soccer! err... football!

My little kiddos had their first game on Tuesday of this week! They played a good game, but we ended up losing 3-0 to this team from another international school called Rainbow. My guys were so funny, running around the field, going the wrong way, taking the ball from each other, using their hands to stop the ball... you know how they play! Although, I didn't have a single kid picking daisies, which I was thankful for.

I coach the under 7 team, which means I have 2 four-yr olds, a couple five-yr olds, several six-yr olds, and one seven yr-old. My littlest ones (Jogi and Graysen) were so precious. Any time it was time to sub out players, Jogi would run off the field and jump into my arms and cheer! Graysen decided that he needed a drink while he was on the field, so he just ran over to his mom (Alicia, whose other son, Jonah, I blogged about a little while ago!) on the sidelines. He hadn't a clue in the world that he was supposed to stay on the field.

On Monday night, I went down and played with Alicia's kiddos (Brody (gr. 4), Jonah (gr. 1) and Graysen (gr. K)) since they live a couple compounds or "houses" down from us. Alicia invited me to stay for tacos - which were AMAZING - and before we ate, Jonah prayed for us... I can't tell you how much I adore this kid! Here was his prayer, "Dear Jesus, thank you for today and school. Jesus, I pray that we play well tomorrow in our soccer games. Please let us only lose by one, or win by a lot. [here, Brody added, "Or tie, Jonah!"] Oh yeah, or tie. Thank you Jesus, and please bless this food to our bodies. Amen." love it.

One of the other first-graders, Emmanuel, came running over to me and said, "Miss Fuller, I need a rest," but he was our GOALIE! So I sent him back out. Yep, I'm a meanie. It was really cute, though, he was trying to drop-kick the ball and it went right back over his head into the goal. Oops! More to work on in practice :)

Most of my players have very Ugandan names, and honestly, they all look similar when they're in their uniforms and on the other side of the field (with the exception of my three little white kids!) I really do have a hard time getting their names right sometimes! Here's our roster: Jogi, Graysen, Sirafumu aka Joshua, Wasswa, Ndemi, Emmanuel, Jowell, Paul, Jonah, Rueben, Akutch, and Calnan.

My kids are so great! We had practice cancelled today due to thunderstorms and rain... minor details. But, our next game is going to be on Tuesday!