2010 World Cup

Hey everyone! I hope you all have had a good relaxing start to your summers. The heat is starting to roll into Turkmenistan and I have a feeling that this summer is going to be a hot one. Just last week the radio said the weather was 50 degrees C, which is 122 degrees F, and it’s only June! While the summer heat is blazing I’ve had a lot of fun with my kids thus far at clubs and I have a feeling that it’s just going to get better. Today I’ld like to share one particularly cool club with all of you specifically designed for summer 2010. I call it the World Cup Football Club (that’s soccer to us yanks)!
If there is one thing I have learned about Turkmen men and boys it’s that they LOVE soccer! With the World Cup now in full swing my host father, brother, neighbors, and boy students can’t get enough of the tournament, it’s constantly on in every household. Seeing as how I knew that my boys would be excited about this tournament and there is no outlet for them to do something constructive during the summer I decided to open up the World Cup Football Club with one of my teachers (who loves soccer and is coincidently a woman, yay for breaking gender barriers!). Seeing as how it’s dedicated to the World Cup we decided that we would not only make it about soccer, but about Geography because unfortunately most of our kids have never seen a world map. Sadly the same can be said for most people here. So twice a week we play at school and on one day a week we have a small Geography lesson where we learn about the 7 continents and some of the countries that are competing in the tournament. The boys are really enjoying the map games we play and are starting to get a little better at it, which is great! After map time we go outside and we play soccer. The boys really love the club and would probably play all night if I let them. What’s also really great about combining it with the international tournament is that by watching the games I can really give the kids some good lessons in sportsmanship. The players in the tournament are these kids’ idols and there have been some moments in the games that have given me some good example to take a share with them about how to be a good sport. And some examples of bad sports too. The lessons in sportsmanship and teamwork are already paying off too as the boys are communicating more effectively and playing like a team. Thus far it’s been a really successful club and I look forward to see what will happen with it in the future.
Also on a personal note I would like to say GO TEAM USA!!! We’ve put up a strong showing in the tournament thus far and I couldn’t be more proud! Looking forward to tonight’s rematch with Ghana!