So what is Grassroot Soccer? Well, let me tell you...

Alright, I think I’ve been putting this off long enough. Finally, it’s here… my Grassroot Soccer post!!! Please read, ask questions, click on links and get excited! I know it’s long and information-heavy, but it’s really cool stuff so try and read it if possible. I’ll include links too incase I suck at explaining things. You’ll finally be able to understand what I’m doing, who I’m working with and why I’m so excited about it all the time.

So Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is a non-profit organization started by four professional soccer players that uses the power of soccer to educate kids about HIV/AIDS. Soccer is a universal language across the world and is something that gets people of all ages excited and interested. Everywhere you go, no matter how rich or poor, you can always find people playing soccer… even if the ball is made of bundled up grocery bags and fishing line (which was the case in Kenya). In the words of the great Michelle Obama, “soccer is the hook.”

GRS facilitates the learning of life skills and HIV knowledge through interactive soccer-based activities. Topics covered in interventions (or “practices”) vary based on the age group and the curriculum being implemented. Our main programs are SKILLZ Core, Generation SKILLZ and SKILLZ Street. SKILLZ Core is our original curriculum that targets kids ages 12-14 and mainly focuses on HIV knowledge and reducing stigmas surrounding the disease. These kids are pretty young still so the program is trying to catch them before they develop risky behavior. Generation SKILLZ is for kids ages 15-19 and addresses the main contributors of the spread of HIV: multiple concurrent partners, intergenerational sex and gender based violence.  In a really cool (for lack of a better word) study conducted in partnership with GRS, we found that 29.1% of grade-nine boys reported having perpetrated rape, while 37.6% reported having committed intimate partner violence. That means almost 30% of 16yr old boys have raped someone. It’s so hard to wrap your head around. Gender norms and GBV are such huge issues that we’re trying to address. This brings me to SKILLZ Street, our all-girls program. SKILLZ Street addresses girls aged 12-16 and focuses on empowering girls with HIV and sexual and reproductive health knowledge. SKILLZ Street lets girls know that their opinion is just as important as a man’s and they have the power to say no. This program is so incredible and important that in 2012 it was named by Women Deliver 50 “one of the most innovative ideas and solutions that is being delivered for girls and women around the globe.” All these programs are facilitated by local youth role models who are trained as GRS coaches. Using people from the community makes the program sustainable and relatable.

Example of a practice activity:
In an activity called Risk Field, participants dribble a soccer ball in between cones representing HIV-related risks - multiple partners, drug/alcohol abuse, etc. If one player hits a cone, he and his teammates must complete 3 pushups, showing how the consequences of one person's risk can not only affect him, but also his friends, family and community. 

We have other programs as well that target different age groups or that have specific outcomes, but I think you all get the idea of what we do and how needed these programs are. Also, GRS is pretty awesome at doing what we do. Let me brag a little, here are some of our awards:

• ·      Charity Navigator Four-Star Rating (highest rating) (2011 and 2012)
• ·      Charity Navigator Top Ten List of Charities Expanding in a Hurry (2011 and 2012)
• ·      CommPro.biz list of “Ten Leading Socially Engaged Nonprofits“, 2012
• ·      GRS South Africa: Finalist, Sport for Health Category, Beyond Sport Awards, 2011
• ·      Winner, Nike/Ashoka Sports for a Better World Collaborative Competition, 2008 (GRS was named one of the three most innovative, effective, and sustainable organizations in the Sports for Development Field, out of 382 organizations entered from 69 countries)

Pretty impressive, right? We also are funded by some amazing organizations including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nike, Elton John Aids Foundation, USAID, Barclays, FIFA, M.A.C. AIDS and UNICEF… just to name a few.

Another thing I think is really unique and awesome about GRS is that we have a monitoring and evaluation team and a research and development team who are continually making sure our programs are working. They administer pre and post-tests at every intervention to make sure that the kids are learning and to see if there are any areas we should improve on. This level of data collection is almost unheard of for a non-profit to do and has enabled us to present our findings at conferences around the world.

So as I’ve mentioned before, I’m the Business Development intern and get to have my hands in a lot of different areas. I get to help find cool organizations to give us some $$$ like the ones above, as well as write concept notes and grant proposals about our curriculum. I’m even helping to create new marketing materials and plan events. It’s a lot, but I love it and the work keeps me motivated. As one of the coaches in Khayelitsha told me, “we’re in the business of saving lives.” Damn.

