TGIF

Well..... Sadly surfing did not happen (flatest. ocean. ever.), but all four limbs are in place and I'll walk without crutches for another day. Sarah Bell has left the country (saddd) but has sold me her board and I've finally purchased a guitar so I'm well on my way to picking up and hopefully perfecting a number of hobbies that have been on my bucket list for a while. Currently, the F chord is my greatest nemesis.

The weekend is coming up and tonight we're heading to a football game at the Cape Town stadium. Be on the lookout for pictures!!

Love to everyone.

Charlotte

SURF

Working on getting into the short post habit...

6:45 am-- heading to the beach with Jamison and Corey to surf.. Hoping no limbs are lost along the way.

Things are picking up at the office and coming up this weekend I'll experience my first "braai" in Khayelitsha. Braai is Afrikaans for BBQ... Rumors are you get to see lots of lambs heads and such. Yummmmm.

Cross your fingers that I'm not legless next time I post... Sharks are everywhere in this area...

The first REAL week

Sunday of Bliss

To give you a better understanding of my life in Cape Town let me begin by mapping out what Sunday, alone, entailed. I’m sitting here in my living room alongside Tim and Margaret (the alums of the not-so-cool NESCACs Amherst and Middlebury), bruised, battered, and incredibly full after a day filled with a number of activities including: driving along the coast of Cape Town, surfing at Muzienberg beach, walking around the V&A waterfront, cheering on ManU in a hole-in-the-wall bar on Kloof Street, and watching movies with my housemates.

Electrical Plug Mayhem

Cape Town is a city full of things to do and plenty to see, but after a week of getting to know our way around, enjoying some abnormally warm winter weather, and living a lazy life of luxury, real life finally hit. I guess I should start from the beginning of the week…

Monday morning I woke up at 7am, stumbled around the kitchen and made my way through the gardens to work. The seven other interns and I gathered in the conference room to have a finance talk, all pulled out our notebooks, focused our attention and then... SAT. It legitimately took 45 minutes to get our projector to work just because of South Africa's ridiculous electrical plug/power outlet situation.

Pictured above from Left to Right: A plug that will fit into any outlet in Cape Town. To the right the converter that everyone in Cape Town must own in order to plug in the plug (pictured below) that over half of the appliances in Cape Town have…

The number of plugs that one might need to actually get power in Cape Town, South Africa.... TOO MANY. Long ago someone decided that it was necessary to have two different types of electrical plugs, but only one type of outlet... and no one has thought to change it yet. Despite the fact that the little white panel in the wall has three holes to put a three pronged plug into, half of South Africa still produces appliances that are two pronged. Every single person that wants to get power out of anything has to have an adaptor!! What are these people thinking?!

45 minutes later (I'm not kidding...) my attention was completely shot, our entire group had reduced to a giggling mess, and Ron (the finance man at GRS) was just getting started with his powerpoint presentation.

Okay, so that was a really long tirade about electrical plugs, but the major point here is that throughout the course of just one week I have quickly learned that idiotic plugs and outlets are on a very long list of baffling/nonsensical/inefficient happenings in South Africa and sometimes at Grassroot Soccer. Put simply, things do NOT happen quickly here and quite often its difficult to trace the thinking behind action.

What I’m Actually Doing Here

Skip the following section if you're not interested in the nitty gritty of what my job actually entailed THIS week...

What my job description is:

The Global Operations Intern will assist Grassroot Soccer’s Global Operations team with Africa (Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe) Technical Assistance programming, proposal and budget writing, project reporting, grant management, and administration, and will help ensure that we are communicating with and representing donors and partners in a timely and effective manner. The Global Operations Intern will work closely with the Business Development, Programs, Research & Development, and Finance teams in the preparation, execution, administration, and reporting of all grants. This position will report to the Director of Global Operations.

What my job actually entailed this week:

1. Creating an intern newsletter site so that our class can keep to touch and so that we can easily share stories between sites. Hopefully throughout the year we can use these stories to provide our generous donors and partners with a better picture of what Grassroot Soccer is really doing on the ground!

2. Working alongside Julie to develop an organized system of keeping track of grants, timesheets, expense reports, and everything in between. It was through this that both Julie and I began to realize how much GRS has grown in the past few years. So much money has started to come into the organization that we are barely able to keep up with keeping track of it all. Grassroot Soccer is taking off and Jules and I will hopefully help them in this by setting up a system that will allow money to flow smoothly throughout the organization and keep people on track with what they have to do.

