Teach by playing under the Mexican sun

QUERETARO - As the National Technical Co-ordinator and an Inter Campus coach, Karla accompanies us around every location in Mexico where the project is present. After a week spent in Mexico City with her, we move to Santiago de Queretaro which was itself once the capital. In this magnificent colonial era city, Karla is playing at home as this is where she lives, training the boys and girls from the Girasol primary school managed by Sister Olgar. At school, Karla looks after training along with the young Armando. For around six months now, Ivan has been attending. He’s a 19-year-old who lost an arm and a leg at the age of nine following an accident. Ivan plays for football for the Coyotes de Queretaro side. He’s a pure strike and his willpower and great joie de vivre provide a positive influence for the other children during training. We offer him an official welcome into the staff as an Inter Campus coach.

With the three coaches Karla Gutierrez, Juri Monzani and Silvio Guareschi, we reach to the suburb of Queretaro at 1,800 metres above sea level, we climb the Cerro or mountain on the edge of the city. There, we enter the Bolaños area where houses surround the city and building continues each day as the small concrete houses replace the greenery. We’re welcomed by longtime local coach Juan Pablo who teaches PE in schools and he’s spent over ten years with Inter Campus. On the small cement pitch, around 20 boys and girls excitedly welcome us with hugs and a clear desire to play. 

The visit to Queretaro finishes on the artificial turf at the Collegio Marcelinas for the fourth National Female Tournament. In a party atmosphere under the scorching sun, over 55 girls from three Inter Campus Mexico centres, eight girls from the family home in Guanajuato and a Queretaro team from outside of the project took part. Every team picked its own name: Loyalty, courage, peace, friendship, altruism and tolerance. All representing the values that the project promotes.