Sorry for rambling on, but I hope you made it this far in the post and maybe learned something new. I realize I should have done this right when I got here, but I know way more know than I did at the beginning... and better late than never right? I'm totally not doing all we do justice either, so I encourage you to go on the website and look around for yourselves.

Here is the link to the website: http://www.grassrootsoccer.org
And hey, check the interns and me out! We're on the website too :) http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/who-we-are/our-team/current-grassroot-soccer-interns/

Eating and Drinking my Way Through Cape Town

Another great week in Cape Town. I’ll try and keep this one short and sweet, because as my parents said, “you know you don’t have to write a novel, right?”

Here are some highlights, and if you can't tell by the title, there was a lot of food and wine this week: 

At work I’ve been working on some exciting projects including writing two grant proposals which will, cross your fingers, get us some money to help implement two awesome projects. Below is a video Ali, another intern/roommate, and I made for a separate grant proposal we submitted. These two girls, Sony and Athi, are from Khayelitsha and spoke about how AIDS was affecting their community and how something needed to be done.  It’s pretty unusual to submit a video with a grant but I think it turned out well and will be really impactful for the foundation to see.

On Tuesday it was a full moon, which I guess are a semi-big deal here? Ali, Susie (a short-term volunteer), and I went on the popular moonlight hike up Lion’s Head. We got made fun of a little at the office for doing something “so touristy,” but it worked out perfectly because it was a little overcast and is still winter here so it really wasn’t too crowded at all. We even brought wine, cheese, crackers and cookies up and had a nighttime picnic at the top. We stayed up for a while enjoying ourselves and ended up being the last ones left, which was both awesome and slightly scary.

Had to use the self-timer since we were the only ones left

Home

Wine and cheese at the summit

It was yet another great weekend here in CT. Friday I ate a burger the size of my head, and I’m not exaggerating. It was one of those super hipster places (everyone loves to hate on hipsters here, it’s funny) that only makes 50 burgers a night and you write your name on a chalkboard wall to order. It was definitely an experience.

I don't think this picture does it justice 

Saturday we went out to Khayelitsha to support another non-profit, Waves for Change, that held the first-ever surf competition there. It’s crazy that there is a beach so close to this gigantic township yet nobody ever goes there or knows how to swim. They’re doing some great work getting these kids involved in a hobby like surfing to keep them away from gangs and the dangers of Khayelitsha.

Khayelitsha beach 

We went straight from there to the great Mzoli’s! This place is kinda hard to explain, I was confused about it until I got there, but I’ll try my best.  Pretty much you go to this tiny butcher shop, tell them the kind of meat you want and how many people you have, and then you go next door to this big tent and drink until your meat is ready. Once it’s done it they serve it on a big metal platter, or in a plastic bucket depending on how many people you have, and then dig in with your fingers. It’s a really cool because it’s one of the few places where you can find any type of person (black, white, colored, local, tourist, expat, student), which is really unusual here. And yes, those are the politically correct terms. Anyway, we drank, ate and danced the day away and made plenty of new friends. If any of you come visit, a Mzoli’s trip might be in your future.

Sunday I was treated to a day in Constantia, part of wine country, by a co-worker of one of our family friends, the Wrights. I was spoiled to breakfast and lunch at two beautiful cellars with a nice walk in between. It was extremely nice of them to bring me along and it made me realize just how much I have yet to see of Cape Town. This is such a beautiful place.

Cellars-Hoenhort

Well this was definitely not short and sweet, so apologies for my novel-length blog posts.  Oops. I’m working on it. I’m also going to start to work on my GRS post (I realize I’ve said this before), I can’t wait to tell you about what I’m actually doing and this awesome organization I get to be a part of. I want to do it justice, which is why I’m taking so long to write about it, but I’ll make it happen “now now.” (In South Africa, “now now” is equivalent to saying, “soon” when there is no definitive time frame or end. As in, “Dad, are we there yet?” “Be quiet, we’ll be there now now.”)

Hope you all had a great week, and special birthday shout-outs to Sara Sutyak and Katie Pope! And happy birthday week to me, woo!

