Pachaj

This is a second in an occasional series of posts by students about the work they do in the basketball camps each day.

Guatemla is a beautiful country and I am very much enjoying working at the camps. Our camp is in it´s first year with Hoops Sagrado . It´s the camp at Pachaj. The first day we got their they had a nice little ceremony planned for us. We got speeches of appreciation and a native dance. It was amazing. I think I heard more than 15 times about how excited they were to have us there. It felt like we were actually accomplishing something.

We have now been at Pachaj for two and a half weeks. Time flies by. The children are just so exited to be a part of this. It sounds cheesy, I know. But their faces tell a lot.

There are a total of five of us working at the camps. There´s Kendra, Ernest, Jordyn, Jerren, and myself. We ride one microbus, a regular chicken bus, we hike up a very steep hill and then we walk some more to get up to the school. But it´s all worth it because just seeing the smiles on their faces and just loooking forward to working with us makes it all worth it.

Each day they start with stretches and warm ups. Ernest and Kendra work with the girls (who are a hyper bunch) and Jordyn and Jerren work with the boys.They all seem to work well together. But you can´t forget about me either I like to consider myself as the bridge. I translate most of what they can´t figure out but want the children to understand. I missed camp once because I got sick. Let´s just say they were very happy to have me back the next day.

We´ve started to work on plays and practicing more drills. They´re really into it along with the kids because, of course, we want to win. After a couple of weeks you can say we´ve all bonded really well with each other. Working with the boys and girls in the camps has pretty much made each of us appreciate the life we live back home. Most of these children don´t get to experience childhood the way we do back in the states, so just us taking the time to teach them about basketball and spending time with them, it makes a difference.

Sandra is a recent graduate from the Youth Build program and will begin classes at Montgomery College in the fall. Sandra's parents came to the United States from Guatemala shortly before her birth. This is only the second time she has been back to Guatemala and the first time leaving the capital.