Orientation
Orientation was the perfect way to start off my year with GRS. The first two days were spent at Dartmouth College’s Class of ’66 Lodge at the base of Moose Mountain in NH and the second two we bunked up at Pierce’s Inn, a small B&B run by the world’s nicest family.
From the first minute until now I don’t think I have stopped grinning. Grassroot Soccer, the curriculum, the other employees, and my fellow interns are all better than I could have ever expected. The first day after hiking out to the lodge, nestled in the woods of Etna, our orientation leaders, three other employees from the Cape Town office, immediately got us ramped up by beginning to teach us Grassroot Soccer’s interactive curriculum.
The Curriculum aka SKILLZ
- 9 45-minute Interactive-Learning Sessions focused on prevention
- Taught by local coaches who are hired and trained by Grassroot Soccer
- Delivered in schools and at Holiday Skillz Sessions (an intensive week-long camp with learning sessions in the morning and soccer in the afternoon)
- Designed to teach kids age 10-18 about HIV/AIDS and life skills
The rest of orientation was dedicated to games and sessions that allowed us, the 25 2010-11 interns who are placed throughout Southern Africa, to get to know one another and to begin to understand how GRS works as a non-profit. I have never met a group of people as smart, compassionate, and just plain nice as the Grassroot Soccer crew. Orientation flew by and before I knew it I was eating dinner with the board of directors at the Norwich Inn and sitting around a bonfire outside of Pierce’s Inn saying farewell to my new friends. At 7am the next morning I boarded the Dartmouth Coach in Lebanon, NH and began my 32-hour trek to Cape Town with 7 other interns.
Cape Town’s Intern Team
Margaret Owen- ’10 Middlebury College- MY ROOMMATE FOR THE YEAR!
Julie Martin- ’09 Loyola of Chicago
Sara Rosenthal- ’10 University of Virginia
Talia Dweck- ’10 Emory University
Graham Stockdale- ’09 Bradley University
Jamison Merrill- ’10 University of Oregon
Tim Grose- ’08 Amherst College
The crew at our Intern Welcome Party
Clockwise from the bottom left: Tim, Margaret, Talia, Jamison, Sara, Graham, Julie
Welcome
We landed in Cape Town around 10PM exhausted but excited to have finally arrived at our final destination. After the short twenty-minute drive from the airport we pulled into home on Gordon Street where we were greeted by former interns Sarah Flesher, Corey Moffat, Taylor Downs, and Sarah Bell (from Wes!!!). They welcomed us to the house and then quickly ushered us down to Long Street to cheers to a year in Cape Town.
The Office
The next morning at 8:30am (which really felt like 2:30am) we stumbled down to GRS’s headquarters on Hout Street. The walk from home to the office is only 20 minutes and brings you through the Company Gardens and downtown Cape Town. Stepping out of the elevator and into the office was like stepping into a Pottery Barn commercial. It’s a beautiful two-story, open spaced office made entirely of painted white wood and clear glass offices. The top floor is an open balcony and tables take the place of the traditional cubicles, which is just another indicator of Grassroots’ collaborative style. My favorite part though is the beautiful view of Table Mountain from the window in the business development office that I’ll be working in for the year. Pictures soon to come…
The Strike
After spending a few hours talking through rules, filling out paperwork, meeting the staff and exploring the office we took a break from the introductory stuff and went to check out a 10,000-person wage strike taking place outside of parliament. It was incredibly organized, surprisingly peaceful, and consisted mostly of song and dance, both of which seem to completely dominate South African culture.
Downtown Cape Town
After the strike we headed back to the office and then were dismissed to spend the rest of the day exploring the city. Cape Town is bizarre combination of San Francisco’s landscape, New York City’s diversity, Europe’s scene, style and architecture, and the Midwest’s kind and calm personality. I really cannot believe that I’m living in such an incredibly beautiful spot. I found myself walking around in awe. If you haven’t already done so, I would highly recommend google imaging Cape Town and considering coming for a visit.
Drained from jetlag and a long day of walking and going over paperwork we all came back to the apartment to crash on the bean bags scattered around our living room and get to know one another. Our apartment doesn’t have a TV and our internet is pretty spotty so we get a lot of quality bonding time. So far our group has gotten along fabulously and from day one we could tell that we would be laughing a lot. No joke, I am surprised to go more than 20 minutes without laughing.
Together we met up with Sarah Bell and her boyfriend Taylor Downs to head to a newly opened Mexican restaurant (San Julian) about 20 minutes from the apartment. Luckily Sarah was there to give us our first lesson in catching a taxi (bargining is key!!). The restaurant was a little slow (as would be expected) but had as close as you could possibly get to authentic Mexican food. Definitely worth recommending to anyone you know in Cape Town. They could use the business!!
Khayelitsha
The next morning we got up early, piled into our intern car, and headed to check out Khayletisha, South Africa’s fastest growing township, which is a short 30-minute drive from the city center. Grassroot Soccer has partnered with FIFA and for the next five years will help to develop one of FIFA’s 20 Centers for 2010, The Football For Hope Centre which is based in Khayletisha. Grassroot Soccer coaches who are members of the Khayelitsha community are trained by master coaches and staff from the Cape Town office and then deliver the Skillz curriculum in the center during VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) tournaments and daily in the schools of Khayelitsha. The center itself is beautiful and is very much a place for the community. While we were there we got to play with kindergarteners who were there to have an outdoor playtime on the turf built next to the center. The coaches are what make the place though. They are incredibly beautiful, bright, happy, and kind people. They carry with them a level of energy and appreciation for life that is entirely inexplicable and unbelievably inspirational. One of the coaches was nice enough to take us on a two a half hour walking tour around the part of Khayelitsha closest to the Centre. The poverty is evident with every step, everyone living in small tin shacks and many young, unemployed people sitting outside, with nothing to do, in the middle of the day. All of that being said, on the whole, from what we were shown (we obviously were not taken to the most dangerous areas) there is an incredibly supportive almost communal community. One example that jumped out at me was a garden, in the middle of this desert-like, tin ridden environment, which has been established by community members to provide food for anyone that is unable to eat. Leaving the center at the end of the day I left humbled and unbelievably appreciative of the life I’ve been blessed with. My smile continued to grow. Photos below are courtesy of Julie Martin and Tim Grose.
