My Day Off

Today we didn't have to go into work.  We have been working out of the cars until we get out office (the lease was supposed to be signed yesterday or today) and so we have just been driving around to different sites and spending a lot of money on petrol (yes, that's right, I'll call it petrol now). 

Siya being sharp / Will, Titie, and I juggling in our yard

Yesterday all our driving led us to two different graduations.  One we left early from because the kids were too shy to perform in front of us.  On their graduations the kids get snacks and certificates and have a chance to celebrate by voluntarily singing, dancing, and performing skits or poems. In the afternoon however, we went to a primary school and the kids there loved having us around.  We watched for over an hour as they performed for each other.  Some of those kids are crazy good singers and dancers.  There was one group that was doing gospel music and I swear the soloist girl was crazy good.  It was insane.

Cutest kid ever!

Setting: driving to pick up snacks for the graduation.  A police car drives by with its sirens on a cars move to the sides.

Siya: O, something is happening somewhere.  Or he is going to see his girlfriend.  They do that too.

I made dinner last night - some sort of Indian flavored chicken...I definitely just invented it.  It was good though.  After dinner Jimmy, Will, and I went to Captain's to watch the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup (aka Real vs Barca!!!!)

Jimmy and I had gone there last Sunday to watch the first leg and it was crazy.  This place is also a dance-oriented bar and is split into two areas.  The bar area is dark, has some tables, a dance floor, and a DJ booth.  The front room is open in the summer, but for now it has plastic walls, is furnished with picnic benches, and has a nice TV right in the center of the wall hanging over the entrance to the bar area.  We sit here.

Last Sunday the teams tied 2-2, great game.  The atmosphere is hilarious though because there is some definite techno going on instead of announcer banter and there are some seriously drunk guys that love to come talk to you.  Two guys in particular approached us last Sunday.  The first one talked to Jimmy a lot and I just kinda watched the game.  The second guy walked right up to me, told me I was beautiful, and asked what he was missing "in my bones".  He continued to tell me and Jimmy his life story.  He's from Zimbabwe, I look like his sister.  He feels sorry for me for this because his sister has gone through some tough times.  He just broke up with his girlfriend because he found her cheating on him over skype.  He likes psychologists because they are smart.  He does not belong in SA, but has a house and a car here.  If he could be from Brooklyn he would be.  All his friends are in Europe, but "most" of his friends are in Australia. 

yeah.

So last night we decided we definitely needed to return to THIS bar for the game.  We got a pitcher of beer and the mood was very similar.  The game was better (3-2 whoooo).  There were two Real fans sitting at the table next to us and we had fun teasing each other as the game progressed.  There was a man who sat at our table and chatted with us a bit at the end, him and I talked about Barcelona, Liverpool, and SA.  There were also these young kids, I would guess under 18, thus underage,  who sat in front of us.  One kept staring at me.  When I would look at him he'd wink at me.  I am dead serious when I say I think he was 17 max.  Disturbing.  I had to yell at him to turn around and stop.  Kind of funny though.

The game got super intense - as Classicos are likely to be. Ozil had to be carried away by a couple of players and coaches because he was so upset about something.  He was screaming the whole way off.  Marcelo got red carded was scissoring Cesc - HORRIBLE TACKLE (and may I also note that I did indeed write Cesc because he has FINALLY come home!).  Someone else got a red too for fighting, Villa I believe. It got super crazy though at this point and everyone was on the field pushing and yelling.  Classic.

Today has been lazy - GTL.  The T needs to be replaced with D however.  Gym, Driving stick, and Laundry.  I drove around a parking lot today and I remembered pretty well.  Maybe I'll drive home....

Crazy Adventure Time

So immediately after I posted my last blog we have an awesome adventure. 

