About Grassroot Soccer

Mission: Grassroot Soccer uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV.

Vision: A world mobilized through soccer to prevent new HIV infections.

Strategy: To achieve our mission, we continuously improve our innovative HIV prevention and life-skills curriculum, share our program and concept effectively, and utilize the popularity of soccer to increase our impact.

http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

RCT

So, I officially hate the RCT and Jim especially.  I filled in for Jim yesterday while he was on vacation.  This meant I drove his team around to schools and helped them out giving surveys, collecting data and such, and collecting dry blood spots.  It was soooo much more interesting than my usual day, plus the day went by very fast.

Bonus: I hung out with Shuffle and Chika all day.  Wouldn't it be nice if I had constant actual work to do? I think it would be.

Shuffle Turns 23

So, amazing last Saturday.

1. It was Siya's daughter's birthday so we went out to Zwide and played with kids in a bouncy castle before seeing the birthday girl and heading out.

2. It was Shuffle's birthday earlier that week so we went to her house for music, food, and fun.  Danny happened to be amazing and bought her 3 cut-outs of Trey Songz.  yes yes yes yes yes!



So much fun.  Then went to Eyethu, sick night.  So much fun.  Love my Shuffle, even if going to Eyethu with all those girls means getting hit on by other chicks.  Worth it.

Girls Night

Last Sunday we had our first girls night.  Danny, Jess, Colleen, Alice, and I went to see The Vow in the theater (ADORABLE) and then went back to Alice and Colleen's place to cook white bean burgers, drink wine, and gossip.  It was awesome.  Nothing like friends.  Plus, there is nothing like Channing Tatum.

Which reminds me...On the latest 30 Rock episode, Jack's wife comes back from North Korea and he asks Liz to put together a presentation to catch her up on pop culture. ok...then he says make it about an hour.  Liz: "What?  What am I supposed to do, just scratch the surface of Channing Tatum's rise to mediocrity?"

Tournaments

So, our HCT for June has been postponed because we have a training prior to it and there won't be enough time to put in appropriate effort...or something.  Whatever.  HCTs are the best time of the year, but I'll just sit at a desk instead and find things to do.

In addition we won't be doing the inspi(RED) tournament while I'm here for the same reason and, also, because it's going to be cold cold cold in June.  So I have been spending time putting together step-by-step instructions on how to throw an inspi(RED) tournament because I won't be able to.

GERMANY

GERMANY!!!!!  Ok, so this week (maybe it was 2) was one of my greatest memories.  I had so much fun with my brother, with my family...it was the family vacation I always wanted when growing up and was never given (sorry Watersmeet, MI).  I will just recount things that I remember - I'll try to stay chronological.  My laziness has kept this post from being written for a few weeks, so sorry if I forget things.