Braai's and Baboons

So Monday of this week was our last day of orientation and we went out to the site in Khayelitsha to learn more about the Football For Hope Center. The site staff sat down with us and told us what they do, the challenges they face and the successes they've had. It’s so cool to see how much they love their jobs as well as how knowledgeable they are about all the programs. They're a pretty incredible group of people. After our meeting they took us to our first Braai. A Braai is like a barbeque at home with tons of meat and alcohol (we obviously didn’t drink at this one), but they cook over coals instead of a flame. Who knows what kind of meat they were making but it was delicious. You just pick it apart with your hands, put it on some bread and dig in. It was a very “local” experience.

Mystery meat?

Some pickup soccer at the center after lunch

Tuesday was our first official day of work and it was great. The office is so fun but we also get a lot of work done; it’s a very collaborative feel bc you can practically talk to anyone in the office right from your desk since the space is wide open. The other day it was super rainy and we were all kinda sleepy, so some of the guys got out their vuvuzelas and made the whole office gather in one of the conference rooms to do push-ups and squats to wake up. The day before I think there was some Indian leg-wrestling going on. I’m really excited about my position and have already been put on some awesome projects where I have a good amount of responsibility. I can already tell that I’m going to learn so much this year. BD (Business Development) is a really fun place to be since we interact with almost every other department. I think my projects will have a lot of variety and I’ll get to work with a lot of different people. Is it weird that I like work so much? I know I still have to do a whole GRS post; it’ll come.

I think it’s safe to say that this weekend was a huge success. We started of Saturday at Old Biscuit Mill again… I don’t think it will ever get old. Oh and small world, I sat down at a huge table at the market and the family next to me was from Utah! They lived there for the past 7 years and the daughters went to Rowland Hall. So weird. Anyway, after lunch we piled in the intern car, a beautiful and odd Toyota Avanza, and went on a little road trip. Our first stop was Muizenburg beach, a very popular spot for surfers as well as sharks. They have shark spotters and flags to dictate how many are in the area that day, pretty sure the surfers could care less though. I’ll be staying out of the water. After that we made a pit stop in Simon’s Town to see our first African animal, the penguin! I think we could have watched them waddle around forever; those are some cute animals. 

Yummmm

Muizenburg Beach

Shark Spotters

Pretending to be penguins

Real penguins!

It started pouring rain but we continued on to our final destination, the Cape of Good Hope!! This might have been one of the coolest things I’ve done. The national park consists of wide-open terrain and then cliffs and beaches on both sides. We parked the car and practically ran up to Cape Point to try and beat the rain… but failed. Cape Point was so windy but totally worth braving the weather to see. From the top you could look out and see both oceans, Atlantic and Indian, at the same time. It was awesome and the weather made it an even more dramatic experience.

Working our way to the top

So windy but so happy

Two oceans at one time

We were about to head out of the park when Anna, an intern who studied abroad in Cape Town and was our tour guide for the day, suggested we just check out this road really quickly before the park closed. It was the best decision of the day by far. Immediately after turning on the road we came across a huge pack of baboons just hanging out and walking along side the car. After we took hundreds of pictures sticking out of the car, we drove about 2 minutes and came across three ostriches! We got so close you probably could have petted them out of the window… it wouldn’t have been a wise decision but the option was there. At the end of the road there it was, Cape of Good Hope! Cape Point was windy, but Cape of Good Hope was the strongest wind I’ve ever experienced in my life. When I climbed up to the tallest rock and stood up it almost knocked me over, you kinda had to lean back into the wind in order not to fall forward. Spit was coming out of my mouth and tears out of my eyes, but it was so exhilarating and beautiful that it didn’t matter. It was one of those moments I'll never forget... along with the hour leading up to it. In case any of you are wondering, Cape Point is near where the two oceans collide, and Cape of Good Hope is the pseudo-southernmost tip of Africa. I say pseudo because everyone thinks it’s the most southern part of Africa but it’s actually some random point that nobody cares about… so we’ll just pretend it’s Cape of Good Hope.  Needless to say, it was an awesome day. We were some happy kids.

Baboons! And a baby!

Ostrich and the ocean

On top of Cape of Good Hope!

Chillin by our car

Today, Sunday, we ventured out to the University of Cape Town and had our first minibus experience. A minibus is a big van and is used as public transportation around the city. It costs R8 ($0.80) and they have designated routes but will only go once the whole minibus is full, so you can end up waiting there for a while. Also, there is someone who yells out the passenger seat to people on the sidewalk about where the bus is going so they can pick people up along the way. Its kinda crazy but hopefully we’ll get the hang of using them since they’re so cheap. After wandering around UCT we ended the day playing pickup by the world cup stadium, not too shabby.