Out in the parking lot, the lights of our car were on.  Since they were still on we figured we'd be ok, but the car wouldn't start.  Thus began a couple hours of running around and making friends.  PE is called "The Friendly City" and now I know why.  The guys from the internet cafe came outside and one tried to kick-start the car, but it didn't work.  Another guy drove home to get his jumper cables because no one in the cafe had any.  We tried jumping the car, but it wouldn't work.  Then we noticed our engine immobilizer light was on - some safety feature in the car to keep it from being stolen.  Jimmy was reading about that while the guys from the cafe were trying to remove a battery from one of their cars with a butter knife to trade us and try that.   Another guy from the cafe started calling up his friends who knew cars well and tried to figure out how to start it.  He also offered to tow us home because he had some sort of heavy-duty truck.  Finally an Atlas Security truck drove by and stopped to ask what was up.  We explained and one of them really wanted to try kick-starting it again, himself.  So we pushed and he drove and it started!  It was really strange.  This all took place in about an hour's time.    Everyone had helped us - EVERYONE.

While this was going on: we were leaving because we had to go pick up some pizzas we ordered for dinner.  After about 40 minutes Jess called the pizza place and told them the situation and that we'd be late.  The pizza place sent a guy out to us and they were delivered a couple minutes after the car started up.  We gave one to the workers at the cafe and now, back here we all know each other and it's kinda funny.

All Geared Up

Until we move into our new office in New Brighton we have been working on-the-go.  Yesterday everyone came to our house.  We got to meet Siya for the first time.  He is one of the master coaches and is ridiculously friendly/awesome.  He quizzed us as well to keep us on our toes.  His quizzes differ though between GRS info (what belongs in a coach's kit?) and personal stories (What is the funniest thing you have ever seen?).

There wasn't too much to do at the house though so we hung out, juggled, and planned for today before Ngwenya, Titie, and Siya left.  I think the jet lag is hitting us a bit because we all seem to be exhausted in the afternoons.  After the staff left we went to the gym, hit the internet cafe for a bit (already used our 4gb up) and then ate dinner before an early bed.

Exciting stories about the gym!  The Springbok (national rugby team) has guys who work out at our gym!  They are playing the New Zealand All-blacks this weekend in PE so BOTH teams have been in training in the gym we use while we are there.  Some people have been asking for autographs, but I don't really know any of them so would feel bad.  Need to study up on some rosters.  These dudes are seriously huge though.  Some of their arms are bigger than my thighs.  Scary large.

Today we reported to Sithembile - a school in Zwide - and jumped in the car with Siya to travel around watching him work for the day.  We watched an intervention in a school (where a little middle-school aged girl tried to pick up Will), visited some coaches, toured another non-profit facility, and ran some errands.  Siya is so friendly and seems to know everyone.  We got to see his house as well and met his wife and mom.  It was a good day, but I am getting nervous to start driving.  I need to practice because it won't be long before they will be making me run errands on my own!

One of the extra perks of the past couple days has been all the free gear we are getting.  Nike is a partner of GRS and donates a lot of stuff for the staff and coaches to wear to look polished and professional in their sessions.  I have acquired 1 pair of shoes (sick), some track pants, 3 tee-shirts, a polo, a zip-up hoodie, 2 windbreakers, a raincoat, and a big fleece.  It's insane.  I'm decked out in work clothes all the time now because not only to I have so much, but it's all really nice stuff. So...thank you Nike.

The last thing that I really need to do now is start playing some soccer.  I have found a team - New Lads - and just need to figure out the logistics of getting to practice/games.  Hopefully this will all be ironed out soon because I am itching to start!

Lusaka Sunrise

Great Video!

First Weekend in Port Elizabeth

Our goals for the weekend were simple: relax after a stressful week, explore the city, and make friends.  I believe we succeeded on all three accounts.

Friday we had dinner at Barney's which is right on the ocean and we were told would give us an "American College Bar-type experience".  This was very true.  We stayed after dinner and had some drinks as more and more people piled in.  There was a band that played and a party for a rugby team.  We ended up meeting quite a few people.  PE is known as the "Friendly City" and so far I think this is fitting.  Random people would hear our accents and come up to ask where we were from, what we were doing in PE, etc.  Exchanged numbers and ended up moving locations with a group of people to this little bar called Castros.

On Saturday we joined a gym - Virgin Active.  This experience was actually quite humorous for me.  It reminded me of the Friends episode where Chandler wants to quit the gym and can't do it and Ross ends up joining in the end.  Everyone was super perky and upbeat.  We spent 45 minutes talking about our goals, why we wanted to join, and filling out paperwork.  Jimmy and Will said they wanted to "stay fit" for their reason to join and the girl helping us looks at them and says, "That's it?  You don't want to add some muscle or anything?" It was so funny. Both boys just looked around and responded "sure...i guess...yea".  Pretty funny.