  1. LONG trip to Munich.  I took an overnight bus to Cape Town, took a shuttle to the airport, spent 11 hours in the Cape Town airport, flew to Dubai, spent 2 hours in Dubai, flew to Munich.  When I arrived I was super giddy and excited to see my brother.  I imagined walking out the doors and having a movie-esque embrace.  However, When I got my bag and walked out Robert was nowhere to be seen.  I sat down and waited....1 hour until I decided to call him from a pay phone!  He slept through his alarm and got into Munich late, but he was in the airport when I called. 
  2. We took the train into the city and decided to wing it with a hostel.  Robert remembered one (Hostel Wombat) that he had stayed at before by the train station so we went there.  Were able to stay there the 2 nights we were in Munich alone without the parents.
  3. Robert showed me around Munich.  We had Kaiser..alsdfjsdljf at Augustiner Keller (be prepared for this post to be riddled with misspellings...sorry German) which is like a pancake coated in cinnamon sugar and then chopped up and mixed with more sugar, raisins, almond slivers, and served with applesauce.  Excellent first meal in Germany.
  4. We walked around the English Gardens and had a beer at the empty biergarten (due to the cloudy and cold weather).
  5. That night we went to a bar where this German guy started talking to us.  Eventually he says, "So, is he your step-brother or half-brother?"  I said no.  He says, "How are you siblings when you are American and he is German?"  That really boosted Robert's ego on his ability to speak German.  Really though, he was excellent.  
  6. I was weirdly proud of my little bro, also very reliant.  He did teach me some German, including about 10 different ways of saying "hello" and how to order things....I think that's it. Thanks Bobby.
  7. Ate doner late night.
  8. On Friday (my second day) Robert and I walked around some more.  We climbed Saint Peter's Tower, or whatever it is called (Pieter's?) and watched the Glockenspiel play at 12:00.  Then we went to the market and had soup in a tent and I tried my first weissbier - delicious.  Franciskaner (I told you there would be misspellings).  
  9. That night we had dinner in the biergarten in the market.  We got some different sausages and each had 2 mas of bier.  Had a nice sibling-reminiscence and enjoyed the cold.
  10. That night we caught a train and a bus and met some of Robert's friends from Munich at a house.  I hung out with a bunch of Germans and drank more beer.  They were really great and I enjoyed myself and they enjoyed themselves meeting me (I wasn't home when the exchange students were in Grand Haven and had never met anyone).  I even met my family's exchange student, Mike, so now I have personally met all of my facebook friends.  It was also interesting, hanging out with Germans, to listen to them talk about Hitler.  He was an appropriate topic to joke about throughout my time there.  People seem to just think he was a ridiculous character and show the distance that has been covered by joking about him.  
  11. Mom and Dad arrived Saturday morning.  Robert and I woke up early and met them at the airport.  Mom didn't cry.
  12. We got in the car and drove to our hotel, which was literally a block from the hostel we had been staying at.  Good thing we packed our luggage and dragged it to the airport and back.  Hotel Monaco was nice and cute.  I thought the good thing about a hotel would be TV, but German TV is A) German and B)pretty much just US shows from the 1980s.  O well.
  13. I got my Christmas package finally!  Thiago jersey, necklace, and DVDs.  o yeah.
  14. Showed mom and dad around Munich for a while - mom climbed the big tower in Marienplatz.
  15. Had dinner with the Mayr family so our exchange family was complete.  We went to the Hacker Haus.  Good bier, good food, good company.  It was a lot of fun.  Dad got to try his Stock Beer (or whatever it is called) that Monks used to drink and live off us during lent.  12% = good.
  16.  Went to Garmisch and Mittenwald for a day of Alps hiking.  Mom had chosen one trail that followed a river up into a gorge, but that trail was closed half-way up.  Turned around and found another trail that went around a lake.  It was very pretty, but cold.  It snowed which proves how cold it was, but more importantly, was my first time seeing snow in about a year - exciting?  I think so.
  17. Had lunch in Mittenwald at a little restaurant.  I don't know if there are any big restaurants in   Mittenwald.  It is a little town in the Bavarian Alps and is so cute.  We had chicken and ham and the guy working there gave us free hazelnut schnaaps to help digest it afterwards.  
  18. Got one last Apfeltascher before we left for Freiburg.  This is where my brother studies and goes to school and would be the second half of the trip.  Long car ride means I was asleep and can't recount too much from this trip.
  19. Freiburg is a cute city within the black forest with diverted water lining almost all the streets (bechlers?)    We stayed in a hotel right on the main square by the cathedral.  We had to walk through a restaurant to get to the elevator and there was the market right outside every morning.  It was awesome.  
  20. Mense Drei is the best Currywurst.
  21. Climbed a tower on a hill right outside the city walls.  It seemed a bit flimsy so mom did not make it up.  Good views though.
  22. Went hiking in the black forest which is just hills with trees on them.  Good hike which ended with another tower (say congratulations to my mom for this one).  Stopped in some towns around the area.  They were all very cute and touristy.  
  23. Had dinner at Freierling Brewery, but weren't too hungry.  We got drinks, goulash soup and pretzels to share.  Good light meal.
  24. Met Bobby's friend Joey and walked around the city for a while before having coffee next to the "river" at a cafe.    
  25. Had lunch in the market.  Dad, Robert, and I all got different sausages on a roll and had to try each one.  Best. Lunch. Ever.                                                                                                                                 
  26. Smoked Cuban Cigars
  27. Hannah met us for wine that night at the wine bar next to our hotel in the main square.  Tried a few different things before moving on to dinner at Martin's Brau - the other brewery local to the town that is good.  Beer and Food.  Good meal.
  28. Thursday was our big day.  We were going to meet our relatives in Alsace and discover our French-German roots.  Robert had to work extra hard this day because no one we were meeting knew English.  Ho boy.
  29. Roots
