A Day in the Life of a Program Director 2017

Susan Hyman is a 13-month Program Director at MPI's site in Nicaragua for the 2017-2018 year. She is involved in Lacrosse the Nations, English level 3, Camp JAM, the Cedro Galan Clinic, Community Health Promotion, Women's Exercise, grant prospecting, and recruitment. The following is an account of a typical day in her life as an MPI Program Director.  

6:30am: Wake up! On Tuesdays, I get up bright and early to make it to my first program of the day. The house is usually awoken by crowing roosters, our barking dogs, or the smell of Elena’s delicious breakfasts.

7:30am: My first program of the day begins at 7:30am - lacrosse practice at Colegio Público Chiquilistagua. Even though I had never touched a lacrosse stick before arriving in Nicaragua, I quickly got involved with our partner organization, Lacrosse the Nations. Now it’s one of my absolute favorite parts of my job - I’m usually the one who ends up learning from the students at practice!

9:00am: Public school practice ends. Andrew and I head back to the Manna House to refill our water bottles and get ready for the second lacrosse practice of the day.

9:30am: Time to leave for Villa Guadalupe! This community is a bit further away than Chiquilistagua. Luckily, we are able to drive the Manna microbus.

10:00am: Practice begins at Club Cristiana La Esperanza in Villa Guadalupe. These practices are one of my favorite parts of the week! The students are incredibly talented and work so hard to improve each day. Along with teaching lacrosse skills, Lacrosse the Nations provides academic support, feeding programs, and valuable life lessons to the students. Their mission of using sport as a platform to improve the lives of youth here is some of the most inspiring work I’ve had the privilege of helping with.

11:30am: Practice ends, and we hop back in the micro to get home and rest before continuing programs for the day.

12:00pm: We arrive home, cool off, and enjoy a wonderful lunch prepared by Elena! She cooks a lot of rice, beans, chicken, and fresh vegetables. We're lucky to have her!

1:15pm: Time to leave for the next program - Camp JAM (which stands for Juegos, Arte, y Música). Camp JAM is a creative arts program for kids of all ages that we hold in Farito, our community center in Cedro Galán. We do different arts and crafts, play games, and occasionally incorporate simple but important lessons into our activities. Today, we painted wooden flowers.

2:30pm: Camp JAM ends, and the other Camp JAM Program Directors head back to the house while I stay at Farito to prepare for Women’s Exercise.

3:30pm: Women’s Exercise begins! This is another one of my favorite programs. We run this program through six-week bootcamps that focus on different muscle groups and parts of the body. We also add in days of zumba, yoga, and pilates to keep things fun and interesting! The women love the camaraderie of working out together - it helps keep us motivated!

4:30pm: Women’s Exercise ends, and we catch a ride home in the micro as the English Level 1 students are arriving. Farito is packed on Tuesdays all afternoon!

5:00-7:00pm: After a long and sweaty day, it’s time to shower and relax for a bit. As some Program Directors are in and out heading to various English classes, others get the night at home to hang out and prepare for the following day. We will either eat Elena’s meals again for dinner, or sometimes switch it up and cook together!

7:00-9:00pm: Time to get some work done. I teach English Level 3 on Mondays and Wednesdays, so on Tuesday nights I plan class with my co-teacher, Andrew. Once we finish planning, I might catch up on emails, do some grant research, make sure I am prepared for the rest of my programs, or complete any other administrative work that I am responsible for. I am also on the driving schedule most Tuesday nights, so I make a trip in the micro to go pick up the last English class of the night!

9:00-11:00pm: Once we all finish our work for the day, we will often hang out together in the living room or rooftop patio. We watch movies on the projector, play cards, read, call friends and family, and catch each other up on our days. Days as a Program Director are busy but rewarding!

The Lacrosse the Nations Cup

This year was the fourth annual LtN Cup and our most successful one to date. Not only did every team get fully sponsored by the day of the event, in total we raised over $40,000. This was $10,000 over our original goal, and over $35,000 more than LtN raised in their first Cup just three years ago. As LtN’s programs in Nicaragua continue to develop, the LtN Cup will only grow to include more players, coaches, and LtN scholars. Through this event, our LtN student-athletes are able to become agents of change for their communities and strong competitors in the lacrosse world. $4,500 of the total raised will go toward MPI's health clinics in Nicaragua.

As a Lacrosse the Nations Program Director, the LtN Cup was something I heard about before even arriving in Nicaragua. Whether I was speaking with my boss Javier, Senior Program Director Dan, or players who have participated in LtN programs in the past, everyone around me regularly expressed their excitement for this day. Having an athletic background, I could recognize and share in this excitement for competition; however, prior to experiencing the LtN Cup for myself, I can honestly say I had no idea just how special this day is.

