Part of November: Written as Fast as Possible

November Work Front Synopsis:

Shame, another hectic month at GRS Soweto! This month we started recruiting new coaches, which proved to be quite difficult, as we had little to no idea how to go about finding new volunteers. We set up meetings at community centers, which failed to bring in the large number of volunteers we were hoping for. Luckily one of our CPC’s introduced us to KHOSI- the most intelligent, on top of her game, woman! Khosi runs a community center for orphanages and vulnerable children. She helped us facilitate information sessions and recruit a large number of volunteers so that we could chose twenty of the best to join our GRS team as new coaches. Not only did she help us recruit new coaches, but she also offered us a venue to run information sessions as well as conduct our interviews. As a big thank you to Khosi, Clint is creating a website for her organization, and as soon as it is finished I will post it so you can check out all the wonderful work she does in Soweto.

Last week we had a development session with two master coaches from Cape Town. They came in for a three-day session that included the interns and site staff only. It was an absolutely phenomenal development session. We talked about communication, facilitation, site relationships, and gender inequalities. The discussion about gender roles, inequalities, and gender-based violence was heated and eye opening. Gender equality in South Africa is far behind the United States- it is normal for a man to think that hitting a woman is acceptable. One activity we did included a story of a woman who was stranded on one side of a river. The love of her life was stranded on the other side. When she tried to get across the river, the only person who would bring her would do so only if she agreed to have sex with him. So finally, she agreed. When she got to the other side, she told her love what she had to do and he immediately disregarded her. The point of the exercise was to rate the characters actions from “most acceptable” to “least acceptable.” It was very interesting to see how the women and men differed in their perceptions of whose actions were most acceptable and least acceptable. Even more interesting was to see how those perceptions changed when we did the same exercise later in the week with the sex of the characters switched. The development session brought our team much closer, and despite the long days filled with workshops, we had an amazing time!

This week Clint, AJ, and the CPC’s chose 20 new coaches from all of the interviews they conducted. They called them all yesterday to congratulate them on joining the GRS family! All next week we are running a Training of Coaches (TOC) to teach them about the Skillz Curriculum and how GRS works. I am particularly excited about the TOC, because I get to participate and can finally learn the GRS Skillz Curriculum and participate in interventions come 2011.

Tomorrow Tommy Clark (CEO) and Bill Miles (COO) are coming to GRS Soweto to check the site out. And yay, all the site staff are having dinner with them tomorrow… and surprise! the dinner is going to be at the Intern House!!!!!! So, after work tonight we have some serious serious cleaning to do in preparation. J

November Life Outside of GRS

In early November we had a humongous braai for AJ’s BIRTHDAY!! HAPPY 22^ND BIRTHDAY AJ!!!! We had about 40 guests (I think I only knew about 15 of them), ordered the most ridiculous amount of meat on a rented braai, and danced all night! The Braai started at about 4 in the afternoon and ended around 2 in the morning. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a crisis when one of our guests got locked in our extra bathroom. Luckily he escaped through a window; unluckily our bathroom is still locked with all of our toilet paper in it. Enter the toilet paper crisis. Luckily a week later Clint slipped through the window and retrieved all the rolls…but we still can’t get our door open…Eish!

Check back soon for another post about the TOC and life in GRS

The Rest of October: Written as Fast as Possible

On The Work Front:

When we returned from Cape Town, AJ, Clint, and I had an unbelievable amount of work to do. We began recruiting new schools that we would perform our interventions at in 2011. Our days were spent driving all around Soweto meeting with principals and teachers. All the schools we went to heard of Grassroot Soccer (which means we are rocking Soweto!) and greeted us with open arms. They were very excited about our program and praised our interventions for not just the HIV education, but also providing students with peers to whom they could confide in. While we were searching for new schools to run interventions in, old interventions were just ending, meaning I had a whole bunch of certificates I needed to print for graduation. Ayyyy baba! It was a hectic two weeks.