After our elongated sign-up we got a tour of the facilities - it is a nice gym and they wanted to put us through a whole program where we would see our body fat, get a work out plan, make a diet, etc.  I just wanted to get on a treadmill!  Good work out in the end and I am happy with the gym.

We started our night at Barney's again.  Another live band played, but bad old American music.  It was funny listening to the song choices the two nights we were there.  A lot of classic rock - Thunderstruck, Sweet Home Alabama, etc.  Friday night the band played "Scotty Doesn't Know" from Eurotrip not once, but TWICE!  It was actually super funny.

Anyways, we moved on to Balizza Saturday, a club that former interns rave about.  It was good, but we met less people so I would rate Friday as the superior evening.  The greatest part about this weekend however is that Will is leading as the recipient of free drinks!  Guys think he's hilarious and love buying him drinks!

It is quite strange though, the difference in crowd from our time at work and our time out around our house.  At the bars it's mostly white people.  One person even said that he thought we were brave and would never go to Motherwell - a township that we work out of.  It seems the city and the townships do not mix much if at all.  It's a very strange world to step into, especially as someone straddling both terrains. 

GRS PE

First couple of days have been, contradictorily, slow and hectic.  Last Friday there was a break-in at our site office so Pumeza, our site director, has been trying to move offices.  Today we showed up at the office and people had broken in again last night.  They made off with a laptop and some jerseys, but everyone is quite freaked out and refusing to go there anymore.  A welder came in this afternoon to fix the window bar that was broken (I have no idea how someone got inside squeezing only through a small hole in between the bars).

Besides, this we were busy the past two days running around meeting people.  Yesterday we went to a school and got to watch a session of an intervention with some 8th graders.  They played Find-the-Ball and learned a bit of basic facts about HIV, but it was hard to follow exactly what was going on because the sessions are held in the native language, Xhosa. 

Xhosa is a bit extra hard to pick up because it involves a few different sounds.  There is the big click in the roof of your mouth, which the q represents, like in Xhosa.  Then there is the kissing-ish sound (i) where you suck in with your teeth closed and your tongue touching the back of them.  Then there is the side click (x) that sounds like calling a horse.  Finally there is the spitty sound (hl) where your teeth are closed and you push air out the sides.  So far I am sticking to hello (molo) and thank you (ankuzi), but hoping to learn much more.

Today we met the coaches.  Jess and I were prepared.  Sarah, an intern from two years ago, had given us the hint that the coaches LOVE chocolate chip cookies.  Jess and I baked for a while last night and had enough cookies to go around to over 30 people.  We were able to chat up a few of them.  Gee is one of the oldest coaches and loved to talk.  He had stories about different bars in town, the World Cup, and GRS.  Mzee is the youngest coach at 20.  He is working for GRS while going to school to get a degree in graphic design.  He loves hip-hop and was enjoying trading artist names with us.  We ended up describing where we are from by referencing places where famous American artists are from.  He was an interesting guy.

Now we are home early because of our office complications.  It is the weekend so hopefully we will get to know the city a bit better in the next two days.  Come Monday we are back to work, but the staff will be meeting at our house.  Until then...

Orientation and My New Home

I thought orientation would be so awkward...and it was for the first couple hours, but turned into one of the most amazing weeks of my life.  I'll walk through day by day in terms of memories.

Tuesday, August 2nd I arrived in Boston where Jess had told me she'd pick me up.  We got in touch and I found her and her car.  We then drove into Boston where we picked up Jimmy and eventually found Will.  All great people which is lucky seeing I'll be living and working with them for the next year!  Jess is from northern Mass and went to Quinnipiac.  Jimmy went to Harvard and is from Oakland (knows John Chen!).   Will is from outside Phili and went to UofRochester.  Yes, this is about the amount of information I would be able to give after the first day. 

