Home from Epic World Cup Road Trip

First, apologies are in order for the radio silence over the past two weeks. I'm somehow still alive after an arduous and exhilarating two-week road trip with my very good friend Dan Rosenberg. Dan flew into Durban on June 19th and he flew out last Saturday, July 3rd, from Cape Town. Everything in between will need chapters and photo albums to recount in full, but for now I just wanted to write that I'm back in Mtubatuba for my last few weeks on the job and looking forward to tying up all my loose ends and flying back to Seattle on August 4th.

Speaking of jobs, probably worth mentioning that I accepted a job for next year. I'll be a Teaching Fellow at a prep high school called Noble and Greenough School outside Boston, which basically means I'll be teaching one World History course, coaching girls soccer, and doing a bunch of other fun stuff from September to June. I'm super excited for the prospect of teaching, but I am trying to stay focused on the current experience with GRS, leaving things completed (or as close to it as possible) here, and just taking a bit of time to process everything that has happened this past year.

Will put up some pictures from the World Cup adventures as soon as possible; there's a chance I might have a ticket to see the Semi-Final match in Durban on Wednesday (Germany vs. Spain)...which would be ridiculous.

Chris

MFA Write-Up in Seattle news...

A nice write-up and a few photos talking about how one of our local Seattle soccer teams donated some jerseys to my U/10 boys out here in Mtubtuba.

http://www.myballard.com/2010/05/26/ballardite-finds-new-use-for-old-gear-in-south-africa/

For those of you keeping track, the MFA U/10s have lost 1 game in 7 matches, including this past Saturday, when they won 7-0 and lost 2-3.

Their record is slightly better than the Mtuba Rugby Club, which is now 0-6. By some divine mercy, we've been dropped down a league mid-season and are now playing with other small towns like us, and not the likes of Richards Bay, or "Injure At Least 5 Of Our Players Per Game" Bay. First up in the season reboot is an away game at Mandini on Friday. Hopefully we'll finally have some good news.

Coaching with the Mtuba Football Academy

By far one of the most enjoyable aspects of my year in South Africa has been coaching with the Mtuba Football Academy (MFA). Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday myself and 4 other volunteer coaches run training sessions for 120 kids, spread across 6 age groups (Under 10, U/12, U/13, U/14, U/15, and U/17). 90% of the players are Zulu kids from Mtuba's township or some of the nearby villages and, I'm telling you, the talent here is huge; I get tested just playing in the practice scrimmages with the 13- and 14-year olds on the U-15 squad. That might not be the best example because its probably more of a testament to how badly I've fallen out of being "soccer match fit" than it is to their serious skill. Regardless, they are awesome and I really look forward to every practice.

Here are just a few pictures of the academy and the kids in case anybody is interested in something I've spending almost all my free time working on and thinking about. This time with MFA has definitely put

I'm currently working to try to raise some funds to help with the running of the academy: purchasing badly-needed equipment, covering gas to drive the kids back to their township and village homes at night, and renting a bus to take 100 of the Academy players to the Japan vs. Netherlands World Cup match in Durban (right around the corner!). Because many of the MFA players come from disadvantaged backgrounds, things like team trips and even soccer boots are prohibitively expensive. Thus, I'd also like some of the raised funding to go towards sponsoring necessary expenses for individual players whose family's just can't afford certain items.

If anybody is interested in donating to help support and grow the Mtuba Football Academy, I've got a "Donate Now" button linked to this blog (on the right hand side of the screen), processed securely through Google Checkout. Normally, funds donated through that button go towards general fundraising for my volunteer expenses. However, from now on I'll assume that any donations are for the Mtuba Football Academy and I will use the funds for Academy-related projects.

Here's a picture to break the monotony of text. Me and four of the Under-10 players I coach:

Rugby

Sorry for not writing in a little while. Just wanted to write a quick message about playing rugby over here. Some of you might not know that I actually played rugby for about 1 month at the very end of my senior year at Yale, and really loved it. Once I got to Mtubatuba and heard there was a local team, I quickly joined up with the Mtuba Rugby Club.

We've been in pre-season since January and our season kicked off two weeks ago against Empangeni, another town in Zululand. We lost 23-3 but it was a great game, and I ended up getting the "Man of the Match" award for the Forwards (rugby has two general positions - "forward" or "back" - spread out over 15 more specific positions). Last week we played our hated rivals, Richards Bay, and lost 53-7 in what was, by all accounts, a hatred-infested fistfight that happened to take place on a rugby field. These guys take their sport seriously and when you spice things up with a long-festering rivalry, well...it gets ugly. I survived that game, though (mostly by growing eyes in the back of my head and screaming "Get the hell off me, dude!" whenever I started getting punched at the bottom of a ruck). Now this Friday we're playing Richards Bay, again, in Richards Bay, again, but at least its against their Second Team.