  30. Renee picked us up in the morning and we drove to Roeschwoog, our historical homeland.  We went to some place and saw old documents with ancestor signatures (mom loved this) and then went to the local church before moving on to Renee's house.
  31. We had a 5-course meal at his house with his wife and parents.  His mother's maiden name is Schwartz, which is my mother's maiden name.  Family!  This meal was crazy entertaining.  First of all, the food.  We started with sausages, pretzels, and pistachios + any drink desired.  Then we moved onto dried ham and asparagus (spargle) with a mayonnaise type sauce.  I was full after this and thought we were done...I mean....well, I was wrong.  Next came the main course.  We had a poultry casserole/meat pie dish that was amazing as well as eggplant parmasean which was delicious!  There were other things that accompanied this, but I am forgetting them.  Then we had a palate cleanser? that came in the form of an adorable little cup with graham cracker crust on the bottom, custard, and berries on top.  Yum.  I thought this was desert until it was followed with rhubarb pie and a chocolate-pudding cake.  Goodness, this woman knew how to get on my good side.  This proved to be the last course. Not the end though.  We then followed lunch with digestives.  First up was a homemade schnaaps which tasted like pure gasoline.  It was basically moonshine.  Super strong, but smooth I suppose.  Then the good stuff came out.  It was the same schnaaps, but had been soaked for a month with sugar and mint.  This drink was so tasty and left your breath fresh.  Think Listerine, but tastier and easier on the stomach.  Yes and yes.
  32. The second reason this lunch was so entertaining was the languages going around.  My parents and I speak English (Spanish really wasn't helpful here).  Renee speaks French and German, but his wife speaks French so that is what she communicated in.  Renee's parents speak French, but grew up speaking Alsacisch which is a dialect of German so Robert could understand it for the most part, but there were some moments when Renee was translating to German so Robert could translate to English.  It sounds insane, but it went pretty smoothly actually and we had a great time.  Robert did soooo well!  Especially knowing my dad.  William had to converse so Robert spent most of his time as acting translator between my dad and Renee's dad - 2 talkers.  This boy deserves an award.
  33. After lunch we went into Strasbourg which is the big city in the area.  We saw the cathedral and  walked around.  The walk along the river was very nice and we saw a tourist boat go through a very old lox system (I've never written that word before, did I choose the right spelling?  Who knows, but the red line has not appeared so....) After this Renee dropped us off back in Freiburg and we were all tired, especially Robert so he went back to his apartment to nap.
  34. We made plans to meet back up at 8 for dinner, but we got bored before then.  My parents and I went out for wine to pass the time.  We found this restaurant with a bar that we went to (ate there the next night because the food looked so good).  We made a friend at the bar with an old man and sipped our wine.  After some time we decided to move back to the hotel restaurant for more wine while we waited for Robert to come.  After some glasses our conversation flowed more and more easily, so much that eventually my father was divulging his dirtiest rugby songs.  Ah parents.  Robert was so late by this time that I called him from the hotel phone and he was still sleeping.  O well.
  35. We decided to go for a walk in the dark of the city after convincing my mom that it was not too cold or too late.  We eventually came to Augustiner Platz.  My dad was getting kind of hungry (although we had eaten so much for lunch) and casually dropped that they would probably still have food......................at the brewery.  My mother was not excited.  She decided that she did not want to go to the brewery because we would want to sit and eat and drink and she was tired.  Ohoho Barbara.  At this point my father and I were in a giggly-buzzed state so I'm sure we were annoying her, but she was convinced that we were lying when we said we'd be in and out.  After some time we dragged her into Freierling.  We ordered 2 pretzels AND, in what I can only describe as our best decision of the week, we bought a growler.  This is a 2.5 liter "mug"? that you can buy for 15 Euros and refill for 5 Euros...you're welcome Robert.  So, beer and pretzels in hand we returned to the hotel.  Mom went to sleep and Dad and I stayed up and watched Modern Family on my new laptop (yes my parents were gracious enough to replace my stolen baby), ate pretzels and market cheese, and drank the whole growler.  Best night.
  36. I think the next day is when we went into the Black Forest (see above).  We had dinner at the wine bar from the night before and then mom and dad wanted to go to sleep because they had to leave early the next day to make their flight in Munich.  Mom cried for a while after Robert left.  I am pretty sure now that she really loves us. 
  37. I moved in with Robert the next morning.  We spent a lot of time with his friends.  When he was in class I would wander around the city and drink coffee and did some shopping and then we'd meet up and go crazy.  I also got some runs in around the lake outside his apartment building.
    1. Sat on top of the blue bridge - terrifying
    2. Drums and base night clubbing - awesome
    3. Pitcher night at Martin's Brau followed by a shots-only bar = sloppy
    4. Shot named "MC" was disgusting
    5. Grilling 2 days in a row on porches was fun
    6. I am better at beer pong than I remembered
    7. Stir fry with a bunch of friends - delicious
    8. Robert's friends - great
    9. Watching TV with Robert - like old times
  38. Trip back to PE went smoother it seemed.  I took the regional  trains back to Munich (yes I found my way to 3 different trains) then took the metro system to the airport, plane to Dubai,  plane to Cape Town.  In Frieburg I bought a bus ticket from Cape Town to PE online that left at 6.  My flight landed at 4:45.  I knew it would be close, but it would be amazing to just get home so I booked it.  As soon as I got my bag in the airport I speed-walked it to the shuttle stop. I bought my ticket right as a bus arrived.  I jumped on it and made it to the city, walked to the bus station, and checked in with 15 minutes to spare!  Back in PE the next morning for a good sleep.  This trip was amazing and it was really needed for me.  I got a good break from the stress of work and, I'm sure my mom will be really happy to hear, that it  made me really want to live closer to home for a while.  Now I'm on my job hunt looking for positions exclusively in the US.  No more missing Christmas!