HCT!

Yesterday was our HCT (HIV Counseling & Testing) Tournament and a lot - some good, some bad, some funny, and some strange - happened at this event! So here's a play-by-play of the day in pictures (Trevor took ALL the pictures and was kind enough to let me use them):

On Thursday and Friday we walked the streets of Roodepan telling people
about our event. These young boys were eager to sign up to play!

GRS coaches did energizers and GRS activities with participants
throughout the day!

18 teams (13 boys teams and 5 girls teams) competed in our 7 vs. 7
tournament.

These are the gazeebos where participants and suporters could get
tested for HIV.

We invited a lot of other HIV prevention and awareness organizations, as
well as some of our partner organizations - Youth AIDS, New Start, Life
Line, Legatus, the Department of Sports and Culture - to our event. Here,
Youth AIDS is giving a condom demonstration to a team.

We had some really good teams sign up for the tournament. It was a double elimination tournament (you lose twice and you are out) and about half the games were decided with some really dramatic penalty kick shoot outs. This is one team's reaction after they won a match:

Adorable right?

We had lots of prizes that we were giving away - trophies and medals to
the winning teams as well as Nike shoes, soccer balls and GRS t-shirts.

Lots of people were at the award ceremony (and at the event)!

The winning girls' team with Coach Bucs!

All in all, it was a successful event. We had 3 soccer tournament winners (U19 boys, U15 boys and girls) and a "Test Your Team" Winner (the team that participated in the most GRS activities, tested the most team members and got the most members from the community to test) and we tested approximately 150 people! I learned a lot at this event and already have ideas that will make our next HCT even better!

mental breakthrough

I had a mental breakthrough today. For the first time in my life, I realized that there was nothing more I could do. That things were either going to go well, or they weren’t. That stressing out about it really wasn’t going to get me anywhere. That it was time to just let it lie and see what would happen.

I’m talking about our HIV Counseling & Testing Tournament (HCT). An HCT is a tournament in which local soccer teams and members of the community have the opportunity to compete in a soccer tournament, play GRS activities and get tested for HIV. Last year Kimberley had no money in our budget to hold any HCTs so this is not only the first HCT that Trevor and are running, but also the first HCT for almost half of our coaches!

So now you are probably wondering how it is that I came to be in my current state of mind. Most of you reading this are probably aware that I am a micro-manager, nitty-gritty perfectionist who is awful at delegating, and when it comes to event planning (Anchor Slam ring any bells for anyone?) I over think every detail imaginable. And then some.

But I didn’t do that for this HCT. I’m not sure why (it could be the fact that we only have three people doing the same amount of work that other sites have upwards of six people doing, or it could be that I’ve just had a ton on my mind lately) and I don’t want to make excuses – I just wasn’t as focused as I should have been on this HCT. As a result, today I experienced a whirlwind of emotions as my mental state oscillated from, “this is going to be the best event ever!” to, “oh shit… we are doomed.”

The day started off pretty well. I met most of our coaches in Roodepan (where we are holding the event) and we spent two hours walking around the streets of Roodepan handing out fliers and telling anyone that would listen about our event. From kids that wanted to make a soccer team to adults who expressed interest in testing for HIV, we got some great responses! The funniest thing about our mobilization efforts however, was the fact that Coach Nthabi was exploiting me in order to draw people to our event.

A white girl walking around Roodepan (or any of the townships for that matter) is not a common sight. I usually get a lot of attention from all sorts of people, but it never fails that certain young men will hit on me. Any time a guy (or a group of guys) asked me my name or for my numbers, Nthabi would say, “ah ah – if you come tomorrow, she’ll be there and you can talk to her all you want.” I didn’t totally condone this method of mobilization, but I do think it’s going to help attract some guys to our event (not to sound too egotistical). I just hope I don’t actually have to talk to any of them…

I was feeling really good after our mobilization efforts. But when I got back to the office to gather all necessary materials and make the final preparations, it happened. At around 3 PM I got a text message – not even a phone call – from the Department of Health saying they weren’t coming to our event! This happened after I spoke with them earlier in the week and earlier in the day, confirming the details of the event. I was livid!

