Saturday at Llandudno Beach

After a windy 20 minute car ride from our house, the interns somehow found themselves here:

Cape Town interns unite to make a pyramid...

....for about 20 seconds

Mix of former and current interns

Simunye? Sisonke.

Simunye-Sisonke is a phrase often used in the GRS curriculum.  After a coach has discussed an important point, he/she will ask the group: Simunye?, and the group will respond: Sisonke.  It translates to "Are we together?" "We are together".

I just finished my first full week of work in Khayelitsha at the Football for Hope Centre.  I was able to explore Khayelitsha a lot because we had to buy materials for the interventions, go on Coach Support Visits, and run Skillz Street (an intervention targeting girls) at a couple different sites.

Khayelitsha is a township located about 20 minutes outside of the city.  There are up to 2 million people living there.

Football for Hope Centre, Khayelitsha

Field behind the Football for Hope Centre

Kids hanging out at the Football for Hope field

Right next to the Centre

Skillz Street at Power Child field, Khayelitsha

Team Time, Skillz Street

Fair Play, Skillz Street

Skillz Street is the only curriculum that includes time for "Fair Play", or scrimmaging.  Studies show that women who play sports are more likely to exercise less risky sexual behavior.

School, Khayelitsha

Another school, Khayelitsha

School, Khayelitsha

Driving through Khayelitsha

Pictures!

Laughing at the beginning of the Lion's Head hike

Hanging out at the top of Lion's Head

More hanging out at the top of Lion's Head

Old Biscuit Mills, a Saturday morning gigantic farmer's market

Banana and nutella crepe at Old Biscuit Mills

Do One Thing Everyday that Scares You: Learning how to drive stick shift on the left side of the road in Cape Town

There have been a lot of exciting things happening the past few days, including a hike up Lion's Head with some of the GRS global staff members (pictures to come!).  And although the hike was unbelievably beautiful, the most noteworthy event in my mind was learning how to drive stick shift. In Cape Town. On the left side of the road.  Durkin and I needed to start learning as soon as we got here because our jobs require the most driving, from transporting coaches to schools (since most coaches don't know how to drive), to rushing off quickly to buy some more food/equipment for an intervention.  Talia, the current Programs Intern at the Football For Hope Centre, took us out for a lesson, and she was a great teacher.  She stayed calm as we rolled down hills, and stalled in the middle of intersections with our windshield wipers moving instead of the turn signal.  But, no worries (Mom), Talia made sure we didn't crash into anything, and she's still around for another month to give us more lessons. :)

Cape Town Welcomes Us with...Women's Day

I feel like a lot has happened since my last blog post.  The trip to Cape Town was actually really fun, because there were 10 GRS interns on our flight to London with the same 10 hour layover, and we took full advantage of it.  We went to Westminster Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and lounged at St. James Park.  It was a really nice visit to London, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to see my cousin Todd while I was there.

View of Cape Town, 20 minute walk from our house!

View of Lion's Head!

Then, we arrived in Cape Town at around 8 am, and we managed to stay awake all day.  But, it was much easier than I thought it would be, because Cape Town is such a beautiful city.
Also, it happened to be a national holiday when we arrived: Women's Day.  I'm not sure how the holiday is celebrated, but the grocery store closed a little earlier than usual.
Today, we went into the office to start orientation.  Everyone was really friendly and nice, and got us really excited to start working on Monday.  On Friday, we will be going to Khayelitsha, so that we can visit the Football for Hope Centre where Durkin and I will be working.

Animal Soulmates

Welcome to my blog, and thank you so much for checking in!  I am going to try to update this as much as possible.  I am going to miss everyone very much while I am away, please stay in touch!  You can reach me at RHershow@gmail.com.

I just got back from the five-day Grassroot Soccer orientation in New Hampshire, and I leave for the airport in about five hours.  The orientation was really great.  The first two days, all 25 interns stayed in a cabin in the woods around Dartmouth.  Without clocks, TV, and mirrors, we were able to get comfortable with each other very quickly.  Some former interns also surprised us and came dancing through the woods late at night armed with drums and singing "Wavin' Flag".  Mainly, we were able to get to know each other and get introduced to the GRS culture.  All the former interns and staff members made us feel like we were entering a new family.  We also learned about a vital part of the GRS culture: the 'kee-lo'!

A 'kee-lo' is a way to praise an individual or a group for doing -- well, pretty much anything with energy and the right attitude.  This is the procedure for presenting the 'kee-lo':
1. Acknowledge that someone in the group has just done something awesome.
2. Project your voice and say, "Let's give [INSERT NAME] a 'kee-LO'!"
3. Everyone claps their hands three times quickly twice.
4. Everyone points at the person or group that has been identified and says, 'WHOOO!'.

The last two days of the orientation were used to educate us on the GRS strategy, network, and projects.  And now, we're almost off!  I am really happy to say that I have time to rest before my trip with my cousins, Julie and Rikk.  If it wasn't for them, I would be sleep deprived, hungry for good food, and stuck at the airport all day.

If you're interested in hearing more about the organization and my internship, please check out the page I wrote titled "Information about Grassroot Soccer" (the link is on the right side of this webpage).

Also, here are some really great YouTube videos that give you an idea of the GRS strategy/culture:
Lusaka Sunrise
Who We Are. What We Do.

P.S. In case you were curious about the title of this blog entry, "Animal Soulmates" was the icebreaker activity that all the interns had to do their first night together.  Everyone is assigned an animal by picking a piece of paper out of a hat.  You can't tell anyone which animal you have.  Then, after 15 seconds, everyone gets on their hands and knees and closes their eyes.  If this isn't strange enough, THEN you start making the noise of the animal you were assigned (or the noise you think the animal may make) and start crawling around the floor trying to find someone who is making a similar noise.  This person is your animal soulmate and once you have found him/her, you are saved from the embarrassment of crawling blindly around on the floor while squeaking, barking, oinking, or buzzing...  :)