Bringing Work Home is SOOOOO FUN!

Clint, me, and AJ: Doing what we do best.

Despite the craziness, Clint, AJ, and I were able to attend a graduation at Tiyani Primary School. And, oh what a graduation it was. There are no words to describe the absolute amazing-ness and energy that poured out of these students during their graduation. Filled with poems, traditional dances, songs, dance-offs, and inspirational speeches by both students and the coaches, this was the most inspiring graduation I have ever seen. The teachers and the students praised the coaches for their work and invited us to come back next year. I have never felt so proud and in awe of the program that Grassroot Soccer delivers. When you work in the office all day, it is easy to forget the power and impact our curriculum has on children.

The absolute amazing crowd reaction to a dance off

Traditional Dance

After we found all the new schools to run interventions in 2011, we did a brief Holiday Program to show the principals what GRS is all about. Rather than over a 9 week period, Skillz Holiday runs our program in one week, teaching two practices a day. As the program is shortened, it makes my job quite hectic since I only have a week to do all the monitoring and evaluation involved. I was working looooong days; 8:30 to 5:30 at the office and then bringing work home and finishing around 8:00 or 9:00. However… it was nearing the end of the month and AJ, Clint, and I were preparing to bring a little America to South Africa in the form of a Halloween Braai.

Me and Skillz Coaches Lindiwe and Simphiwe at Tiyani Graduation

Life Outside of GRS:

Is there such a thing? Hmmmmm maybe on the weekends? GRS is all consuming- we are either at work or talking about work. Here’s my daily hectic schedule- I get up at 5:20 every morning to go to the gym, get to work around 8:30, get back home around 6:00, finish up some work if necessary, make dinner, and oh wow, it’s 9:00 and time for me to go to bed! The days fly by, and since most stores in South Africa close around 5:30 to 6:00, it’s difficult to find time to do my laundry or go grocery shopping. I swear some days my dinner consists of a can of peas and some tuna fish (which, I’m sure is far more enjoyable than it sounds)!. But, it’s not all that bad…we have met some amazing people here in South Africa. They have been so warm and open to us.

And boy, were they excited to have a Halloween Braai- South Africans apparently love the idea of putting a costume on for a party! It was a great time and a perfect way to end the hectic month of October.

(Clint= chicken, me = mini mouse, AJ = cow: the three of us = amazingness)

Roommate Pyramid!

What else what else am I forgetting about…Oh, my roommates and I had a fried food bet- who could go the longest without eating fried food…I was the first one to lose! Apparently AJ and I have acquired a slight South African accent and adopted too many South African phrases into our vocabulary. Including, but not limited to, making distinctions between just now, now now, and now: All three have very different time frames. We finally got Internet at our house, which with my brilliance, was finally set up. But, it was too good to be true and we somehow went through 5 gigs in 11 days. Shame! Since we are on a tight budget, we will have to wait for next month to get more! And finally, AJ and I have started a splendid vegetable garden, which has gotten a bit out of control due to neglecting all the weeds…

Our vegetable garden- a very old photo...you should see it now!

That is it for the month of October. Sorry the possible spelling errors and lack of perfect grammar- had to write these fast!

Oh and I can’t forget all those who have donated to me! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Cape Town 10/4

In early October, Clint, AJ and I went to Cape Town for a very short vacation. We visited the 7 Cape Town interns for just under a week. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and cold for most of the time we were there.

When we first got to Cape Town, we took a drive to the Football for Hope Center (FFHC) in Khaylitsha. Khaylitsha is one of South Africa’s largest and poorest informal settlements. The FFHC is part of an urban regeneration program that promotes health education to young people. Built in 2009 by FIFA, the FFHC “…will use people’s passion for football to transform communities and to provide hope and opportunities for young people.” In efforts to reduce crime, the FFHC was constructed in what use to be the most dangerous part of Khayelitsha. Since the opening of the FFHC, crime in that area has been drastically reduced. The center is now run on behalf of GRS. GRS not only runs our Skillz curriculum out of the FFHC, but also started a preschool. Quite different from the Nike Center, which is not entirely open to the public and boasts flashy state of the art training facilities, the FFHC is a completely public and open facility, making it a true community center.

