mentorship activity, and then a provision of some equipment to be used later on by the group. We were set to work with two primary schools in Couva, a children’s home, an afterschool program in the ‘ghetto’ of Maloney, where Julius is from, another children’s home, and then two soccer academies.
It was fun being a fly on the wall during these sessions and just watching how the participants interacted with our panel of pro ballers. These guys knew what it took to get to the top, and all they wanted to do was help others get there too. Beyond that, they did a good job centering things and making dreams seem reachable. For instance, after one of our first couple of sessions wound down, we gathered the kids in for a talk. It was at a local children’s home. One of the pro ballers, Keston, asked the kids what school they went to.
“Saint Margaret’s,” said a child, raising their hand.
“Me too,” said Keston.
“I went there too,” said another pro, Jared.
It went exactly like this for other sessions too and I know it seems trivial or small, but it’s really not. For those kids to be there, talking to pros who one day sat in the very same spot, desk, classroom, etc. as they did. You don’t know how attainable that makes a dream feel.
“He went to my same school and then represented our country at the World Cup?” they asked.
This only inspires kids to think to themselves, ‘hey maybe I can do that too if I work hard enough.’
Our programs were extremely fun, I introduced parts of our curriculum at times, and other times I just took a step back and let them run the show. Either way, I was taking class, looking at elements of their coaching style and drills that I could implement into our own sessions, many of which I still use to this day. We ran one program at a local school that must have had over 300 kids watching, cheering, and at times, participating. The kids just kept flowing out of the school doors, wearing matching colored tee-shirts. 50 became 100 which quickly became 200+. If you don’t believe me, I promise Jono has some drone footage from the program.
As our programming run drew to its conclusion, we spent the last night going out with the players, their friends, and our new acquaintances. We enjoyed some local Stag and Caribbean beverages, along with a mix of traditional dishes: doubles and chowder were some of the favorites, though we couldn’t manage to get our hands on some bake and shark. Jono said it was his favorite dish on the island.
We spent the late night at Yohance’s mother’s home, where she cooked us a meal of fish, rice, beans, and more. To this day, this has to be my favorite meal I have ever had in the Caribbean. Just like that, the trip finished exactly how it started. Back in the truck, outside the airport. This time, I had a white, Joma Trinidad & Tobago jersey signed by the Maloney kids. On it, the number 25 had been screen-printed, thanks to Amiel, to signify this being Around the Worlds’ 25th country. We took a couple of pictures inside the airport for posterity’s sake with Hance and then soon boarded the plane.
It’s crazy to think…25 countries. What a crazy ride.
Twenty-five countries and 4,100 participants in our programs, each with their own unique stories of triumph over struggle, perseverance through adversity. Eighty different collaborations with orphanages, schools, youth centers, feeding programs, sports academies, and refugee homes. More than 1,200 soccer balls hand-delivered through our programs that have gone on to indirectly provide play to over 37,500 others.
But behind the numbers, just one incredible community that has followed us through every up and down on this wild journey. A community that has constantly motivated us to ask more of ourselves so that we might do more for the children we exist for.
None of this would be even remotely possible without you all, and for that, I thank you. Here’s to the next 25!
