it’s been awhile

This picture was taken a while ago, but I really like it. From left to right
we have Thuso (Assistant Site Coordinator), Trevor (my roomie), Mandla
(Site Coordinator), Mbumbi (another awesome intern) and me.

Hi. I am still alive. I am still in Kimberley. And I am still blogging. I promise. I’ve just been really busy these past three weeks. I’ve been so busy in fact that when I come home from work I collapse right into my favorite chair at the intern house and proceed to do nothing. I’ve gotten really good at this. Take yesterday for example – I woke up at about nine in the morning, dozed/ stayed in bed until one o’clock, walked over to our living room where I sat around for a few more hours, went to the grocery store, and then spent the rest of the evening sitting in the dark listening to mood music with Trevor.

I lead quite an exciting life don’t I? And although I have indeed found a new appreciation for doing absolutely nothing, the main reason for my lethargy yesterday was exhaustion. My last three weeks have been entirely consumed by two things: Skillz Street and soccer.

All of the other GRS sites in South Africa (Cape Town, Soweto and Port Elizabeth) have a full-time paid staff member that is “in charge” of Skillz Street and the role of interns in those locations is to support this staff member. But in Kimberley, I do it all. I recruit schools to participate, I deliver and collect permission slips, I contact the Department of Health about HIV testing, I buy materials for Skillz Street, and I attend each and every Skillz Street practice where I hand out materials, help manage the coaches, and sometimes even run portions of the practice. This. Is. Exhausting.

Coach Cheese Boy doing an energizer with the girls.

GRS Kimberley is currently running two Skillz Street camps. On Mondays and Tuesdays we run a camp from 14h00 – 16h00 at Pescodia Primary School in Roodepan (a colored community) and on Wednesdays and Thursdays we work at St. Peter’s Primary School in Galeshewe. I spend my mornings buying and prepping materials for the day, going through the necessary paperwork and making phone calls to school principals and DOH nurses. I then spend three hours at each Skillz Street camp and when I return to the office at around 16h30, I finally have the chance to start some of my other tasks. This. Is. Exhausting.

Fair play soccer.

Girls showing off their team dance.

But I wouldn’t trade my Skillz Street role for anything else. The first day of Skillz Street at Pescodia, a group of young girls ran up to me and started climbing all over me asking me to be their coach. At both camps a lot of the girls have started calling me Coach Lauren and greet me each day with a big smile or a hug. And on Thursday, about twenty girls tackled/ hugged/ kissed me after I helped two coaches run Practice 4. This. Is. Worth. It.

A team cheer at the end of the day.

So, what do I do when I’m not working? I drive all around Galeshewe and Roodepan picking up coaches for soccer practice, I help run soccer practice and then I drive everyone home. After Christa (one of my favorite coaches) set up a friendly match between the GRS girls “team” and a local team, a lot of the coaches got really into the idea of having a serious soccer team. So with the help of three guy coaches – our “coach” Graham, our “manager” Boetie B, and Clifford (I’m not really sure what his role is… but he helps), have started trying to make Grassroot Ladies a real team. This is no easy feat; mainly because it means that I have even more work to do. This past week I drafted three separate letters to GRS requesting permission to 1. use ‘Grassroot’ in our team name, 2. use GRS equipment for our practices and games, and 3. use the GRS car to transport coaches for practices and games. 

Now, I do really like soccer… but I want to play soccer. I don’t really want to be the team manager, logistics handler, chauffeur, and overall point person for a soccer team (I already did that at WM). But somehow (probably because I have a really hard time saying “no” to people) I am right in the middle of organizing and running a GRS soccer team. This. Is. Exhausting.

But just as with Skillz Street, there are moments that make playing soccer with these coaches absolutely worth it. Last weekend we had a match against a team from Roodepan. After practicing every day of the week, we actually looked like a team on Saturday and ended up winning 3-1 (and I scored a goal)! After the game, everyone chipped in R30,00 and we treated ourselves to a delicious meal of archar.

Winnie (left) and Nthabi (right) preparing the archar.

Things aren’t always easy over here, and things don’t always work out the way I plan (i.e. I just wanted to play soccer every now and then and now I’m in charge of an entire team), but at least life is never boring over here.