Football for Hope Center in Khaylitsha

Over the weekend we went to one of the largest music festivals in South Africa called Rocking the Daisies. Although the music was lacking, it was quite the scene for South African hipsters. Set 45 minutes outside of Cape Town on a wine vineyard, the scenery was beautiful and the weather perfect.

On Monday and Tuesday the weather was too cloudy and overcast to hike Table Mountain so AJ, Clint, and I hiked to the top of Lion’s Head. Although a much shorter and easier hike, the view of Cape Town was beautiful. Due to the poor weather, we mostly enjoyed the amazing food Cape Town has to offer, rather than exploring the outdoors.

View of Camps Bay from Lion's Head

The Best View from Lion's Head (Clearly)

The Team Takes a Rest

The Team Hard at Work :)

GRS INTERNS

Finally, time to blog!

GRS has been very busy the last couple of weeks. I thought I had finished filing all of the data from our interventions, but there seems to be a never ending flow of registrations and pre and post data that find its way onto my lap.

Our four CPCs (community project coordinators) have finally been hired, making our GRS family complete! Congratulations to George, Thato, Bongani, and Annie! This past week has been filled with GRS staff meetings, which have been very helpful in understanding the big picture of GRS Soweto and how we are going to achieve our goals over the next year. We are planning on putting 10,000 kids through both SKILLZ 1.1 and Generation SKILLZ. Generation SKILLZ is a brand new intervention that GRS has developed for teenagers. It facilitates HIV awareness with a focus on gender inequalities and stereotypes. We will be training coaches to conduct the Generation SKILLZ curriculum in early January.

On Wednesday we had a team bonding hike, which was really fun. Our team here in Soweto is so passionate about HIV education and prevention. Our tour guide of the park, and friend of our site coordinator, led us on team building exercises. The first exercise was to create one large square out of 8 pieces that made up 4 smaller squares. Despite our efforts, we failed to produce one large square- but instead a rectangle. Our second challenge was to get all 9 of us on a rock for 9 seconds without any one touching the ground. Again, despite our balancing efforts we did not succeed. I still think it would have been impossible for all of us to balance for 9 seconds without touching the ground, but our tour guide assured us that it was possible. Our third challenge was to cross an imaginary canal filled with alligators. You could only cross wearing a medallion around your neck and you could only cross once. This one we mastered by having one person carry two people across at one time so that another could return with the medallion for the next person. Despite not always finding the answer to our challenges, Clint being pooped on by a bird, and Thato passing out from heat, the trip was filled with laughter and was a great bonding experience for all of us.

October is going to be a very busy month for us. We are finishing our current interventions as well as recruiting new coaches to put through a SKILLZ 1.1 TOC (training of coaches) in November and finding new schools and communities in Soweto to hold new interventions. It can be quite a tedious process when finding schools. We need to make sure we have positive relationships with the principles as well as be approved by the ministry of education. But, now that our team is solidified, GRS Soweto is going to rock. We have such an amazing team and I have no doubt that we can reach more the 10,000 kids by the time I leave in August 2011.

This Saturday I am having a Braai for the female coaches. They are coming over to my house around 11:00 tomorrow to help me cook chakalaka, pap, and cook the ridiculous amount of meat we bought. The theme of the party is "dress like your favorite celebrity" so I'm sure I will have some amazing pictures!

Next week we are going into schools to finish up interventions and then on Wednesday, Clint, AJ, and I are taking off for a much needed short vacation to Cape Town. It will be exciting to see how head quarters operates differently from GRS and it will be nice to get out of Josee for a few days.

