A year in South Africa: SKILLZ Street Holiday

Molweni!

My apologies for the lack of blog updates, it has been a busy month in Cape Town, and as I approach my two-month mark here I am amazed at how quickly time has been passing. Between work and weekend adventures, I have certainly kept myself busy. Now that the weather is finally starting to get nicer (hooray for spring!) I'm looking forward to more excitement to come!

Here at Grassroot Soccer we just wrapped up a grueling week of holiday camps. Last week was spring break for Cape Town schools, and while most of the country enjoys holidays, here at the Football for Hope Center in Khayelitsha, spring break means Holiday Camps! In normal GRS weeks, our coaches go into local schools and implement GRS curriculum during school periods (one class of 20-30 kids will have one class period of GRS curriculum 2-3 times per week, thus the entire process lasts about 5 weeks). During a holiday camp, however, coaches implement all the curriculum (10-11 "practices") in a week long camp that runs from 8am-4pm and incorporates HIV education, life skills, and of course, plenty of time for playing soccer.

I was helping to coordinate a SKILLZ Street Holiday program at a primary school in Khayelitsha. SKILLZ Street is our all-girls curriculum, which addresses gender specific issues in South Africa that make women nearly 3 times more likely to contract HIV than males. The curriculum allows participants to learn important health information and develop the skills necessary to help counter some of the realities that are present in these communities that severely disempower women. The curriculum also incorporates a soccer league, giving the girls a chance to play soccer, a truly rare opportunity in Khayelitsha (and really the whole of South Africa), where it is generally considered that girls can't play soccer (GRRR!).

I have been assisting our SKILLZ Street coordinator, Mphaki, a fantastic, hilarious, and passionate young woman, in several SKILLZ Street interventions that are currently in progress at various schools in the area, so I am now familiar with the energy, enthusiasm, and excitement associated with SKILLZ Street. However, SKILLZ Street Holiday is like SKILLZ Street on steroids. The camp-like set up allows for coaches and participants to bond quickly and it was really cool to see how much the participants loved the coaches (and how much the coaches loved the participants!). From the opening circle, during which the whole camp gathered to partake in songs, dances, and cheers (or in GRS lingo: energizers and kilos), the excitement was palpable. Girls were screaming, laughing, running around, and just having a ball; it was a truly beautiful thing to see so many people so happy!

SKILLZ Street joy

Amazingly, between moments of insane energy, singing, dancing, playing soccer and just plain FUN, the girls and the coaches had intense discussions about really serious issues. From HIV/AIDS, to gender based violence, to sexual health, to personal issues that participants face in their day to day lives, it was really incredible to see the participants open up to each other and the coaches as the week progressed.

The week culminated in a heritage themed graduation ceremony (in celebration of the South African public holiday, Heritage Day, which was last Tuesday). There was time built into the program during the week for each team to prepare a song, dance, or skit to perform during the graduation ceremony about what they learned during the week. The graduation was a really powerful day for everyone involved. All the coaches and many of the participants dressed in traditional Xhosa garb and the performances were really spectacular. Several of the skits moved both participants and coaches to tears as they addressed some of the different issues facing young girls and women in South Africa. One girl stood up in front of the entire camp (100+ participants, and nearly 20 coaches, and several other GRS visitors) and confessed how the SKILLZ Street camp was one of the first times that she had ever felt happy and proud to be a girl. When it was finally time for people to leave, as we hugged all the participants goodbye, I noticed several people crying. When I asked one of the coaches what was going on, she told me that the girls were crying because they didn't want the camp to be over.

Graduation song and dance: Women with Power

As great as it was to see how much fun the participants had over the course of the week, the moments in which the girls really opened up to the coaches and to each other affected me the most. These moments served as a window into which I could actually see the impact that Grassroot Soccer has on participants and its potential to impart positive change within the communities that we work in. It is the moments like these that make the less glorified aspects of NGO work really worth it (figuring out budgets, printing and binding materials on weekends, acting as the GRS taxi service, etc.).

Soccer time!

GOOOALLLL

SKILLZ Street team

Outside of work, life has been great and full of adventures! From exploring new places and revisiting some other spots, I have been having a lot of fun! Some highlights include:

Road-tripping out to Hermanus for the annual whale festival. Hermanus is a beach town about an hour and a half east of Cape Town, which is known for having the best land-based whale watching in the world, especially during the winter and spring months during which nearly 100 Southern Right whales come to breed in the warm(er) waters of the Hermanus bay. Despite getting off to a somewhat rocky start with getting a flat tire on the side of the highway immediately followed by a dead battery (all in the pouring rain), we persevered and ended up seeing TONS of whales! So cool!
Exploring the West Coast National Park with the other Cape Town intern ladies. The park is known for having spectacular wildflowers in August and September and it certainly lived up to its reputation. We also had some more animal encounters, including a bay filled with hundreds of flamingos!!
Running the Cape Town Marathon 10K road-race with some fellow GRS-ers
Watching the South African Springboks take on the Australian rugby team. I still don't really understand the sport, but the Springboks won and it was a happy day in ZA!