Hello from the United States!
Goucher College Field Hockey has come full circle, landing at JFK this morning. Both family and colder temperatures greeted us at the airport after a long 11 hour flight.
Our last day in Buenos Aires included some last minute shopping and a huge Argentinian lunch. I don’t think any of us are going to need to eat red meat anytime soon! More importantly it included a trip north of the city to a children’s home called San Fernando.
The kids that live at San Fernando are there because of things like domestic violence or parental drug abuse. Some of them are related by blood and some of them are related only due to the fact that they now live as brothers and sisters. We spent about three hours there with them making arts & crafts, playing games, and practicing their English and our Spanish. It was the perfect end to our trip.
These eight days have been filled with tons of laughter, hundreds of selfies, too many sunburns, and a thousand empanadas. There were turf burns, dance offs, reverse chips, and about fifty pounds of ice cream. We made lots of new friends and reconnected with our own team as well. There were games that we won and games that we got crushed but plenty of fun along the way.
One of the first teams we played were wearing shirts that struck a chord with me. The back of their handmade tshirts said “Juntas somos mas” which translates to “together we are more.” It’s something that I love about our GCFH program…the idea that we can take athletes from across the country with different personalities and different skills who have had different experiences and turn them into a team that understands that together they are more; that they can accomplish more than they ever could as individuals.
As a coach, of course I hope our players have taken away skills from their competitors here –who I may add were some of the best teams I’ve ever seen play. But I am also glad they are taking away this time they spent together and the memories that they made.
We are off on our own directions now for the holidays and winter break but I can’t wait to get back to it in January!
I also want to thank all the people who helped fund this trip through donations this past year. The cards that you got while we were away are just a small token of our thanks! Muchas gracias!!
Happy holidays to everyone and get ready for 2015…the year of the Gopher!!
Coach