The Cup is one of LtN’s biggest fundraisers. On the day of the event, teams that we coach from the Chiquilistagua Public School compete against the teams we coach at Club Esperanza Private school in Villa Guadalupe in a championship style format. The goal of the Cup is to get each team sponsored in order to play. Through their team’s sponsorship, LtN student athletes are able to play an active role in giving back to their communities.

On a weekly basis, we hold practices for various ages, from 4th grade all the way up to the high school level. One thing I immediately noticed upon arriving at practices was the players’ unarguable passion for lacrosse, across all age groups. Whether it was answering questions during our life skills discussions before practice, mastering a new concept, or scoring a “tuani” goal on the field, the kids show a constant love for the game. When it came to their preparation for the Cup, their motivation alone triggered my own excitement.

The day of the Cup is like no other. Players from each school arrive together on a bus geared up and ready to go. Normally, these kids practice on a gravel-dirt mixture or a concrete basketball court. On the day of the Cup, they are greeted by the site of three turf fields with painted lines and music playing. The players are divided into their respective teams and enter the fields single file. This moment alone gave me goosebumps, reminding me of when I would suit up for games. The only difference was, this is a special occasion that only comes around once a year for these kids, and they are playing for so much more.

I had the honor of coaching team Managua this year, a group of players from Chiqui. While we did not have the age or size of some other groups, I saw performances from these players that I had never seen before. Millie is high school aged girl who is able to come to practice just once a week. During the Cup she was our star defender - chasing down fast breaks and stealing the ball from boys twice her size. Fourth grader, Jose, who was by far the smallest player on the field, scored a hatrick in our last regulation game which took us to the semifinals for Chiquilistagua. Every accomplishment on the field was celebrated by team Managua that day (my personal favorite being the seated rowboat with their sticks). I could not have been more proud of my team, not for their physical performance, but for the mere energy they brought and encouragement they provided each other.

Whether players were from Chiquilistagua or Club Esperanza, being able to represent where they were from created a sense of belonging in their game. Each player's pride for their respective school and community was apparent in their demeanor. The desire to perform well and compete for their program really shown through. As a coach, there was nothing more gratifying than being able to witness all that their hard work amounted to.

Lessons Through Lacrosse

¿Qué hubo?

Today we had two new players at afternoon lacrosse practice at Lacrosse the Nations (LtN), one of Manna Project's partner organizations in Nicaragua.

After a few weeks of inconsistent practices during late July—due to holidays and earthquakes—we are trying to get our numbers back up at practice. We’ve been encouraging all the kids to get the word out and bring their friends, family, and classmates, so we were all really excited when lacrosse player, Josseling, brought two of her cousins.

While LtN Coach and Country Director Javier Silva, and LtN volunteer, Miles, organized our warm up and passing drills, I got to teach Kevin and José Martín the basics of how to pass and catch. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried, but it is not an easy task to learn to throw the first time you pick up a lacrosse stick - and that’s not even considering that I was teaching them in Spanish (and I’m probably worse than I’m willing to admit). To their credit, both boys took everything in stride, and listened to and made adjustments from all of my suggestions. José Martín especially turned out to be a complete natural and was banging passes around and even putting a few shots on goal by the middle of the practice.

Even more impressive than their skill improvements were Kevin and José Martín’s attitudes. At the end of practice everyday, we go around and everyone says one thing that they liked and one they didn’t like, or something we could improve during practice. When Kevin was up, he said he enjoyed learning to play lacrosse and playing in the scrimmage with his team. José Martín said that what he didn’t like about practice was that during the games “No me dan pases,” (they didn’t pass to me). He said this with the same confidence of a player who knows once he gets the ball he’s about to tear it up. I have no doubt that as soon as everyone gets to know them a little better, these guys will be some of the first looks for passes. I personally am super excited to watch these new players develop during my time here, and I have no doubt they’ll be back playing again on Wednesday.

In addition to our new teammates, today’s practice was the best I’ve seen so far. Everyone had a good attitude and was giving 100 percent from before practice even started, during warm ups, all the way through drills and into the charla (class lesson) at the end of practice. After only one month, I’m incredibly excited to see where this energy and all these awesome kids take us during my year here.

On a more bittersweet note, today’s practice was the last for Miles, an LtN volunteer and all-around great guy who’s been here for the past month helping us with some of our behind the scenes work. We are all are certainly sad to see him go, but the work he’s done for us will definitely help us make some changes and make LtN an even better organization.

Until next time, Tuani,

Dan

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