Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Sport-for-Development Office Conversation

In lieu of an exciting update from the weekend (since most of it was spent catching up on sleep lost  because of the excitement around the US Men's team coming to visit) I am going to give you a taste of the sport-for-development world. Every week my inbox is flooded with news articles, YouTube clips, and research updates. When the NYTimes posts something about HIV/AIDS or condoms or behavior change, it is rare to go more than 24 hours without hearing about it.

In a recent conversation with one of my best friends from college I inquired about what gets discussed in her office every day. It took about 2 seconds of conversation to realize that the office space discussion in the investment management world is VERY different than the NGO world. While my friend is busy researching emerging markets and reading up on China, Corey and Graham are browsing through articles about male circumcision and Sara is summarizing the most recent article about multiple concurrent partners. While most of the American public enjoys some Sunday football, we lounge TV-less talking about the 2022 World Cup bid. Beyond the fact that most recent grads are not living in a house with six strangers in a foreign country over 7,000 miles from family and friends, it suddenly hit me that most recent grads are not constantly surrounded by conversation about HIV/AIDS, condom use, multiple concurrent partners, circumcision, and gender-based violence...

So... If you want to feel like you're really kicking it in Cape Town with me, here's a little taste of my inbox and what has been on my mind in South Africa this week:

An email from Clint, an intern in Soweto:

In case anyone needs a little extra motivation for hump day...

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/fight_against_aids


A news article from the NYTimes about Pope Benedict XVI and his thoughts on condom use (yay!):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/world/europe/21pope.html

A video clip from Taylor Down's father, Executive Director of the USA Bid Committee for the 2022 World Cup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbn3rOPmR9w

An article sent around by our HR Manager about HIV prevalence among South African farmers:


http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?Reportid=91169

In my inbox 7 hours before posted by NYTimes:


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/health/research/24aids.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a2

That's all for now, but if you're interested in the AIDS epidemic, want to keep up-to-date on what is going down in the Sport-for-Development world, or just want to feel like you're a part of the GRS family, check out the Grassroot Soccer homepage for our most recent news, some "Nuggetz" of info about HIV prevention, and pictures from our different sites.

Lots of love from Cape Town!!

Charlotte

Friday, November 19, 2010

USA v. South Africa: 1-0

GOD BLESS AMERICA

November 17th 2010. Midfield. Front Row. US wins with the most rookie squad of all time. Boo yahhh.





Monday, November 15, 2010

Time to sport the yellow T

As if typhoid wasn't enough, four days after getting back from Kenya I started getting fevers, chills, body aches, headaches, and a fabulously sore throat. Sickness #3! Tuesday morning Margaret was kind enough to bring me to the Cape Town Medi-Clinic (about 400% times nicer than the Mothers and Children Clinic of Eastleigh, Kenya). Turns out someone on the airplane must have blessed me with a throat infection. Before the fevers started I got a few sickness-free days in and enjoyed a great night out for Sara's birthday at Camp's Bay, a swanky/posh/beachside spot in Cape Town. We all dolled up for the night- See the family below.

Jamison, me, Marg, Julie, T, Sara, Graham

My travels and adventures hit hard, but at long last I am back in good health! This past weekend was spent working. Saturday night was dedicated to helping out at a fundraiser in Llandudno. A fabulous couple (originally from the US) hosted 30 potential funders/people interested in GRS at their gorgeous beach house. 5 of us interns came along to wear the yellow t-shirts, give the 5 minute Grassroot spiel and eat some killer hors-d'oeuvres. The house, location, and guests were all over the top-- in a great way.

Sunday morning we woke up at 7 am and trekked out to Woodstock where we were helping to run water stations for a Fun Walk taking place throughout Cape Town. Again sporting our yellow t-shirts, instead of handing out water to the fierce and furious walkers we spent the morning pouring them cups of Coca Cola. The water hose was broken and Coke sponsors pretty much everything in South Africa, so we busted our butts handing over cups of cola to thousands of sweaty, demanding walkers. One man thought we had given him water and before we could warn him he chucked the contents of the cup straight into his face.... Rough start to a 12k walk.

After an amusing morning (I never realized how funny it is to watch thousands of people speed walking..) we headed out the Football for Hope Centre to meet the US Men's National Soccer Team. Yes. You read correctly. (Photos below courtesy of Jamison Merrill, skilled GRIntern Photographer)

  
 

 
 On Wednesday the US will be taking on South Africa, so the team decided to drop by our center and check out what GRS is all about. Tune in on Wednesday to catch a clip of us cheering from our front row seats at midfield!!!!

Skip through to the middle and you can see me sounding stupid... Good thing my sentences don't even make sense... Rough morning. http://www.ussoccer.com/Multimedia/Media-Center.aspx#/id=65896bbe-0ef9-40ac-a4b3-914411076da2

Kenyan Whirlwind.

