5 Mar 13: GrassRootSoccer Kicks Off, Sarah Goes to Transfrontier and Has a Slumber Party with Lions

Savanna outside Transfrontier Park. Isn't it beautiful?

Hello world! The last week has been soooo busy for me. Busy is good though! Busy means I'm getting something done! Read on to hear about my GrassRootSoccer Club and my trip to the wild and amazing Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park!

Last Thursday was the scheduled kick off day for my GrassRootSoccer Club. To refresh you, GrassRootSoccer (GRS) is a 12-week long after school program developed by an NGO in South Africa specifically for Peace Corps Volunteers. It is a clever way to teach kids life skills and HIV/AIDS messaging using soccer. There really isn't all that much soccer, it is more of a tricky way to get kids to join the club.

I had identified a man in my community, Moilwa, whom I wanted to co-facilitate the club with me. He has a long history of volunteerism including being the village's Alcohol Awareness volunteer for the past 6 months. He is also very unique in that he is albino. Having struggled with bullying and unwanted attention as a youth, I figured that he would really be able to relate to the kids. I approached him over a month ago and he agreed to do the club with me.


Monday last week I tried repeatedly to get ahold of Moilwa to confirm our plans for starting the club. I couldn't get him on the phone and he was nowhere to be found. On Tuesday I was able to reach him and we met at my house. We finalized our plans to begin GRS on Thursday. The Standard 6 and 7 teachers at my school told their students about a new club that was forming. They didn't mention that the club would be run by me so that students wouldn't sign up just to hang out with Maduo. Surprisingly, nearly every student signed up! I was so excited that 45 children, ages 10-14, had signed up for GRS! Unfortunately, I can only run GRS with 20-30 students. I spent all night on Tuesday thinking about how I could tell certain kids that they couldn't be in the club to get the numbers down.

I couldn't bear the thought of letting 20 kids down and on Wednesday morning I had a stroke of genius. I would run the club twice a week with the same lesson plan both days. There would be a group of kids that would come on Tuesday from 4-5 and a group that would come on Thursday from 4-5! Moilwa agreed to help me with the club twice a week and my school seemed to like the idea. I went around from class to class telling the kids on which day they should come. They were SO excited.

Thursday rolled around and I was beyond nervous! In the morning, I administered a pre-test for monitoring and evaluation purposes. That afternoon at 3:45 I had 22 of the most excited kids in the world waiting for me behind the school. Moilwa showed up and he was excited too! We started off our practice by talking about what we would be doing for the next 12 weeks. We made a giant contract agreeing to respect each other, actively participate, and be leaders in our community. I signed it, Moilwa signed it, and the kids signed it. Then we did an activity called Pass the Ball. We don't have any small balls so we used wads of paper, which was fine. In Pass the Ball, the children break into two groups and stand shoulder to shoulder with their hands behind their back. They pass a ball from one kid to another for about a minute. At the end of the minute someone from the other team has to guess who is holding ball just by looking at them. Of course, they couldn't tell who had the ball. So the lesson for our first practice was that you cannot tell someone's HIV status by looking at them, just as the kids couldn't tell who was holding the ball by looking at them. We concluded our practice with a discussion about the lesson and then we decided on a team name: the Tshane Springboks. 

I hung around after practice to interact with the kids and get to know them. I think it's safe to say that the first practice of the GrassRootSoccer Club went off without a hitch. I have to say that huddling up and yelling "AAAHHH! Springboks!" was by far the most moving experience I have had here. This afternoon, I will be leading the first practice for the other group of kids and I am pumped. The amazing thing about GRS is that the NGO gives you a soccer ball and all of the coaching materials. The plan for each practice is laid out word for word. It is high energy and it gets the kids thinking. My favorite part is the praise aspect of it. Praise is something that kids don't get here so it's important that when someone does something great or answers a question that we praise them. The way that praise is given by the team in GRS is using kilos. Kilos are high energy, loud cheers. So when I say "CAN I GET A KILO?!?!" all of the kids do the kilo, which goes like this: "*clap, clap, clap* *clap, clap, clap* SKILLZ" When they yell "SKILLZ" they make an "S" shape with their hand and wiggle their body. Skillz represents the skills we are learning as a team.

So anyway, that's GRS. I can't tell you how happy I am that it is working out. 90% of the projects that PCV's attempt end up failing. I am having a string of successes and I hope it lasts! This Friday, I am giving my first health talk at Tshane Prison. From 2-3 pm I will be doing an HIV/AIDS activity with the prisoners that demonstrates what happens to your body after infection with HIV. It uses pictures of bacteria, HIV virus, and T4 cells taped to a volunteer's body to demonstrate how your viral load goes up, T4 count goes down, etc. I haven't done this activity before but I am really looking forward to trying it out on them. It teaches through visual aids rather than just auditory methods.

Plans have been finalized for a wellness workshop at the Meteorology Station on March 19th. I will be teaching the meteorology employees about financial management and budgeting, stress management, and anger management. Next week I am supposed to attend a Ministry of Education workshop in the capital but it will likely be cancelled.

Setting out on the road to Transfrontier. Cows do not care
about you and your car!

Camping in Zutswa.

Mosaarwa man dancing around the fire.