3. Getting to know the ins and outs of the organization on every level! I sat in on a number of conference calls about business development, the current status of Grassroot Soccer finances, global programs, Sales Force (Grassroot Soccer's database), and much more. I have a LOT to learn and hopefully next week I'll be spending some time in Khayelitsha to get a better sense of how our programs are being implemented on the ground. I hope to take this knowledge and apply it to my understanding of how our global programs (in a number of other countries throughout Southern Africa) work.

4. ORGANIZING THE STOCK ROOM. Julie and I, who are clearly both organization freaks, have taken on the world's craziest warehouse full of gear from Nike. Grassroot Soccer, again because it grew so quickly!, had a crazy stock room piled with boxes upon boxes of cleats, turfs, RED laces, balls, shorts, etc. etc. that Julie and I have decided to organize and log so that we can come up with a system of how our programs can consistently use all of this great stuff! I’m pretty sure a much bigger project is going to be coming out of this so check back for more information in the future…Below is the stock room that we spent over 7 hours creating:













Needless to say, things have been going differently than I anticipated which is I guess expected at a nonprofit.

Yes, Grassroot Soccer is the COOLEST

Okay, so all of that being said (I feel like I just kind of ripped on my one true love) GRS is a pretty unbelievable organization. Things that prove this:



The future…

Grassroot Soccer is about to TAKE OFF. Every day walking into the office I can feel that GRS is going to be a trendsetter for the ‘Sport for Social Development’ movement. With every new graduate (as of this week 350,000 kids have gone through the Grassroot Soccer curriculum!!!!!… We are aiming for 1 million by 2014!) you can feel the organization picking up steam and gaining more followers.



The people…

Everyone is so, so interesting! One example: Taylor, who is sadly about to head out, went to Stanford, has worked with Grassroot Soccer for 5 years, is training for the Iron Man competition, and is heading to Oxford to get his MBA. I could go on and on, but might just have to create a “get to know Grassroot Soccer” part of my blog to give you the full understanding of the incredible staff I’m working alongside.

The vibe…

Walking up the staircase I get high fives from other employees. In the coffee room Vernon, another staff member, introduced himself and gave me a hug instead of a handshake. Every person has made an effort to know my name and get to know a bit of my story.

The office space…

I promise a picture is soon to come.

Other tidbits from my day-to-day life…

1. My house

I’m living in a great two-story house/apartment that is an easy 10-minute walk from work. I live with 7 other interns (sadly Tim is heading to Mtubatuba soon) and share a room with Margaret. We have spotty Internet, lots of beanbags, a great tanning deck, and no TV, all of which result in hours of talking, getting to know each other, sharing music, and just laughing. It is awesome. Below are some pictures of our upstairs.. They really don't do it justice..

2. My walk home from work

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

3. Biscuit Mill Market

Imagine an open-air market in Brooklyn… on steroids. After a full week of work I took this Saturday to explore the Biscuit Mill Market that runs from 8-4 every Saturday. This place is incredible. Abigail, a hilarious woman born and raised in South Africa, described it to me as “the posh place to be on the weekends where you have to be just a little bit grunge to fit in and that will make you fall in love with everything Cape Town” and boy was she spot on. Beautiful people, international crowd, amazing fashion, and the food…Was unreal. Banana and Nutella crepes, bries galour, local red wines, fresh vegetables, spicy red pestos, falafel stands… You name it, it was at this market.

OFFICIALLY IN CAPE TOWN

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa!!! It has only been a week and a day since I started orientation in Hanover, NH, but based on how I feel, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me that I’ve been with Grassroot Soccer for over a month.

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.

Taken from http://www.berm.co.nz/cgi-bin/postershop/item.cgi?i=3447712&l=1&cu=CAD since I didn’t have my camera with me this day.

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…

The ladies of the house

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:

Reaching the bottom at 8:40am refreshed and ready for some food, we all piled into the car only to find that our tire was flat. Margaret and Tim drove it back down to the gas station and the rest of us wandered down the hill and stumbled upon a cute little chocolate shop with some incredible chocolates.

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.