Thembi and I drove to the DoH and after 45-minutes of discussions/ negotiations we finally left with 200 testing kits and the phone numbers for two Community Health Workers that could help us test. But this incident was enough to shake my confidence a good bit.

After discussing the soccer portion of the tournament with Trevor, writing the “Coach’s Guide to an HCT” and loading both cars with HCT materials, I finally got to leave work for the day. I headed straight to the gym, knowing that working out would be my best bet for getting my thoughts in order. It was there that I realized there was nothing more I could do for the HCT, so there was no point worrying. I went home, showered, ate and proceeded to sleep like a baby. I wish I had learned to detach from events the night before years ago! 

a not so mundane life

Last night I was talking to my friend, Matt, and he yelled at me for not posting anything on my blog recently. I tried to explain that, even though I’ve been busy, there is nothing really “new” going on and I didn’t want to bore everyone with the same old stories. Matt had a response ready; he said, and I quote, “Lamp, you’re in South Africa. Anything you have to tell us is going to be way more interesting than the mundane lives we’re living in the States.”

So here goes. I’m sure most of you can probably guess what I am going to talk about first – Skillz Street! I am actually just about to finish up with Kimberley’s first Skillz Street of 2012 (we have our final Practice this afternoon), but what has been really cool about this round of Skillz Street is that I am piloting a new version of the program.

Coach Mpho with her team, 'The Cool, Sexy Divas."

Last December a group of about 20 people, myself included, attended a Curriculum Development Workshop in Cape Town to discuss, debate and revamp Skillz Street. During the past five weeks the team in Cape Town has diligently been taking all that feedback and writing brand new Skillz Street practices. Each week Cape Town sends me two new practices. I review the practices and design and implement weekly training session with the coaches so they are well versed in the new material.

There is a lot of new stuff in this version of Skillz Street and it is hilarious
watching the girls and coaches do warm-up activities that they have
never done before!

Then comes the fun part – on Monday and Tuesday, we run Skillz Street at Emang Mmogo, a high school in Galeshewe. I love being at Skillz Street. I get to see how the coaches and the girls respond to the new curriculum. I get to demonstrate all of the soccer and sport components of the practice. I get to share some laughs with the participants. And I get to get out of the office and enjoy myself!

Some of the participants cheering on their team mates.

After each Practice I hold a debrief session with the coaches in which we go through the practice step by step and everyone gets a chance to discuss what they liked and didn’t like, voice their questions and concerns, and give feedback. The feedback from the coaches – and what I have the chance to observe during the practices – is phenomenal. I collect all this feedback, synthesize it and send a concise version to Cape Town.

In the new Skillz Street we let girls choose between playing soccer or
handball. They love the handball!

This whole process is time consuming, challenging and exhausting, but I love it. And I am so pleased with the new version of Skillz Street. As one of the Kim coaches put it, "It's good stuff Lauren. All this information in here and what we do, it's what we - the coaches - and our girls need to know. It's good stuff."

After playing handball.

And on International Women's Day, Skillz Street was named as one of the top ten educational initiatives for girls and women by Women Deliver. I am proud to contribute to such an awesome program!


There is more work stuff too. I’ve been working a lot on business development for GRS Kim. This has entailed doing site research, research on the state of HIV and alcoholism in the Northern Cape, composing reports and proposals and contacting potential funders in order to secure funds for GRS Kimberley. This isn’t the most fun part of my job but I am learning a lot about small business and the non-profit world.

Panoramic of the stadium.

And when I’m not working, I’m playing! In other words – I’m doing all sorts of shenanigans with the other interns. Just this weekend 21 past and present interns got together in Johannesburg to celebrate St. Patty’s Day and to go to Round 2 of the Soweto Derby! The Soweto Derby is an epic soccer match between the Orlando Pirates and the Kaiser Chiefs, the top two teams in the South African Professional Soccer League (PSL). I went to the first face-off that these teams had back in September and after having an amazing time there was no way I was going to skip round two. It was, again, awesome! Whether your team wins or looses, you are guaranteed to have a good time at this match up.

Just one room where we all slept.

And getting to see almost all of the interns (only 7 weren’t present) was so much fun. We went to the apartheid museum, cruised the streets of Joburg, ate delicious South African food, and had a blast. The only part of the weekend that I regret is trying to read Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment on the train ride home.