Jess drove us up to her house outside of Hanover, NH where we stayed the night and watched a lot of Shark Week.  It was the perfect way to prepare for a year on the coast of South Africa!  Every other story was about Great Whites and based in South Africa.  Woke up the next morning and Amanda Bilas, another intern, met us at the house to help carry our luggage up to Pierce's Inn.  Everyone eventually filed in to the Inn and there were countless awkward meet-and-greets receiving no more information than that which you could find in a Facebook profile.   This didn't take up too much time however because we had to get to the cabin for the next two days.

Everyone piled into the cars.  The car I was in was the last to leave and with another in front of us we decided to follow them.  Problem was, the car in front of us didn't have anyone in front of them so we got lost.  Asked for directions twice and eventually made it. 

At the head of the trail we parked our cars and hiked in carrying food, water, sleeping bags, etc.  20 minute or less walk.  The cabin was this huge beautiful place with an outhouse (guarded by GIANT spiders), no showers, spring water, and lofts for sleeping.  Dartmouth students built it, along with 14 others throughout the woods, and students can rent it out for $10/night. Nice.  Some of the guys who are interns have been there before.

The rest of this first day is a blur.  We learned little things, heard names, re-heard names, and re-heard names.  The people leading our orientation were Taylor Downs, Lea Dozier, and Elize - self proclaimed Team Awesome.  They are amazing people.  Kilos is all I remember.  To get us into the culture of GRS we did a lot of Kilos which are a way of celebrating something or someone.  It involves clapping and some finishing move.  The basic ends in a "whoo".  My favorite ends with a thumbs up and "sharp".

THURSDAY!!!!

Thursday we woke up earlier because some Malawian coaches were coming to hang out with us and go for a hike up Moose Mountain.  One of the coaches, Cathy, really liked me because my name is close to a Malawian one I guess - Márita.  Godfrey, aka God, led some games, like find the ball, and we got to know each other a bit.  All the games we played had some HIV-based theme.  Find the Ball has people passing a ball behind their backs in two teams.  One team then gets to guess who from the opposing team is holding the ball.  The ball is labeled with an "HIV" and it teaches kids that you can't tell who has HIV by looking at them.  We then hiked up moose mountain.  2,222 feet later we were at the top, took a picture, and heard Gift's coaching story.  Also, Chinese Kilo.  FANTASTIC!  At the end you fold you hands, bow your head, and mutter "chinese".  No one knew whether to laugh or be offended.

Back down for lunch we made sandwiches and played "counting", a general card game the Malawians taught us.  SOOO FUN. (ace, 2, 8, Jack are special and the rest is like uno with suit and number. Ace = choose suit, 2=draw 2, 8=match it for the reverse, Jack =jump).  The afternoon was filled with activities like skits of intern "Be"s, kilo competition, and the leadership compass.  We also got to play a lot of the games that the kids play to learn about HIV.  Waiting for dinner we were all dead.  Everyone just sat around the campfire pit (not to be used) and talked about movies and tv shows that we liked.  Boys did some water drumming in the tiny pond.  Hilarious.

We had spaghetti for dinner and I talked a little bit about Spain with Bryan.  After dinner we just all sat dead on the porch and juggled a little bit.  Meanwhile  Team Awesome was inside setting up Skillz Café.  This activity was designed for us to get to know each other and open up.

The whole cabin was decorated downstairs.  There were streamers and the tables were made into smaller café-style tables with crayons, paper, candy, and pipe-cleaners to play with.  I had fun melting crayons and painting with them and burning pipe-cleaners.   The first round was the question "who do you respect and what would you say to them?"  Other questions were about mistakes/regrets we had made (me not paying attention to my fitness before senior year - had to share with almost-strangers - weird).  There were others too that I can't remember.   Cool activity though.  By the end of this night everyone is getting in a good groove and we interns are really forming a strong bond.  It was so cool to see and be a part of.

FRIDAY!!!!

