It’s been three and a half years since our last Peru-based session. This time we worked with the same beneficiary organization as our first program location this trip: Ciudad de los Niños.

I had no issues on the way to Lima, not even a stop and interrogation at customs. With little to no fuss, I hit the ground moving, from a late night arrival at Jorge Chavez airport to an even later arrival to my airbnb in the safe and peaceful Magdalena Del Mar.

I had one full rest day to settle in and prep, then the next afternoon I was jetting off to San Juan de Miraflores, and Ciudad’s high-climbing front gate. I was met by a young man named Flavio, only in his second day at the foundation. He studied part time and worked part time to fulfill volunteer hours. My contact, Madeley, told me I would be left in good hands with him. She sure was right!

Now on Ciudad’s campus, I hooked a left through a gate, but was not met with my usual sight of a large grass opening. Instead, there were five beautiful turf fields with regulation-sized nets at each end. It was beautiful and a huge change from my last session nearly four years ago.

“Can I help you set up anything?” Flavio asked. 

“No, I’m all set!” 

“Dale, I’ll go grab the kids,” he said.

“Estamos listos para jugar?” I asked.

“Siiiii profe!”

The woman in charge of the boys, known affectionately as their “tutor,” had done a good job keeping them in check, with almost military-like precision. About face! At ease! Just like that.

I ran through a quick charla with them to introduce my expectations. Energía, respeto, y atención.

“Entiendo, profe!” they all exclaimed.

From there, they joined me at the center of the field, going down the line to introduce their name and age. The younger boys, coming from Casa Nino Jesus, were between 3-6 years old. The older boys, from Casa Sonrisa Franciscana, were between 7-9 years old.

I instructed them to all partner up as we dove straight into our battle-tested listening drill. They had an absolute ball with this one, with a few rounds run by myself followed by Flavio. I watched on with awe as several duos backed up far away from their centered footballs, looking to add an additional element of difficulty to proceedings.

“Profe, join me! I don’t have a partner,” one participant said.

The young lad and I went at it for a few rounds, and he eventually edged me out and won. From there, I instructed all participants to grab their own footballs and keep them in their hands. We would be breaking off into our dribbling exercise.

“Falta uno, falta uno!” I’d yell out, determined not to restart dribbling until every single participant had their foot, hand, nariz, or even pompis, on top of the ball.

“Estamos esperando a ti!” I’d exclaim, still careful to throw in positive encouragement all the while. “Claro que si amigo tu puedes hacerlo!”

After, I lined all 18 participants up so we could hit red light, green light.

“Profe quien es la muneca? Usted?”

““Siiiii! Por la primera,” I said.

We started with the ball in their hands at first, then at their feet, then lodged between their knees. Then we broke for a water break before our big game, which the athletes were extremely excited about.

I chose the teams, trying to make them as equal as possible. Then, with a blow of the whistle and a kick of the ball high into the sky, we were off. What started off with a single goal quickly turned into an all-out slugfest with good offense and even better defense.

I sat them all down for our cooldown charla and to pass out regalos. Luckily, our Challenger Soccer shirts fit them perfectly!

“Profe? Cuando vuelvas?” one person asked, hoping I would come back soon.

“Este Jueves!” I yelled out. “Make sure to wear your new shirts!” I instructed them.

“See you Thursday!” they said through smiles, clutching their new camp tees tightly in their hands. 

I thanked Flavio for his help and patience. Then, I dropped off 23 footballs in the corner of the office for my next class on Thursday.

“Dale, amigo, my Uber is here. Thank you again for your help,” I said. 

I shook his hand and hopped in the back of a Toyota for my long commute back home to Magdalena Del Mar.

Mi querido Peru. It’s nice to be back!