Chillin' by the kiddie pool.

That’s what I’ve been up to more or less. And Matt, you were right – my life is not so mundane after all!

These are kotas - bread, seasoned
french fries, cheese, egg, sauce, and
your choice of chicken, beef or
fish fingers. Kotas are SO GOOD.

twenty-four to zero

On Friday night at about six o’clock a rather peculiar thing happened. I was in my room, doing absolutely nothing (a frequent occurrence these days), when Trevor shouted into my window, “Hey Lauren, do you want to be a motivational speaker for the Powerlines?” The Powerlines is a Castle League soccer team. They were looking for a motivational speaker to address them prior to their game against the Mamelodi Sundowns, a professional soccer team.

To be honest, I thought about doing it. I began scouring my brain for sources of inspiration and a few of my favorite quotes did come to mind. There was one from Will Smith about refusing to be outworked. There was another from Bear Grylls about the importance of mental as well as physical strength. And there was all of William Ernest Henley's Invictus, which is one of my favorite poems.

But then I remembered that I was a white, English-speaking American girl who, if I accepted, would have the task of “motivating” a team of young, Afrikaans- or Tswana-speaking South African soccer players. Maybe this was a cop out, but I felt that the culture gap would make it really hard for me to motivate these men… So I didn’t do it.

But I did go to the game! And I should probably explain how and why a Castle Team (which I think is the Division Three soccer league) was playing a professional soccer team. Soccer in South Africa is the equivalent of baseball or football in the States, and it might even be more than that – sometimes it seems like soccer = money. For instance, each year Nedbank (a South African bank) sponsors a soccer tournament. All registered teams from the various soccer leagues (Castle, Vodacom, PSL, etc.) are eligible to enter into this tournament. This tournament is single elimination; you lose and you’re out. But if you make it all the way to the end, then your team wins R 10 million. This match between the Powerlines and the Sundowns was part of the Nedbank Tournament.

Sundowns on the attack!

I went to the match with David, a Peace Corps Response volunteer who has been in Kimberley for nine weeks now, and felt like I should’ve had a go at that motivational speech… At halftime the score was Powerlines 0 – Sundowns 11. And the final score was Powerlines 0 – Sundowns 24. I have never seen or heard of a soccer match in which one team scored that many goals.

The Sundowns about to score a goal.

The game was fun though. Not particularly exciting and a bit one-sided, but there were still some beautiful goals, some fantastic player theatrics and an energetic crowd. I really don’t think there is anything that quite matches the atmosphere around a soccer game in South Africa.


Update: Turns out that this game was a piece of South African history! Never before has a soccer score been this high in South Africa. If you want to read more check out BBC' article Sundown's Making History

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Note: I appologize for the poor picture quality. My camera has gotten a lot of sand in it (stupid, dusty Kimberley) and makes a grotesque clicking noise when I try to turn it on. It also refuses to focus on anything, so I have been forced to use my iPod to take photos. The results do not please me. I also tried to take a picture of the scoreboard but we were too far and the zoom on the iPod just makes everything fuzzy looking. But I promise that the score really was 24 - 0. 

failure

I did not want to write this blog. I still do not want to write this blog. And I take no joy in writing this blog, but I feel obligated to write this blog. I failed my February experiment. I won’t go into the details, as they are not pleasant to recount, but I will tell you this:

On Thursday, February 23 I was invited to an event that I had not budgeted for. I attended knowing that I would be left with just R 15 for the last six days of February, but I thought I could eek out a living off of this. But then something unexpected happened (Note to readers: if you are ever doing anything with a group of South Africans, expect that something unexpected will happen) and I not only spent the last of my R 1000, but also popped out some additional money. In short, I failed.

Although I failed, I don’t think my efforts were for nothing. I gained new insight on what it might be like to be truly strapped for cash – it is stressful, it is bare, and it is unforgiving in the face of emergencies or the unexpected. But I still fell short of my goal. And I am not okay with that.

So I will try again. I don’t when and I don't know if the details will be exactly the same, but I will try again. It won’t be in March – I miss fresh vegetables and chocolate too much. And it won’t be in April because I’ve already planned an Easter trip to Zambia. But I will try it again and I might even write about it, again.