HCT

Last weekend was our HIV Counseling and Testing soccer tournament.  This was big.  We had been working for two months putting this together and it's a big part of GRS culture - and one of the most different a fun activities we have - in my opinion.  As mentioned before (I think) I was chair of the prizes and media committees.  For media I got us a daily plug on ALGOA fm and an interview with Siya on KQ fm in Zwide + they inserted us into their news feed so any news update on the Thursday and Friday before had a mention of our HCT.

As far as prizes are concerned, we had a lot of Nike gear in our garage which made things easy, but I also got donations from Greenacres, our local mall, and GAME, the Walmart of South Africa.  GAME gave us water bottles, chocolate, Gatorade-type drinks, and mini soccer balls. 

The transfer of garage good was probably the most challenging part.  We had 315 indestructible balls in there so we decided to give one to each kid that participated.     This made for an enjoyable Friday.  We also got to pick up the trophies that we had designed - so beautiful!

The day of was pretty enjoyable.  We had to hand out t-shirts to people who got tested (I got my first HIV test! - negative!), give gifts to our partners who helped us out, choose MVPs, and help coaches out in any way.  Shuffle was my right-hand woman for the morning until the City Lads left for our game.  Couldn't go myself due to my registration issues. 

The Health Department brought a huge truck that unfolded and played music and had a camera on it that attached to a huge TV screen on the top of it - kids LOOOOOVED this last part and kept trying to get on the screen.

The day got really interesting about 2 hours in.  During the day the kids who are in the tournament get to play, go through some of the activities from our curriculum, and have a chance to get tested alongside any member of the community who comes in.  After 2 hours though a woman showed up from the Health Dept. and shut down testing of all people under the age of 18.  Legally in South Africa anyone 14 and up can get tested.  No idea what happened there.  This was the SECOND time this month that our testing had been shut down on the day of!  The Health Dept. needs to get their shit together if you ask me. 

This really upset Siya who had set up the tournament - the point of an HCT is the "counseling" and the "testing".  We carried on though with the soccer which went really well.  Bere and Bora helped me out with getting players names for MVPs - they got free gear during the awards ceremony.  The boys league was really competitive and the final went into a shoot out. 

The food situation was crazy.  There was sooo much chicken.  We got to take a bag home.  And lets not forget the 200 muffins that Jess baked.

At the end of the day we had our awards ceremony.  We had a lot of stuff to give out.  The winners got the best stuff.  The boys got mini soccer balls, turf shoes, medals, and soccer balls.  MVPs for the semis got socks and MVP of the tournament got a tracksuit.  The girls got the same stuff, but they got chocolate and energy drinks instead of mini soccer balls.  All in all I think it went well.

For our de-brief we just had a big singing and dancing celebration.  As Siya put it, "This is how we can measure our success.  And we don't fight success."  Nowie went crazy in the center of everyone - as per usual and everyone was singing so loudly.  I learned some new dances and kids even came in and joined - some also made fun of me trying to do the butt pop from one of the songs. 

Back home I saw just how burnt my neck was and fell asleep.