Monterrey, Mexico (Part 2)

After running our first session with a familiar beneficiary, I decided to wind the clock back even further for our second program in just as many days. This class, a little 3 o’clock number in the same general area as Ortigosa, would be with a repeat beneficiary from all the way back in April of 2021 – Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos.

They were another one of our trusty partners and as soon as I had planned to do something with Moni and the other players, I knew I wanted to try to link something up with the NPH team as well. I remembered that 2021 session fondly, recalling just how much of a gift it was to work with a different demographic of participants. The classes called for young adults, which was a switch up from our usual participants. I know that our curriculum, tried and tested, holds true for kids. However, I questioned if it would be received positively by young adults. Well, we’d just have to wait and see.

The April 2021 program was interesting because some of the participants, either university students or new-to-the-workforce adults, were actually quite proficient at English. Thus, our program was effectively held in Espanglish. I played our listening drill and implemented body part commands in both Spanish and English. Then, our mano o cabeza game turned into a mixture of both languages. If it sounds like a trip I promise you in practice it was a million times harder because I can barely even play that game well in English!

About 19 or 20 months removed from that first session, I was eager to see if there were any familiar faces in the mix. Residents usually live at NPH for 3-5 years depending on their career track. After graduating, they stay at NPH a little longer to get their footing while growing both professionally and personally.

The campus currently had 96 jóvenes living there, but in the past it has catered to far more than that. As with so many other community partners, the pandemic had affected NPH tremendously, especially at this location for jovenes. Many of the jovenes had to study virtually, but didn’t have computers, which is a stress that we hardly think of in the states, but a very real one here. It was fascinating to move away from the field and the game even if just for a short while to hear them talk about their dreams and aspirations. They spoke with passion, beyond that, they spoke with conviction. They knew what they wanted to be and they were going to give it their all to get there.

Saturday is a tricky day because many kids are either working or studying. As kids were trickling in, I took a moment to speak with my contact, Diana. We had been linked up for quite some time and she was all in on collaborating for a program, the idea of conviviendo with NPH residents was one of mutual benefit in her mind, which is why I was there that day. I expressed a small amount of concern to her, perhaps without reason since our curriculum had succeeded in the past with similar, older age groups.

“Diana, I always have a little bit of doubt because our curriculum is one we use for kids from like 6-12 years old… so there’s always a fear it might not translate over to jovenes like this and young adults,” I said.

The participants told me to hold that thought, as their actions proved very much the opposite. Mano o cabeza, the listening drill, for miles all you could see was smiles and all you could hear was laughter. Even during the scrimmage, despite tense competition there were still moments of joy and levity. Mano o cabeza was definitely a highlight, though the participants were shy about their English so we played it exclusively in Spanish. With participants this old, they can grasp a mind game like mano o cabeza far better than the youngins so I found myself going back and forth for several minutes trying to eliminate someone and simply not being able to shake them.

“¡Mis chanclas!” she cried out. “Those were my favorite ones,” she added, through dramatic, fake sobs.

Credit to her, she played with one foot chancla-less for another 30 minutes. She was the jokester of the bunch, nearly kicking a ball over NPH’s high-reaching walls – “Luna! You’re going to kick away the ball that you won in mano o cabeza!” yelled out a staff member from afar.

With the scrimmage fading away, I gathered participants by the same blue wall I remembered from long ago for a quick chat before giving soccer balls to our prize winners and drawstring bags to everyone else. Luna stepped up with the same bubbly smile she’d worn all program to receive a new ball and a bag featuring the “Better Everyday” logo made popular by our friends Kat and Christina – the latter, a star forward for Monterrey’s Rayadas.

After her, another girl, Sandra stepped forward to claim her prize with pride. After them, a young gentleman who was stoked to have finally won a round himself while nearly going the full distance in each of the prior two rounds. Before dismissal, I asked the jovenes if they would do me a favor.

“Listen guys, we did something really special last time I was here…” I started. “After our session, I had taken out a few OWPP indestructible soccer balls – and our participants had written words of wisdom and affirmation on them, with those balls later being received and read by younger kids from a casa hogar here in Monterrey.”

It was a beautiful way to bridge worlds, to see the wisdom and advice that the older generation wrote to, effectively, younger versions of many of themselves. Essentially, they were writing from chapters already closed, for a group of beneficiaries just beginning the very same book. I took out a stack of “Better Everyday” bags and a handful of permanent markers and asked if they would be willing to do something similar. At first, they were hesitant, but one domino fell and the rest quickly followed. They wrote with passion, their words filled with love and encouragement, the sentences formed by those words rooted in both experience and reality. Some were short and sweet, others long but equally heartfelt.

“Tu puedes!” one boy wrote, clutching his bag with pride, showing he truly meant what he had written.

“Be happy!” Diana wrote.

“Trabaja duro por tus sueños!” wrote another boy, signing it with his name and ‘MX’ next to it, in case the bag ended up in another country.

“Always fight for your dreams!” one participant wrote, which was one of my personal favorites. 

I looked over to a small, but sprightly young girl named Evelyn. She jumped out immediately to me because she was wearing Mexico’s new World Cup kit, and had written several lines on her ball. She asked if they could write them in English, or if it just had to be Spanish.

“So now y’all wanna speak English?” I joked, before telling her of course she could write a note in English.

I pulled her bag closer and gave it a read. “Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you,” she wrote – one of her favorite motivational quotes.

With this little activity out the way, and my gratitude more than overflowing for them and their participation, we all made our way into the salon where a few participants stuck around to craft bracelets for some of our future beneficiaries. As I said, it was fascinating to hear the jovenes talk about career and life goals. They all took a moment to say what they were working towards. One participant was currently studying economics. Evelyn is studying accounting and was currently working at Deloitte hence why she wanted to practice her English. Another girl is studying to be a dentist.

“Ooh let’s see your smile then!” I yelled out, as she proudly revealed a set of pearly whites – “Oh wow you really must be a dental student!” I replied, with a smile of my own.

Another young girl was studying graphic design, as we chatted about different software and mediums, with Adobe being her current go-to. As conversation flowed, a familiar face suddenly walked into the salon.

“I remember you!” I said. “Me too!” she replied and we reminisced on our 2021 session together. Her name was Yesica. She looked exactly the same. I told her what a treat it was to see her after a long year and a half. She asked how things were going with the charity while I asked how her studies were. “I graduated already,” she said with a big smile, looking back towards her recent graduation in August. “Felicidades!” I answered, “I’m proud of you.” She’s now working as a public accountant – what a star!

During the program, I was speaking with Diana trying to see which old participants were still living at NPH.

“Mira I remember there was this one girl, she was the best player in the whole session, far better than me!” I said.

“Is she still here?”

“She had braces, and red shoes, but that’s all I remember,” I added.

“Ah!” Diana answered, a lightbulb flickering, “Phany, she’s still here.”

Just after Yesica came through the salon, Phany followed closely behind. She smiled and greeted me warmly as I told her just like Yesica how much of a gift it was to see her again and more importantly, to see her doing well.

“And how’s soccer going?” I asked. “Still playing?”

She flashed a smile, “Of course,” she answered. “I’m representing my university.”