Week 1

Wow...there's so much to report since my last post, so I will do my best to get the majority of it all.

Looking at Lion's Head and Camp's Bay from Table Mountain

Well, last week ended with a great hike up Table Mountain with fellow interns Anna, Caitlin, and Kat on an absolutely beautiful day. In addition to the amazing view, an a cappella group called AfricaJams provided a great soundtrack for our ascent as they sang traditional African songs that reverberated off the trail's rock walls. It was one of those experiences where I couldn't help but smile.

This week marks my first days of work for GRS, and it has started off well. Anna and I have been driving out every morning to the Football For Hope Center (FFHC) in Khayelitsha, the biggest township outside of Cape Town, and every day has been completely different from the one before. We spent most of the week driving around Khayelitsha and the neighboring townships to watch GRS interventions in primary schools. Interventions are the sessions run by GRS coaches, who are all young adults from townships around Khayelitsha that GRS trains to implement their various curricula, for students in local middle and high schools. We have spent an extensive amount of time with these coaches in our travels, and they really are a special group of people. They engage the students (or "learners" as everyone says around here) so well, they have an amazing amount of energy, and it has been great sharing stories and laughing with them as well as learning from them. This was especially evident on Friday, when Anna and I watched a Coaching Development session at the FFHC. Most of the 35 coaches were there presenting certain topics and gaining feedback on their facilitation, and I was again blown away by their charisma and skill. They lie at the core of GRS, and they really are making a name for themselves in addition to GRS.

NOTE: I promise I will have more photos of the FFHC and Khayelitsha soon...I definitely need to get my act together in that department.

Sunday Pickup near the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Cape Town
(photo credit to Betsy Kaeberle)

Outside of pure "work," my days have been full of soccer (to my chagrin, as you can imagine). A bunch of the younger GRS staff and interns play in a 5 vs 5 league Thursday nights, and there is an open weekly pickup with all of GRS on Sundays. In addition, I have managed to play pickup for almost an hour every day with the locals who show up around 3 at the FFHC. Although we can't communicate very well, and their English is much better than my Xhosa, we have no trouble playing together as soon as we step on the FFHC's field turf. It continues to amaze me how you can make friends as soon as you touch the soccer ball. The first time Anna and I tried to play, the kids would barely even look at us until we split into teams and started playing. As soon as each of us had received the ball and played it smartly away to feet, they wanted to know our names and were giving us as many high fives and sharps (a local standard handshake) for goals and good plays as any of the other players. So cool. I also had the unique opportunity to run a session with RV United, the one and only women's team from Khayelitsha. These highly skilled group are normally coached by Vuyo, one of the great people on staff at the FFHC, but I stepped in for the day. I ran a practice that I have done with the Colby Men's Soccer team, yet there I was on the sun burnt dirt of Khayelitsha as dusk arrived with close to 100 young kids running around and watching both our practice and a game on the adjacent turf field. It was one of those experiences when you feel obligated to soak in everything around in that one moment before moving on to the next your next thought.

Bear with me, I'm almost done. I have just one more thing to say, because I'm overdue to thank all the amazing interns with whom I get to spend most of my time. This weekend's trip to the Cape of Good Hope provided a perfect example of how much I enjoy their company. Eight of us piled into our aqua green Toyota Avanza (or "Intern Car") and drove the hour and fifteen minutes to the historic final resting place of the Flying Dutchman. Although the weather wasn't perfect, we braved the blasting coastal winds and found ourselves face to face with penguins, baboons, ostriches, and cliffs that fell away into churning waves that seemed like the end of the earth. I know it may be hard for some of you at home to believe, but this Cape Town crew are just as weird as I am, and we have so much fun together. Thank you for being the fantastic people that you are, and here's to more penguin posing in the near future!

The Cape Town crew (or most of it) at Simon's Town with perfect penguin form.
(photo credit to Betsy Kaeberle)