March 2, 2011

It started a few days ago during our afternoon siesta after homescholling and daily chores.

The kids are extremely creative and never get bored. Nevertheless, seeing a few boys playing soccer on the beach Wojtus asked me how to ask them in Spanish “can I play with you?”. Fighting with his shyness and asking for the umpteenth time how to say  it in Spanish he got very close to the boys. Seeing his interest they invited him to play. The rest developed spontaneously.

There is something magic in the soccer’s simplicity that unites people around it. There are countries, though, of which one we will visit soon, where soccer ignited conflict, which was nicely captured by Kapuscinski in “Soccer War”.

Back to kids, it began with ball kicking and then developed into numerous other plays such as diving in the ocean, shell collecting, sand wars or “diving” in the sand against the clock, etc.

I gladly joined this kids integration helping them with communication in Spanish and sharing with the poor yet joyful kids about Poland and the world. After years of not speaking Spanish, it is a great opportunity for me to practice conversation. Pure win-win.

We are the only white family on that beach along with a bunch of few locals. The place is dominated with kids and their number keeps growing daily. Our fame is spreading quickly   One day the boys brought one of their sisters, Cecil, so that little Ania had somebody to play with as well.

The local kids are already sorry we are leaving soon. They have additional motivation to study in English.

Who knows, maybe one day they will play soccer again somewhere in the world?