One session already in the bag, it was time for another programming day. This one featured a morning jawn near Fontibon, followed by an afternoon class near my home in Barrios Unidos.

The first beneficiary was the amazing Fundacion Amigos de Jesus y Maria. I was set to work with them twice during this Bogota-based run. First, a Saturday morning session with 20 of their youngest beneficiaries. Then, a Monday afternoon joint with the older kids. I showed up right on time and saw the kids already playing outside the foundation with their profes.

Twenty footballs in tow, we made our way swiftly to a nearby park to get things started. The day started off weird, but I was determined to turn things around. Basically, I had searched the foundation’s name in Cabify and one result came up. Great, right? Wrong. The dirección was incorrect.

Thankfully, I caught the error in my ways relatively early and my taxi driver was super friendly and trustworthy to take me to the correct one.

“Gracias por su ayuda,” I said to him, handing him a little extra cash as a tip.

I was frazzled, but luckily, we all had a good laugh about it once I reached the foundation.

“Que raro!” my contacts said to me, upon hearing of my mishaps.

Pre-program charla done and dusted, it was time to get into it. I planned for 20 kids, but you know how kids are, especially when sports are involved. That 20 quickly became 25, which even more quickly became 27.

“Profe, puedo jugar?” a bunch of ninos chilling in the park had come up to me to ask.

“Pues, dejame ver” was all I could say, unsure if I had enough resources to give each participant a prize.

Luckily, my lack of preparation was only that – mine. The foundation had checked in stocked to the gills with snacks, milk, apples, and sweet breads, one of each for each young athlete.

I was touched when one of my contacts, Judy, brought some over to share with me. Politely, I declined the sweets, but didn’t say no to the apple. “Gracias pero I gave up sweets for la quaresma,” I said, grateful to Judy for the apple and the energy it was giving me.

As always, we started things off with our listening drill. We were short a few soccer balls, and I was thankful for Judy’s help, as she headed back to the foundation to grab a couple extras. Still, though, we were short by two. A quick second trip to the foundation and back, we finally had 27 soccer balls to match our 27 participants. Accordingly, we dove straight into our dribbling drill.

“Profe? Un partido cuando?” one of our athletes asked, just like the Fundacion Desarrollo ConSentido kids the day before.

These guys were eager to scrimmage, and who could blame them! Still, though, we had to knock out some relay races before we could get to that stage of the session. The kids nailed this one, moving carefully through the cones and back to their respective teams, as fast as they possibly could.

Our last participant crossed the finish line and I blew my whistle to draw the group in for nuestro partido. Energy was high, and likewise, our beneficiaries’ skill level was too. Competitive spirit bubbling, I blew my whistle and brought our game to a halt – noticing something on the far right side of the court. Apparently, a boy had been bumped on the head, caught in a tussle with an older chap. Like any mediator, I gathered the two in front of me before instructing the lad at fault to apologize to the other.

“Tienes que decir ‘lo siento’ mi amigo,” I said. “Y un handshake too.”

Fortunately, the boy was receptive. Afterwards, the other boy came up to me and gave me a big hug.

“Profe te quiero, muchísimas gracias.”

The game did have everything. Excitement, fouls, fault, and forgiveness. It was the beauty of the beautiful game, fully on display. After all was said and done, there was nothing left to do except reward our participants for their hard work and effort. The t-shirts from Challenger fit the kids great, and man did they look slick. I wasn’t in the clear quite yet, knowing I had prepared barely 25 things for the session. Resultantly, we were short one gift and it appeared a girl would be left hanging her head, but thankfully there was one bag left at the bottom of my backpack.

“Ay profe gracias! Gracias por mi mochila,” she said with a smile.

With that, as our last bag and shirt were passed out, an older boy jumped out from the crowd to greet me.

“Profe! I have my class with you on Monday,” he said.

“Are you excited?” I asked.

“Claro que si profe!” he answered.

“Y sabes cuál es el regalo por ustedes?”

“Profe no se…” he said, puzzled. 

“Pues hoy tuvimos camisetas y mochilas… y no se, tal vez el lunes tenemos pelotas?” I replied, with a grin.

“Ay profe ojalá si!” the boy answered.

“Pues bro es un secreto entre nosotros, okay?”

“Sip profe!”

With that boy’s excitement at an all time high, he so very gladly helped package up our 20 footballs and hand-carry them back to the foundation with tender care.

Once there, we were able to debrief the session as I shared some of my favorite parts with FUNDAJM staff members. I told them I was particularly impressed with one participant, a girl with special needs, who throughout the class insisted on speaking to me in straight English. At first, they couldn’t believe their ears. “Hey, write that down, write that down!” they exclaimed. They were all super excited. The girl was known around these parts for being super intelligent. Beyond that, she dreams of being a fashion designer. Still, this was unheard of. Near-fluent level conversational English with a native speaker.

“Es una gran victoria por ustedes!” I exclaimed.

They were super excited and I couldn’t help but smile at their excitement.

“Hasta lunes!” I said, hopping into the front seat of my taxi.

“Dale! Gracias profe nos vemos pronto!”