So this week was so much fun. I really got to act like a kid for a majority of the week. I spent Monday and Tuesday in the office and the remainder of the week at a Holiday Camp in Khayelitsha. I hiked Table Mountain on Saturday, and watched 2 Lord of the Rings movies and went for an hour long bike ride on Sunday. I don’t think there is any better way to spend a week. I will go through the soccer camp first and then talk about my hiking table mountain experience (which both was amazing in two separate ways).
Khayelitsha is located on the outskirts of Cape Town, it is a Township where the people suffer from extreme poverty. It takes about 40 minutes to drive out to this area and driving out on the left had side are these amazing mountains and beautiful country and then on the right side extreme poverty, people living in shacks.Before I start talking about the camp and how amazing it was, I have a few thoughts that I would like to share with you. Khayelitsha has poverty everywhere, it is hard to even describe what it looks like, it is something that you have to experience personally to understand. What is crazy though is how the more time you spend in an area; how use you get to the surroundings. Over the last couple of days I have driven in and out of areas in this township and there became a sense of normality to me by Friday. The first time I was in Khayelitsha it broke my heart to see all of the people, barely clothed, so skinny and living in conditions that so terrible that it is hard to explain. But as I was driving around this week I was so caught up in trying to get here and there that I got use too it; it just became part of the routine for me. I am glad that I caught myself doing this so that I could continue to see things the way the really are.
The greatest thing about working at the holiday camp was interacting with the kids. Holiday Camps are similar to sports camps in the US on spring break or over the summer. This camp started on Monday and finished Friday afternoon. It started at 10 am and finished around two or three depending on the day. When the kids arrive they do a large activity together that lasts for about 30 minutes, then they break into groups of 20 kids and go through a GRS practice..
In the day I got to join in this part the kids did find the ball for the first practice. This is a game where you have the kids line up in two separate lines where they are facing each other. You have the kids pass the ball behind their backs for a minute or so. Then each team tries to pick which team has the ball. This activity shows kids that they can’t tell who has HIV just by looking at them, that the only way to know if someone has HIV is to get tested.
Next the kids play in a short sided soccer game, 5 vs 5. They play two ten minute halves and you can score points by playing fair and scoring. It is amazing how passionate these kids are about soccer and winning. They were all so competitive; it really reminded me of my younger days going to soccer camp during spring break. However, these kids are a lot better than I ever was at that age. There was one girl who was really good who was playing in her high heels, I can barely walk in those things, and she is running around playing soccer.
At the Holiday Camp lunch is provided for the participants and for the coaches. So after the morning is lunch time. The kids would have soup and two pieces of bread. There is a little difference in the soup here than the soup I grew up on. It is a lot thicker but one of the coaches really wanted me to have some soup on one of the days, so I folded. Man it taste so different, but I was thankful for it!!
After lunch the kids get into their groups again and go through another GRS practice. The afternoon session was high risk vs low risk. It asks questions about behaviors like drinking alcohol and whether that puts you at higher risk for contracting HIV (whether the behavior is a high risk, low risk or no risk). It sparked some interesting questions and I was so impressed with how intelligent these kids are about HIV. The thing I was most impressed with was how the coach whose group I was in told the kids that sex is for adults and that they are just kids. He acknowledged that knowing how to protect yourself against HIV is important but that it was important to wait and enjoy just being a kid. It was an amazing conversation and even though it wasn’t in English I could understand what was going on. It is moments like this that you realize how important the work that we are doing is. After this session the kids got to play in another round of 5 vs 5, which is always fun to watch.
After the game they bring all the kids together and do the good things for the day and the bad things. This helps to know what kids enjoyed, but also to know what the facilitators could improve on. But usually there are more pros than cons, and that is what you want.
So at the end of the week, Friday, we do a graduation of all of the kids. This was really fun to be a part of. I got to put hats on all of the kids when they came up and got there certificate. Lets just say I yelled as loud as I could for about two hours to make sure that each kid got cheered for. They also played music in the background so I got to dance around with all of the coaches it was really fun. Aside from that what makes it fun, is how proud the kids feel when they hear their name called, it was a sense of accomplishment. The graduation ceremony was amazing to be a part of.
After the graduation we had a dance competition that I got selected to be a part of. I got hummilated by a 13 year old girl, but it was totally worth it!!! The graduation ceremony really was awesome!! And it helps to remind me how impressionable kids are and how important it is to make them feel special!! This graduation was different because GRS had its SKILLZ DVD premier party at the graduation. SKILLZ is the title of the curriculum that GRS produces and they created a DVD to give to all the coaches to help them deliver the curriculum effectively. It was so awesome, they had the 21 kids that were in the DVD there and they got to watch the DVD and hang out with a professional soccer play from South Africa
This truly was an inspirational week!! It was nice to just be able to help all of the other interns out with their projects and be around all of the kids. Then to cap it off I hiked Table Mountain on Saturday. It is Sunday night right now and even after my relaxing bike ride my legs are still burning. This is byfar the hardest hike I have ever done. It was like walking up a never ending stairway of steep rocks. I hiked up the face or Platteklip George, which is like climbing the steepest stair way ever!!
The neat thing about Table Mountain is the top of it is flat and you can walk around and enjoy the view. I also ate the best hamburger I have had in a long time. I needed it because it took 2.5 hours to hike up and 1 hour to hike down. You can see all sides of Cape Town from the top of the mountain and it is amazingly beautiful. It isn’t a hike I would want to do everyday, but it was definitely worth it. We shall see if I will do it again; maybe I will hike up the back, which is a little less steep. The best part about being at the top was all the tourist that took the cable car up; they look so put together, in skirts and make-up. While I was covered in sweat and exhausted.
One thing that made it so amazing was to see all of the people going up and down, with vary different physical fitness levels. One of the guys we passed said he wished he was young again and told me not to take any moment for granted. Although I feel for the most part, I don’t, but it is always good to be reminded to live every moment of life the way you want too.
Love you all
Sarah
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