The Namibian Sunrise

This week has been completely exhausting, but even more rewarding. I have been helping lead a training that will train 20 NAWA Volunteers to deliver the 14 practice curriculum to soccer teams around Namibia. Lets just say it is tough to help facilitate a training on something that you have just been a part of for one week.

First, Namibia is absolutely beautiful. I can honestly say I have never seen a prettier/clear sky in my life. And one of my goals while I am in Africa is to start running on a consistent basis. SO this week, I got started.. everyday but Thursday I would be running at 6ish. So I got to see a few sunrises and that is when I took the photos. It is the desert, but it is beautiful, on the 40 minute drive there and back today I wanted to sing the LION KING theme song!!

The guest house that I have been staying at in Okahanja has been so nice, it would be a great place to relax (but I worked most of the week) and it has the most amazing breakfast. As far as lunch and dinner go, we have been eating where the training has been. Needless to say, breakfast was by far my favorite, and I have eaten more meat in the last week then I have in the last month. Namibians like their meat!!! I opted out of eating the goat vertebrae, but that seemed to bother some of the participants, so even though my stomach is a little frustrated at me, I continued to eat meat.

One of the things I have been struggling with greatly, is the overwhelming emotions/defeat that I have felt in regards to the HIV/AIDS epidemic here in Africa. It is one thing to watch it on the TV or read about it in a book, but the actually be in a mix where one in every five people has the disease is absolutely overwhelming. In my life, prior to coming here I did not know anyone personally that carried the disease. However, here everyone has a family member or close friend that has HIV or has died from HIV. At the coaches training there was one girl that was HIV positive. She shared her story with me and it literally broke my heart! The way she found out was similar to the way that many women do; they find out in routine pregnancy check-ups. Now her 3 year old daughter is living with HIV and she is so hopeful and so responsible with taking the medications and giving them to her daughter; she really can be an advocate for people trying to coach with their HIV Status.

It also incorporates things like praising the participants (Telling them what they did, Labeling it with words other than that was good, and Celebrating it), how to create a safe space (where people feel open to share private conversations), making personal connections with all participants and how to facilitate vital conversations where participants are discussing the real issues at hand instead of just what the “correct” or “book” answer. It is rare that one gets to have such in-depth conversations with people, but this is what this week was all about. I had some of the best, most informative conversations that I have ever been apart of; and though I can not share them with you, lets just say it gave me a lot of hope and excitement about what I am doing here and what my goals are here in Africa.

But also with all of the talking we got to play in some fun games that include soccer, like HIV Attacks (dodge ball) where the person in the middle is a HUMAN while another participant is the immune system. In this game you stand in a circle and try to throw the ball at the Human who cannot move but the immune system can run around and protect the human. Then you add another person who represents HIV and the HIV latches on to the Immune System and it makes it a lot easier to hit the Human with the ball. Then you add in ARV (treatment) to hold onto the HIV so that the immune system can protect the Human again. However, at the end of the game HIV gets back a hold of the Immune System and the ARV’s and the Human is again left unprotected.

We played a lot of different games through out the week: Circumcise and Condomize, Risk Field, Fact Fitness, My supporters, Break-Away, Team Handball, Choices, Healthy vs Unhealthy Behaviors, and Gender Fishbowl. I have provided some pictures of risk field and Circumcise and Condomize.

The Gender Fishbowl activity is really neat because you separate the girls and boys into two groups. The girls go first and the boys just listen to questions about (being a female growing up in Namibia, what men could do to respect women more and so on). Then they switch and the men do the same discussion. It is really

neat to hear the perspective of men. If this activity would be done in the US it would be totally different, but here where women are inferior to men; especially when multiple concurrent partners is so common and is fueling the HIV epidemic.

One thing that we got to do was play in a scrimmage game between the best all male team in Okahanja. First, they were not happy that I

was playing. Even though I didn’t do anything but run around and chase the ball (everyone is a little quicker than me.. or a lot quicker) they were not happy that a “lady” was playing. And we beat them, it was so fun!! We called ourselves CHAR-SEN-POOL-UNITED !!!

So, tomorrow, I am taking a bus with Taylor (a Grassroot Soccer Employee) to the beach. We don’t know where we are going to stay or what we are going to do. This is a little different for me as I normally plan things out. But I will take pictures and keep you posted.

Also, I would like to give a shout out to the TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS, good luck in your game, and may this season be better than last!!