Check out Jamison’s blog for more pictures from the day: http://kickingforcapetown.com/
Soccer is Religion
Margaret and I went on a much needed run around our neighborhood (of course the views were spectacular), and that night, Zak, Elise and Leah, our three orientation leaders, dropped by our house with wine and cheese to welcome us to Cape Town. After appreciating some local red joined my boss Leah (who is the best and for all you WESers reading reminds me a lot of Beck Dorey-Stein!) for wine at a local bar to catch the South Africa v. Ghana game. The place was packed and it was a Wednesday night! Soccer is legitimately on par with religion in South Africa. At last, I am living in a country that will actually play soccer in a bar! Bafana Bafana, South Africa’s team, ended up winning the game 1-0 and South Africa and I ended the night ecstatic.
Scavenging
Our next day was dedicated to doing a Scavenger’s Hunt around Cape Town so that we could get to know the city. While we were supposed to be competing against one another in teams of two, we decided to bend the rules and do it as a group. We wandered the city, soccer ball at our feet, taking pictures of every major landmark that we passed along the way. Cape Town has beautiful, old architecture so I spent most of the day with my head tilted back, trying to take in everything around me and constantly reminding myself that I’m going to be in this gorgeous city for an entire year.
We trekked up to Bo Kaap, Cape Town’s Malay Quarter, scattered with bright buildings and beautiful mosques. Plopping down on the curb outside of a small shop where we had purchased lunch for all of 20 Rand (3 dollars), we got to enjoy the view shown below. As we were finishing up our lamb pies, spicy chicken samosas, and Fantas, the Islamic call to prayer began to play on a loudspeaker somewhere off in the distance. Everyone in our group began laughing to him or herself, all of us simultaneously realizing that we were pretty much living the life. Great company, delicious (and cheap!) food, a beautiful view, all taking place in one of the most diverse and interesting cities in the world… You really can’t get much better than that. Photo below is courtesy of Tim Grose.
Re-energized and giddy we wound our way down the hill to Cape Town’s waterfront, which is scattered with thousands of restaurants, a spectacular craft market, and many, many vendors trying to sell helicopter rides, ferries to Robben Island, and everything in between. Exhausted from walking around the city we came back to the house to relax before meeting up with Leah to enjoy a great yoga session at a studio 10 minutes from our office. It was great to I am NOT flexible…
Lion’s Head
The next morning we met up with Leah again to hike Lion’s Head mountain at sunrise. The hike, which is a really good workout, took us about an hour. Three minutes after we hit the top the sun peeked up over the mountain. Leah led us in some yoga, we enjoyed the sunrise together, and then headed back down to start our day. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:
Camp’s Bay
After we got home I got dressed to head into work to sit with Leah and get the rundown of what my job will entail. More details on this to come, but my job is better than I could have ever imagined. Things being better than I could have ever imagined seems to be a recurring theme here. A few hours later, the rest of the crew swung by the office and together we caught a minibus (less than a dollar for a 20 minute ride!) down to beach at Camp’s Bay. We spent the afternoon soaking in the sun, playing soccer in the sand, and just generally enjoying Cape Town’s WINTER season. It was at least 75 degrees out…
It was at Camp’s Bay that I really began to recognize the obvious wealth divide. Every person eating at the seaside was white and every person working was black. The coast is littered with gorgeous, gigantic beach houses and only thirty minutes away, people are sitting unemployed in the tin shacks of Khayelitsha. Crime is rampant throughout the city and all of us, guys included, have been advised to not go anywhere alone after dark. Asking questions of females around Cape Town on our scavenger’s hunt we repeatedly heard that unemployment and abuse are the two biggest issues facing women, at least around Cape Town. There is a lot of work left to be done in South Africa…
After getting back from Camp’s Bay we prepared for our intern welcome party. Wine and cheese were on the menu again for the evening and our guests included 10 other GRS staff. We had a great night getting to know everyone and later got to explore Long Street’s nightlife.
The Weekend
On Saturday we got off to a bit of a late start but eventually Tim, Margaret, Sara, Jamison and I decided to take a drive to the Kirstenbosch Gardens to read and play some soccer. After quickly realizing that you have to pay to enter the beautiful botanical gardens of Cape Town, we decided to continue on and stumbled across some beautiful running trails through a forest near by. It wasn’t quite the relaxing afternoon that we had expected, but the views from amidst the trees made it all worth it.
On Sunday Corey, a former intern who will be staying on in the GRS office for another 6 months, drove us out to Muzenberg and Tim, Jamison and I got to try out surfing for the first. I was absolutely terrible and barely got up, but I left absolutely beaming. Corey said he was pretty sure he spotted a dolphin while we were out attempting to catch some waves. Photos below are courtesy of expert photographer Julie Martin.
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