Yebo!

Dumelang from Kimberley! It only took one flight across the Atlantic, a nine-hour layover in London, an 11-hour flight to South Africa, a quick dash through the Johannesburg airport and a short ride on a plane that felt like it’s propeller was going to fall off at any minute before Trevor (my roommate) and I arrived safely – luggage and all – in Kimberley, South Africa. We were a little stiff and a little tired, but excited and ready (yebo) to begin our adventure in South Africa.

GRS interns storm London during our layover.

The Assistant Site Coordinator, Thuso, and one of the coaches, Robert, met us at the airport. They drove us to our apartment so we could drop off our bags and meet our housemate, Mbumbii. Mbumbii is fantastic! He grew up in Namibia and is currently studying mechanical engineering at Dartmouth University (where Grassroot Soccer was founded).  He wanted to learn more about how NGO’s operate so he secured a summer internship with GRS. Mbumbii is a terrific resource; he has been showing Trevor and I the ropes and teaching us Afrikaans. I can already tell that I am going to miss him when he leaves in a month.

After meeting Mbumbii, our grand tour of Kimberley began. We drove all around town, visited both of the town’s shopping malls and passed the town’s main attraction, the Big Hole (I’ll talk more about this after I visit it) all in just 45 minutes! And that pretty much sums up the city of Kimberley. Not very big, definitely a place where you make your own fun, but I feel like I got good at that after living in Williamsburg for four years so bring it on Kimberley, bring it on.

Kimberley itself is an interesting city. It’s located in the middle of nowhere and is surrounded by desert on all sides. It is also one of the last Afrikaner “strongholds” in South Africa and I’ve been told that there are still people in Kimberley that favor apartheid. A former intern told me that she met an Afrikaner who told her that god gave black people HIV for a reason… I’m hoping I don’t meet anyone like that. But at least I am not the only white girl in the city.

Once we enter the townships however, a lot changes. Roads go from being wide and paved to being nothing but narrow bits of dirt and rock. Houses are noticeably smaller and closer together and the roofs are all pretty ramshackle-looking. It is definitely interesting to contrast the predominantly white areas with the townships. One thing that is the same in both the city and the townships however, is the fences; every house, no matter how small, is surrounded by a fence that is topped with either metal spikes, barbed wire, broken bits of metal or some other unfriendly looking item.

Trevor, Mbumbii, Robert (one of the coaches) and I spent the entire afternoon driving through the various townships. Robert is hilarious! He is talkative, animated, opinionated, and very knowledgeable on matters such as beer (as our most south Africans). Robert took us to meet a bunch of the coaches. They all have great names – there’s Jibbly, Imzala, Cheese Guy (who is actually a girl), Coach K and many more. Meeting each of the coaches was an adventure in itself.  All of them want to shake your hand when they first meet you. But it’s not a simple meeting of hands. Oh no, it is a complicated process whereby grips are exchanged, fingers are interlocked and thumbs “snap” each other. It took me at least 12 times to get it right. Each time I’d be going in for the handshake I’d over-analyze what I was doing because I was worried about messing up, and then sure enough – I’d mess up. It didn’t help that every coach has his or her own spin on the “basic” handshake. Just when I thought that I had the whole hand thing down someone would throw something new into the mix and I would be lost again. Oh and then when you say goodbye you have to do the whole thing all over again. Don’t get me wrong – I really like it. I just wish I wasn’t so awkward at it…

My favorite thing about driving around today was that we couldn’t drive more than five minutes without seeing something soccer related. Not only does everyone wear Manchester United and Arsenal and Bfana Bfana soccer jerseys, but also everywhere you look someone is doing something with a soccer ball. I really understand how GRS is able to use soccer as a hook here and the prevalence of soccer throughout the community likely helps to reinforce the messages that coaches are telling their kids. It has only been one day, but I am very excited to involve myself in the process and help out in any way I can. Yebo!

(Also, I haven’t taken any pictures yet, but when I do I’ll add them to the appropriate blog pages. So keep checking in and don’t just look at the most recent blog post. Thanks and uns wa saam!)