There are games every Friday, home or away. We practice Tuesdays and Thursdays at our own pitch and clubhouse here in Mtuba. Rugby is a great social group and a real highlight of my time so far in KZN. I'll plan to write more about rugby soon...lots of interesting stuff like how black and white players interact on the team.

Until then, here's a picture of the team:

Big News in South Africa

Julius Malema (ANC Youth League leader) recently and publicly sang a song called "Shoot the Boer." Boer = Afrikaans for "farmer;" the idea of the "Boer" is still alive and well in both black and white South African mythologies - the resilient Dutch farmer who subdued both the land and its inhabitants in the 1800s (from the white perspective, mostly justifiably; from the black perspective, less so).

Two days ago, Eugene TerreBlanche, the leader of the Afrikaans Resistance Movement (a conservative right-wing white supremacist political party) - and a full-blooded Boer - was, depending on who you ask, assassinated as a direct result of Malema's song/coincidentally murdered/rightfully killed by farmworkers whose wages he had not paid.

South Africa is in a tizzy after all this. If you're interested, check out a good article at NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/world/africa/05iht-saf.html?ref=africa.

Johannesburg

Just a quick one to say I'm in Johannesburg for a one-week GRS training, crashing with my main man Karti, having normal social interactions with people who aren't Afrikaner, and really enjoying this break from the normal routine (which, while normal, is still awesome).

Karti and I are having a great time in Joburg; K is living in a great neighborhood called Melville. Being here in a big urban place has been really fun. If you're interested, Karti keeps a pretty cool blog about working in Joburg/Soweto for GRS and you can find it at: http://kartisubramanian.wordpress.com.

Just wanted you to know I'm alive and well. Mtuba rugby season starts next week Friday so should have some great war stories to report.

Chris

Still Alive

Whew, sorry for not writing at all recently. Everything has been really busy and, ironically, I'm too busy to fully bring you up to speed about all the business. Let me give you a bullet point-style breakdown of what's been going on in this neck of the woods, though, so you at least have some idea:

- End of February: Drove from Mtubatuba to Richmond (~13 hrs) to check in on the site and hang out with Anna. Sadly, had to return Chandler, our awesome pickup truck, to the farmer who owns it. Took a bus down to Cape Town for meetings with GRS bigwigs to bring everybody up to speed about progress on the Mtuba project and then rented a new car, packed it full of donated Nike soccer gear to use in KZN, and drove the ~20 hours back out to Mtubatuba. Long haul driving but pretty awesome way to see the country.

- Early March: A couple weeks of pretty unbroken time in Mtubatuba. Kept launching the GRS curriculum in our partner schools and checking in on our coaches. Remember, we just trained these coaches in our curriculum a month ago and many of them just graduated from high school and have zero teaching experience. A big part of what I can offer to this project is basically to make sure they are facilitating well and offer advice about connecting with kids, making the curriculum more fun, and so on. I can't understand a word of isiZulu so content-wise I'm pretty useless, but in any language you can definitely identify whether a coach is facilitating the curriculum well or not. Began coaching for the Mtuba Football Academy, which has been awesome. I really look forward to Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays when I help out the head coach of this rural soccer academy coach the 100 kids who participate. I'm in charge of the Under-10 age group...coaching soccer for little kids has to be one of the most rewarding experiences there is. Mtuba Rugby Club pre-season began, initiating what will surely be a long schedule of me getting pulverized by huge Afrikaner farmboys.

- Super recently: A week ago movie star actress Charlize Theron was in town to check out Mpilonhle's programs, which included her touring some of our Grassroot Soccer activities. I guess people probably say this most of the time after meeting celebrities, but she struck me as very normal and friendly. Got to eat lunch with Charlize. Pretty sure the relationship will end there, but will update you guys if anything happens re: a wedding date. Last weekend visited Anna in Richmond to help her with a huge VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) soccer tournament she had organized. I was just a pair of hands on the day and had a blast. Anna did an amazing job organizing the whole thing: had a great soccer tournament, brought the community together, and we tested 179 people (7 of whom were HIV positive). Really cool to be there for that.

- Now: All kinds of stuff to organize with Mpilonhle: supporting 50 coaches, organizing GRS soccer camps during the World Cup, high school soccer leagues, and so on. Going to Johannesburg this weekend for a GRS training with a few colleagues from Mpilonhle. On the schedule: GRS training, hanging out with Soweto intern Karti, and trying not to get stabbed. Next week might go to a big music concert close to Durban with a bunch of the interns. After that the Zululand rugby season is starting and I should have some good war stories to share.

Need to get into town and get to work but will try to write a little more frequently once things settled into more of a routine and I'm not driving thousands of miles.

Chris

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