The girls are back in town

It's soccer season again, which means I get to hang out with some pretty awesome ladies. Our soccer team is full of some of the most fun, loud and least reverent Nicaraguan women I've ever met. While I don't really fit in with them, I admire their gutsiness, their playing ability and verve. In my second year on the team, I've really come to appreciate the way so many of them openly flout stereotypes of what it is supposed to mean to be a woman in Nicaragua. They are not afraid to speak their mind. They don't ask for permission from anyone. They get dirty and sweaty and rained on. It's a beautiful thing.