I have attached a few pictures of the Nike Center we work out of in Soweto. It is a truly amazing facility! We are so lucky to have Nike as one of our larger sponsors. Sorry that the blog posts have been few and far in between. Our Internet has switched from Nike to our own so my Internet usage is more closely watched :) Plus, it's hard to find time during the day to write and by the time I get home I am exhausted! I will try to write one every week though!

Again, thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has donated! It has meant so much to me and is going to such a great cause. Feel free to continue to donate and pass my blog along to others!

Also, Thato (one of our CPCs) has typed up her coach's story. I have attached it below the pictures. It is a story of resiliency, but is extraordinarily sad. Please feel free to read it and comment.

Our Office

Nike Center

Nike Center

THATO'S COACH'S STORY

Due to a service leader strike preventing current interventions from continuing in local schools, G.R.S Soweto coaches held a SKILLZ Holiday camp in early September 2010. Children had not been attending school for over 2 weeks and in order to continue teaching the SKILLZ curriculum, we recruited children from Soweto to attend interventions at both the Nike Center and behind a Pimville youth center.

One participant was a shy girl, who was quiet and jumpy around strangers. She had a lot of sadness in her eyes, but I could tell that she wanted to reach out to us. After sharing my coach’s story, it was time for the participants to share their stories of overcoming challenges. I sat in a group with this young girl and her peers. She was reluctant to share her story because she was told not to tell anyone about what had happened to her. I assured her that she was in a safe space and speaking was a vital process of healing. I promised her that I would help her share her story, which encouraged her to begin talking.

When she was 6 years old, this young girl’s mom died in her arms from an HIV related illness. As a result she was separated from her two younger siblings and went to live with her Grandmother, who physically abused her for a year. Finally, after enduring a year of abuse, the young girl ran away to stay with her older sister in Alexandra. While she was staying with her 22 year old sister, the sister subjected the young girl to sexual abuse. On one occasion the sister’s male friends put silver bullets (arousal pills) into water and forced the young girl to drink so that they could have sex with her. On this day 3 different men raped her without using a condom; her sister condoned this act as she was getting money and food in return. This carried on for two whole years. The young girl had no where to turn to, she was only 8 years old.

Her last straw, she says, was the day where an old man from her neighborhood ran after her in the dark as she went to get water to cook dinner. This man appeared from nowhere and told her that he was going to rape her. He had been known around the community to be HIV positive. She ran through the closely-knit houses in Alexandra in pursuit of finding her friends house. Her friend lived in a hostel nearby and she knew that her friend would be able to help her and give her shelter for the night. For some reason, on that day she was unable to find the friends house because it was so dark. She lost the man along they way and she ended up sleeping in a deserted shack near a veld. The following day she found her way to social workers who then arranged for her to get Foster parents and that is how she came to live in Pimville.

She now is living a normal life HIV free, which she is grateful for. However, all she wishes for is to be re-united with her younger siblings because she misses them. This 1 1year old girl made me realize just how much HIV can affect one’s life and leave you helpless and hopeless. This powerful story made me as a coach more conscious about the importance of my job and how I can help be part of the healing process in the lives of people who have been infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The fact that this young girl was able to open up to me just after two days of being in the SKILLZ intervention made me realize that my purpose had been fulfilled and I know this is only the beginning of bigger things to come. This is a personal connection that no one can take away from either of us.

Interventions Resume!

(Lion Park)

Last Wednesday we finished the interventions at the Nike Center and had a phenomenal graduation, complete with dancing and skits. We graduated 150+ kids from our Skillz program with an 80% retention rate. Not bad!

The strike has finally been suspended, allowing our coaches to resume their interventions in the local schools at the end of last week. On Friday, our Master Coach came in to conduct an activity called Most Significant Story. This activity allows each coach to tell a story of how GRS has affected her/his own life or a child’s life. The theme of the story must include how a coach or a child showed resiliency in the face of tragedy or difficulty. The coaches were split into five different groups and after each coach told a story, the groups voted on the story that best exemplified the power of GRS. Those stories elected in the small groups were then shared with the whole group. We voted once more on the most significant story.