University of Cape Town

Our first minibus experience!

Soccer by the world cup stadium

Sending lots of love to you all! On to the next week...

First Week In My New Home!

I’ve only been here less than a week? This place is already starting to feel like home. I’m sure there will still be a lot of adjustments and hard times, but it’s a good start. This week has been orientation for us interns and we’ve packed a lot into each day so far.

First, our office is awesome. The physical building is such a cool space, but everyone in it is even cooler. For example, upon arrival the whole office gathered in the common space and we had a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. Each day we have had presentations from all the departments so that we can get to know even more about GRS… I still have some studying to do though. Last night I felt like I was in college, falling asleep in bed while reading documents and taking notes. I’m a Business Development Intern, the first they’ve ever had, and am really excited about my position. I have a TON to learn, but my boss is great and it’s a brand new department so we can really form this whole new section of GRS. It also involves working a lot with the Communication and Marketing team, which is a little more up my alley. For lunch we’ve done walking tours and pick new places to sit and eat and a lot of the staff comes along. The very top people in the company even make and effort to come hang out with us lowly interns. Also, nobody has their own office so everyone is really accessible and willing to answer questions.

Artsy shot of the decals on the windows

Conference room

GRS Headquarters

I’m obviously excited about work, but life outside work has been good too. I have four roommates (Ali, Kat, Betsey and Jeff), and we live in Gordon House. Kloof house is where the other interns live and is much fancier and has and INCREDIBLE view from their crazy deck… but ours is much homier. And we have a cool garage? We also have Roxy’s down the street, which is a great little bar with 10R drinks aka $1 beers. It’s our new spot.

Kloof house deck with view of Table Mountain

Roommates at Roxy's our first night in Cape Town

Home sweet home

Our street

For one of our orientation days we got to climb Lion’s Head, one of the many mountains in Cape Town. Needless to say, the views were incredible. I’m definitely going to have to do it a few times this year. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Friday of this week was a national holiday, Women’s Day, so we had the day off work. GRS was hosting a HCT (HIV Counseling and Testing) clinic out in Khayelitsha (a huge and very poor township) so almost all of us decided to go out and see it. In honor of Women’s Day, this HCT consisted of soccer and netball tournaments only for girls. In order to encourage testing at the event, teams get three points for winning a game and then each team member that gets tested gets an additional two points for their team. Almost all the teams got tested plus their coaches and people that just came to watch too. I helped take some teams to get tested and you could see how nervous and scared many of the girls were. It was a pretty incredible event. It was also finally sunny so everyone was in a good mood and there was lots of singing and dancing involved.

FIFA Football for Hope Center (FIFA promised to build 20 football fields in different cities for the World Cup, GRS is in charge of this one and two others)

Trophies for the winners

Girls playing netball

Where people got tested

The winners of the tournament

Spontaneous dance circle

Last night we had our first family dinner over at Kloof and made our way out on the town. Then this morning some of us went to our first Old Biscuit Mill market… it’s my new favorite thing. It is this outdoor/indoor market with tons of amazing food, drinks, and clothes/jewelry. I loved it. I think it will take me all year to try everything out, but that’s something I’m more than willing to do.

For those of you wondering about Cape Town, it’s an awesome city. It rained our first couple days here, (it is winter after all) so I’m just starting to realize how beautiful it is. It’s right on the water and is surrounded by mountains. It kinda has a European feel, but a lot of people have also compared it to San Francisco. It is definitely a city of extremes as well. There is so much wealth in places yet unbelievable poverty in others. Just driving 20 min away feels like a whole new city. Not only is there contrasting wealth, but there are different languages (English, Xhosa and Afrikaans), multiple different types of outlets (this drives me crazy… why do I have to use converters with things I buy here?), contrasting architecture, and the mixture of modernity and more traditional “Africa” culture. It seems like it’s a city, or maybe even country, trying to find its identity. The food here is great so far though and they love avocados, gouda cheese and coffee… all my favorite things! There is also a surprising prevalence of burgers, it seems like every menu has a burger on it… then again I’ve only been to like 4 restaurants so that might be a bit of a generalization. Vegetarian options are easy to come by as well so I'm a happy lady. This week I'm hoping to explore the city a bit more so hopefully I'll have some more insight for you all.

Missing everyone and hope things are good where ever in the world you are! Download Viber so we can text, and come visit!!!

Sharp sharp