Now for the most exciting thing that happened to me last week: I went on a game drive in the Transfrontier Park. Like everything else here, it didn't go exactly as planned. The PCV living in Hukuntsi, Pam, met a Greek volunteer based in South Africa. He wanted to go on a game drive so they arranged a trip to the Transfrontier Park and invited me. We were scheduled to leave early Friday morning but on Thursday our driver wrecked his truck. On Thursday night, the Greek guy (his name is Lefteris) met a man who was willing to take us. I got up at 4am Friday morning, exercised, packed, and sat waiting to be picked up. The man who was supposed to drive us never showed up so again the trip was cancelled. Around 3pm I got a phone call that a colleague of Pam's had agreed to take us so the trip was back on. After rounding up all the volunteers, we set off for the park. Because we left so late in the day we had to camp in Zutswa, about 70km from the park entrance. We camped in the yard of the mother of one of our friends in Hukuntsi. She was a gracious hostess providing us with a campfire and chairs to sit in. A couple of Basaarwa people (the politically correct term for Bushmen) showed up and entertained us with some dancing around the fire. We drank wine and stumbled into our tents late.

Early Saturday morning we packed up and set out for the park. Our plan was to camp in Nossob Valley, a 5 hour drive into the park. Unfortunately, we took the wrong road. The road we intended to take was a graded sand/gravel road, described by the park ranger as "a good road." We ended up on an unkempt sand road called the "Wilderness Road." The park requires that anyone traveling on this road have two 4x4 vehicles so that when you get stuck in the sand you have another vehicle to wench you out. We made it 2.5 hours down this road when we got to a sand hill that we were unable to get over. We sat under a tree and ate lunch while we decided what to do. We had no choice but to turn around and go back to the gate. It was especially stressful because on the way in we had driven down some really steep hills and we weren't sure if we could get back up them. The park does not keep track of who enters and exits so we could potentially be stuck in the desert until someone realized we were missing. There is no cell phone network or radio signals. If we did get stuck in the desert, when we didn't show up to work on Monday, the Peace Corps would send the US Marine Corps with choppers to come and extract us, which would have been very dramatic.

Kaa Gate

Horns!

The sand dune that eventually defeated us.

I think the vultures expected us to die out there. Ha! 

Campsite!

Fortunately, we made it up the sand dunes and back to the gate just in time to have dinner and set up camp. We never made it to our intended campsite but it was ok. We setup our tents, ate some food, and built a fire. The campsite had an outdoor "shower" which I took advantage of. We were told at the gate that come nightfall you must stay within a few feet of your tent or vehicle. Why? BECAUSE THERE ARE LIONS THAT WILL EAT YOU. We were warned that lions WILL come into your camp and that you should stay in your tent and do nothing to provoke them. I was skeptical but excited about the prospect of seeing a lion. I had already seen lots of wild animals but seeing a lion would be the icing on the cake. I went to sleep shortly after dark and boy did I get the full experience! I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a lion sitting right outside of my tent. I couldn't see him because he was on the back side of the tent. I knew he was there because I could hear him roaring and grunting. It was the most amazing thing: I didn't feel scared or threatened at all. It almost felt like the lion had come to greet my spirit or something. Like he was talking to me. I know that sounds weird but it was almost a cathartic experience. I don't know if it's the Native American in me or what, but I felt an indescribable connection with that animal.

Hanging out in camp.

 Lefteris saw the shadow of a lion as it walked past his tent. Our fearless leader, who had locked himself in his car for the night, actually saw several lions walking around our camp. In the morning, we woke to find lion paw prints all over the place.

On the crappy side: because the road we took was so wild, our driver ended up with hundreds of scratches on his car and a cracked windshield. We paid him extra money to compensate for the damage to his vehicle. Because the trip was so last minute, the driver didn't have time to buy food. We had to share food with him which left us all a little hungry. I am proud and embarrassed at the same time to say that between the time I got home on Sunday afternoon and breakfast Monday morning, I ate a whole kg of beets. That is 2.2lbs of beets. I must have been dehydrated/deficient in some mineral or something. I could not stop myself. I have learned that if my body is craving something (i.e. a fruit or vegetable not a big mac) it is because I NEED to eat it. I have also learned that if you are going to take a trip in Africa, spontaneous is absolutely NOT the way to go. Lots and lots of planning is required.

Kory Bustard

I think these things are called Kudu. 

Hartebeest

All in all, the trip was a success. I think I have had enough safari to last me the rest of my life, unless its one of those luxury safaris that cost a billion dollars. I got to see gemsbok, kudu, meerkats, a lioness, all kinds of birds, and then I got to have a slumber party with lions! Talk about a once in a lifetime experience!

Gemsbok. These bad boys are HUGE. Look at those horns!

Ostriches. I always thought that you could ride an ostrich. Wrong.

One of the many salt pans in Transfrontier

Fox in the grass

Can you spot the lioness? 

The gang at the end of our safari!

Beginning at the end of this month, there is a national holiday and the kids are out of school for two weeks. Diane and I were planning a trip to Capetown but we just didn't have the time or resources to make it happen. I think I will travel to the capital and spend a couple of days in a hotel in air conditioning!

Things I learned this week: when a lion comes into your camp, just lay in your tent and pretend like no one is home. Also, having a project succeed makes all the stress worth it. Seeing the smiles on the faces of the kids as they showed up for GRS really made my life. If all of my other projects fail, it will be ok because this one project, this club that teaches kids that they are all special, that gives them the self-respect to avoid risky behavior, was a success.

Peace and Love.

PS- Millie is such a little turd. Instead of sleeping in her cozy chicken house, she still insists on sleeping on the porch near my bedroom window. I think maybe she is going through that rebellious teenage phase. Also, I am now famous throughout the Kalahari as "the girl who tamed the chicken." Seriously. I go into Hukuntsi to pay my rent and random people ask me "How is Millie?" I had no idea that during my service I would, just through being kind to a chicken, advocate for animal rights and people would notice! :)