Clint, AJ, and I were included in the activity, which gave us an opportunity to hear some of the incredible, difficult, and touching stories about the children who have been positively affected by the Skillz Program. All of the stories the coaches told were about the power of communication between the coach and the child. Many children have no one to speak with about the loss of family members and difficulties they encounter. The relationships between the coaches and the participants foster an environment where children feel comfortable expressing themselves. It was a very powerful activity. As the monitoring and evaluation intern, I will be capturing these stories and sending them to Cape Town where they will likely be put on the GRS website. Once I have finished capturing some of the coaches’ stories, I will share them on my blog for everyone to read.

On Saturday, Clint, AJ, and I took an excursion to the Lion Park. The Lion Park is about 40 minutes outside of Joberg, and although it is a hokey tourist attraction, it was quite fun! We took a “game drive” through several fenced in areas of the park with lions roaming all around our car. It was pretty incredible! As part of our entrance fee we were also granted access to the lion cubs, where we were able to pet baby lions!

This is a busy week at GRS- we have to visit all 12 of the schools that our current interventions are being held to rebuild the relationship between GRS and the principles. As the strike put our interventions on hold for about a month, we need to make up for lost time by convincing the principles to allow us to do double sessions of our skillz program each day. Clint, AJ, and I are also being paired with different coaches so that we can watch how interventions are run in the schools, which will be a very valuable experience for us.

Thank you again to all those who have donated- I'm still accepting donations, so feel free to donate to GRS on my behalf. To read more about the effects of the strike in South Africa, check out http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/safrica-strike-widens-ruling-party-rift-20100907-14zqu.html

(Graduation)

(Graduation)

Spring!

(me and skillz coaches, Lindiwe, Mamatlotlo, and Puleng)

Howzit!

And the strike continues into the fifth week…

I finally finished working on the M&E (monitoring and evaluation) pipeline data in Soweto just in time to start adding new interventions! Due to the civil servant strikes, kids have been out of school for almost a month forcing our school interventions to be put on hold. But, GRS does not give up that easily! Coaches went out into Soweto and gathered up kids to participate in interventions this week at the Nike Football Center. We have over 150 kids attending interventions. It is so valuable to finally be able to watch the interventions; the coaches are so enthusiastic and passionate about what they do.

Clint and I moved into our new house last Sunday. Although furniture is sparse, it’s beginning to feel more like home. AJ arrived on Wednesday – so finally all three Soweto interns are together! We are working on getting faster Internet in our house and finding cheap furniture. Today I went to Campus Square mall to buy a SIM card for out router, but the internet is impossibly slow.

On Friday, Clint, AJ, and I went to the airport to pick up Eric, a site coordinator on his way to Namibia. Before we could get out of Melville we were pulled over at a checkpoint. Recently there have been checkpoints all over the city-for what I’m not sure. Of course none of us had our passports with us, so the cop threatened to bring us down to the police station. After about 20 minutes he gave us a 500 rand ticket for having an unregistered car (which of course, none of us realized- whoops).

On Saturday Eric showed us where we can start our compost and vegetable garden in our yard. Next weekend, we are going to the nursery to pick up some vegetable plants and herbs, which I am really excited about! Spring has finally arrived and the weather is perfect for starting to grow some tomatoes, rocket (arugula), basil, and kale.

This coming week we are starting the interview process to hire four new CPCs (community project coordinators). About half of the coaches applied for the job, so we have a lot of CVs to look over. The head of HR for our site is coming in on Wednesday to start the interview process.

I have uploaded some pictures of our house and the interventions! I am working on creating a photo album online so those who are not connected with me on facebook can see all of my photos and videos. Thank you again to all of those who have supported my internship so far, it is truly appreciated and means a lot to me! I still have a lot of fundraising to do, so feel free to donate!

Thanks!