I'm still here!

First of all, let me apologize for dropping off the face of the earth this last month.  But I AM in Africa, so I’ve been out doing things I can now write about.  Good internet access continues to be a precious commodity, but I will try to be better about sending out quick updates more often. 

Now that I have your attention (and you have mine), I don’t even know where to begin to recap the last month.  Still loving Memel.  Still meeting great people.  Starting to feel like I know how to put together a successful soccer practice.  Struggling at times with the language barrier, especially when trying to implement some sort of discipline to get through the drills we have planned, but also recognizing that the structure of having practice itself is a big positive for the girls and some giggly chaos in the middle is inevitable and always fun.  The girls are so great.  They love just hanging out and talking, finding out about America and teaching us bits of Zulu.  I’ve learned enough basic greeting vocabulary to get some big smiles (and hopefully respect) from people my age and older that I meet in town or at the mens soccer games. 

A couple of weeks ago the five of us from the yellow house rented a car and went to Durban for the weekend.  We got some good beach time on the Indian Ocean, went to the Victorian St. Market and bartered for some gifts and souvenirs, and stayed at a nice hostel.  Before leaving on Sunday, we went to one of the World Cup stadiums.  We got tickets for a monorail ride which I thought was going to take us up into the stadium, but it was actually on top.  Amazing views of the city and the ocean, but unfortunately I never even got a glimpse of the field.  Oh well.

This past Sunday Hannah and I went to Pretoria with Steven and Cindy.  They have a beautiful house there in a suburb that overlooks the city from a hill.  It was an amazing and well-timed vacation from small town life and we were completely pampered.  They dropped Hannah and me off in the city to explore during the day and then we met up at night for dinner and a movie at the theater.   Steven left from Pretoria to go to Zimbabwe and we left Tuesday morning to make it back for our afternoon soccer, but on the highway about half way between Pretoria and Johannesburg the clutch on their huge Land Cruiser went out and the car completely died before we could make it back to the house (or to a safe spot on the high way).  We got stuck in the break down lane about 100 yards from an on ramp and Cindy had Hannah and me get out of the car and indicate to cars coming on the highway that they had to merge immediately so as not to hit the car.  Eventually a tow truck came by, had to call a bigger one because of how heavy our car was, towed us up to a safer spot in the road and finally brought a bigger truck with a trailer to put the car on.  After lots of hanging out on the high way and the car shop, we rented a car and headed back to Pretoria for the night.  In the end, I was pretty excited to have one more night of luxury.

            Annie, Keiko, Garrett, and Aleta head back to the States on Wednesday to finish their masters program.  It will be so quite without them in the house, but Cindy and Steven are already planning some trips for us and we will probably have the soccer girls over to the house more often.  Last Saturday we had about 12 girls from grade 4 over for the afternoon.  We got some snacks and ice cream and tried to watch a movie with them, but ended up just going outside and running around/playing.  They are so easy to please and it’s such a fun way to spend what could otherwise be a long, boring day. 

I uploaded a ton of photos to facebook.  I tried to do a picassa album as well for people without facebook, but had trouble with the upload.  I will try to do that as soon as I can.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on here or sent me emails!  I hope you all know how much it means to hear from you and I am so sorry if it takes me a long time to respond.  Love to everyone!!

Week 2

I will write more soon, but here are some photos from yesterday and today.  Yesterday, Steven and his friend John Clark took Hannah and I on a long drive to see the country side and run a couple of errands.  We stopped and had lunch at a lion park.  Typically there are lion cubs there that you can play with, but they wont have any for another week or two so we'll have to go back another time.  Still, it was amazing to see the big lions up close.  This morning, we went to Zamani, the township outside of Memel to see a soccer game that our housmate Tedmore and friends Wesley and Evidence were playing in.

These boys helped us carry the soccer stuff home so we let them pick apples from our tree.

Watching the soccer game in Zamani.

The player on the right with the ball is our friend Wesley who is from Zimbabwe and works for Steven and Cindy.

Tedmore enters the game!

After the game, people/animals take over field

Lions relaxing in the shade

Pictures

Our house, known as "the yellow house"

Looking left down our street

Fast friends-- first day of soccer with a very enthusiastic 6th grade

Last night Steven and Cindy held a braai (South African bbq) to welcome us to Memel.  Because there was rain in the forecast, instead of having it at their house it was held at the Memel Hotel, which is the only restaurant/bar in the town.  They've got a great courtyard and indoor dining/ lounge rooms and a pool table.  They had about thirty of their friends and employees there so we got to have some great food, drinks, and meet and hang out with lots of new people.  It was tons of fun.  

We bought the equipment for internet access at our house, but it is incredibly slow, so I'll probably only update this every couple of weeks or so when we come to Newcastle, where we are now.  It's a small city about 40 minutes from Memel with plenty of internet cafes.   On the drive here we saw a bunch of zebras and ostriches and antelope type animals.  It's also about 80 degrees and sunny.  Can't complain.

First few days in Memel!

Hello, all!  After a total of 30 hours of driving, waiting, and flying from door to door, I made it to South Africa!  We got picked up by Steven at the airport in Johannesburg at around 8, then made the three hour drive to Memel, a small rural town in the Free State province.  Between the darkness, fog, and my adrenaline finally skidding to a halt and allowing me to sleep, I had not a clue what I would see when I woke up in the morning and went outside.  It’s pretty overcast—I guess it’s been non-stop rain here recently—but still just beautiful.  Huge sky like out West, very lush and green, lots of vegetation.  The house seems great.  Hannah (the other soccer volunteer) and I share a room, and we share the house with three grad students from SIT who are doing a teaching internship at Memel Primary, as well as a couple from Zimbabwe who do work for Steven and Cindy (the people in charge of us). 

Today (Jan 18) was our first day of soccer with the girls!  Hannah and I are running an after school soccer clinic for grades K-7.  The program is called ShewinS (Sports Helping Empower Women in South Africa) and is designed to give the girls something structured to do after school, as well as develop their self-confidence and leadership skills.  This is the third year Cindy has run the program and it sounds like it has been extremely well-received.  Apparently female enrollment at Memel Primary has gone up drastically in the last couple of years because girls in the area want to come to Memel to play soccer.  This year there are more girls than boys at the school—a first!

Thanks to the great success of the program and its past volunteers, we were greeted like absolute celebrities when we went to the school assembly to be introduced this morning.  After introductions and going over the schedule, the teacher dismissed one class at a time so that they could each come over and say hi to Hannah and me before leaving.  I have never gotten so many smiles and hugs from strangers.  They could not be cuter, friendlier, or more excited to get started! 

In the afternoon we had our first two sessions—first with grade 2, then with grade 6.  Both went really well!  We also had PERFECT weather today.  It was mid-seventies and very sunny... I've got a pretty severe farmer's tan (burn) already.  The hardest part about coaching is probably going to be just figuring out/remembering their names.   Zulu is their first language and most of the sounds that make up their long names are completely unfamiliar.     

I'll try to upload some photos if my slow internet connection allows it.  More soon!