Home schooling for kids is like being self-employed - once your work is done, you can go and do what you want, regardless of what the clock says.
So in late November, caught up on their bookwork, the four Coady kids and their parents piled into their big grey van and headed south for a two-month stint in Mexico. Upon arriving in Barra de Navidad on the Pacific coast, the days began to take a certain rhythm. After Linda's breakfast heuvos rancheros were wolfed down and the morning's Spanish lessons were completed, the kids wandered down to the barrio to meet up with their local friends, and then ambled down to the beach to learn to surf.
When the sun got low in the sky and some of the day's heat was spent, it was time for soccer - or as it is known in the rest of the world outside Canada and the U.S., football.
The Coady kids and their friend Raven di Pietro would join a hoard of kids who piled through a hole in the fence at the stadium for daily pick-up games. These barefoot smiling kids could dance around the Canadians, avoid getting stepped on by heavy cleats, and then pound the ball into the mesh with both feet. Before long the Coady kids, rep players on the Sunshine Coast, had found places on local teams. In Mexico, even small communities seem to find the wherewithal to build their football grounds, and Barra, a town of 3,000, even has covered grandstand seating.
The Coady van quickly became a southern soccer taxi. In a land where it's common to see the back of a pick-up truck filled with people, the inside of the 15-passenger van was soon standing room only.
The Sunshine Coast kids, accustomed to playing in the freezing rain, needed lots of half time liquados to stay hydrated for the 90-minute matches in the 35-degree sun. The teams and the community were very accepting of their new acquisitions from the north and everyone managed to communicate between phrasebooks, TV phrases and lots of acting out. It also helped that Stashan and Justice Coady, members of the local boys Celtic and Adrenaline rep teams, managed to put a few balls in the back of the net. By the end of the trip, with all the new friends and memories, it took some soul searching to recall the reasons why they should leave the sun and surf of Mexico to drive 4,000 kilometres north back to the cold of Canada. Then again, it was time for the Sunshine Coast Youth Soccer Association playoffs!