-1 case of typhoid fever
-1 cab accident
-1 9-hour matutu ride from Nairobi to Muhuru Bay (sandwiched between a sick woman and a screaming toddler)
-1 billion dishes of pilau and ugali

...and I have officially made it back from my crazy Kenyan adventure.

So much happened in my two weeks in Kenya, it is difficult to even attempt to sum it up in one blog post. I'll let my pictures speak for the majority of my experience, but supplement with a few explanations, a few tidbits, and a few short stories.

To begin, what I was actually doing there:

1. Running a Training of Coaches with Taylor Downs, an Amherst grad who has been with Grassroot Soccer since 2008 and is a master at facilitating training programs. VAP (Vijana Amani Pamoja) is our implementing partner in Nairobi, Kenya and has been running GRS programs with little to no funding since 2004!! Thanks to Egmont Trust,  Tay and I were able to travel to Kenya to train 20 of their coaches in our newest curriculum!

 




2. Visiting and assessing WISER, a secondary school (aka high school) placed in Muhuru Bay, a rural community with 25,000 inhabitants. My job was to come in, check out the primary schools that WISER is linked to (and where we would actually be delivering GRS programs), present some ideas on how the GRS-WISER program could be formatted, meet a BUNCH of people in a very short period of time, and... get out.

The view from WISER

The drive from Muhuru Bay to Migori

It was a WHIRLWIND.

A few tidbits:
What Nairobi is like: Imagine.... A greener NYC with the worst roads of all time and thus... traffic galore and non-stop honking throughout the night.


What Muhuru Bay is like: Imagine.... Middle of no where Kenya with dusty dirt paths for roads, mud huts with thatched roofs, and monkeys sitting on the roadside. (See picture)



A few stories:
1. It is 3 am, night #2 in Nairobi and I wake suddenly with an enormous knot in my stomach. Sweating profusely I roll around under beneath my hole ridden mosquito net for a while before getting up to pace around my room, desperately hoping that 7am (when I'm supposed to go to breakfast with Taylor) comes quickly. Enouce (our main contact with VAP) arrives with the car expecting to pick us up and drive to the first day of training at the church venue and instead pulls up to Taylor asking urgently to bring me to a hospital.

After waving a farewell to Taylor and Enouce who head off to start training, I check in at the local clinic and reluctantly allow the nurses on duty to draw blood. The main nurse sits with me while I wait for the results and proudly proclaims, "You're the second white person we have ever treated!" Less than comforted I calm myself by chatting with her for the next hour learning all about her life and admiring pictures of her grandchildren that she pushes across the desk at me. By the end of the conversation she had officially offered to adopt me, be my mother at my baptism (which she offered to arrange for on my next trip to Nairobi), and to house me whenever I wished to visit. The nice 22 year old pharmacist comes in to inform me that my tests have come back so I thank her and head downstairs to speak with the doctor. "Well... it looks like you have typhoid fever." Hey, at least my odd stomach aches, sickness at Rockin' the Daisies, and perpetual chills finally had an explanation!

I collect the various antibiotics needed and stumble outside to call the cab number Taylor had given me only to discover that Safaricom phone towers aren't working. I ask the parking attendant if he could help me in finding a cab and he points me in the direction of a toothless man with what can only be described as a Kenyan pimp mobile. I slip into the backseat covered in cheetah fabric and ask to head back to Marble Arch.

Ten minutes later I'm sitting in the middle of a Nairobi traffic circle, surrounded by 25 Kenyan men arguing over whose fault it was that a giant bus backed full steam into the back of our moving cab. To add to the scene, it turns out my cab driver isn't even actually a cab driver, which I discover after the accident when he whips around and states, "Give me 300 shillings and I'll let you get out here OR if you stay, don't tell the cops that I'm a cab driver and I'll take you to your hotel for our agreed price".

45 minutes later I stumble into my room and sleep for the remainder of the day.

2. We got kicked out of our training venue (which happened to be a church) because the cardinals saw two of our male coaches holding hands. We had been holding hands in a circle and they hadn't yet let go... Luckily the community center across from the mosque was more welcoming.

3. After crossing the Great Rift Valley (see pictures below) where I saw zebras from the bus window we began passing through small towns filled with little more than bars and samosa shops. Nearing the end of my trip, between Kisii and Migori, we began passing women walking alongside the roads with bunches of bananas on their heads and men busily chopping up sugar cane in the ditches.





4. I rode on the back of a motorcycle with Margaret, a greater older woman who had raised three children in Charlottesville, VA and in her 50s decided to do the Peace Corps in Ghana for 3 years. She now works for WISER in Muhuru Bay and was kind enough to show me 7 primary schools before noon.

There is much more to say, but I'll leave the trip at that. By far my most eye-opening experience since coming to Africa. As always, sending lots of love to everyone back home and abroad. Thinking of all of you lots.

Love,

Charlotte