We got up early and went back to Pierce's.  This is where orientation as a part of GRS really started.  We spent all day watching presentations and looking at power points.  The best part of this day came at night.  GRS was having their board meeting and the Malawians were in town so we had this big cookout and networking party.  Spoke with a lot of different people (millionaires and office workers).  It was a lot of fun.  Mary and Cathy asked me about my last name because in Malawi COE means Center Of Excellence. YES!  I sat with Hasmin, Amanda, Gift, and God for dinner.  We had a good time.  Gifty has the best laugh, it sounds like an evil toddler!  We left dinner a little early and Gift, Amanda, Chisso, and I went outside and were listening to African music on Gift's phone and they were teaching us dance moves.  Fun fun. 

Thanks for the photo Jess!

After dinner we were supposed to have a policy and procedures meeting.  Tommy, the CEO, got up in front of everyone and started talking about weird rules, like don't share towels so bacteria doesn't kill us all, and other stuff.  Then music cuts in and Karty comes through as a MJ reincarnation and then every ex-intern that was there started Thriller-ing all over the place.  We then got to witness a couple musical numbers, remixed to pertain to us of course.  Thriller => interns etc.  Funny.  When this was done we were told we had to try and finish the beer from the night.  We all started drinking more and moved outside to the bon fire someone had built.

Ale got a guitar and started playing and singing - it was so good.  At around 11:30 Cindy, the owner, came out and we talked her into doing a little stand-up for us.  It's not really stand up though.  She had written a book called "Finding the Doorbell" about having a sexual life after 40 or something.  So she just sat down and started talking about her first orgasm, and her sex life in college and through her adult life and porn...everything really.  It was crazy.  Bryan was on the Dartmouth team and told me that they would stay at the cabin for their end of the year banquet.  They would make lists of questions to ask Cindy about sex.  It was outrageous.  Everyone was dying because on top of the explicit content, this woman is crazy funny.

SATURDAY!!!!

Last day of orientation.   More power points.  We learned about the RTC that grassroot is running this year to learn if sport based behavior change works.  It's really exciting and I hope I get to be a part of it.  We played Juggle my life which was my favorite game.  Everyone is just throwing tennis balls everywhere.  It teaches that adding sex to everything else you are juggling makes it harder and adds unwanted and unexpected consequences.  We also learned how to pitch GRS and field a variety of questions which was cool.  I ran up the hill in the back with Trevor and Cristina because I was going crazy sitting all day and then we played around for a while which morphed into HEAD MY PUNT!  Which is basically a person punting a ball and yelling "head my punt" and everyone else running around trying to get there in time to head it.  Hilarious.  We were doing Q&A at this point and would switch between punt and question.

Other great moment of the day: we had talked about inter-generation dating as a cause of the HIV epidemic and how guys like girls who are "young and sweet" as they say in Africa.  Will tried to say this in a session, but came up with "sweet and tasty" instead so everyone calls Will "Sweet and Tasty", or S-n-T for short.

When we finished with everything we went outside and played a pick-up tournament that we named "The Mushroom Cup" because Trevor had found a GIANT mushroom cap somewhere.  I got one goal and Cristina won the MVP.  Some of the guys were taking off their shirts and were sooo sweaty.  I was disgusting.  Ale was making fun of me once so I playfully pushed his back and my hand was just wet.  Gross.

Inside for dinner I sat at a table with Taylor, Ben, Bryan, Trevor, and someone else.  Fun times hearing stories from Taylor…car surfing in Zambia and stuff.  Karty came and sat with us later and told us a story of him camping in Botswana and waking up to lion tracks all around his tent- scary.

All the ex-interns came in after dinner and we hung out and talked about their experiences and things we should see and do.  All good information and their excitement really got me jazzed to leave.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out in the living room and watching youtube videos on the projector.  Dining dogs, watermelon baby, human bicycle, etc.

SUNDAY!!!

We left at 4:30 am. Blah.  Made it to Boston and on to DC.  Sat in the airport for 5 hours.  Ate some lunch and read and walked around….got on the plane, but the weather over the Atlantic was bad so we sat there for 2 hrs.  Eventually took off.  I got to watch Just Go With It which was hilarious.  Then Rio, then FALTU.  Good day.  We then landed in Senegal and switched some people up.  I had two seats to myself though and met some nice people who I was able to pitch to and were really interest in GRS.  The woman sitting across the aisle from me works for the University of Tennessee and was visiting her friend in Zimbabwe who works in epidemiology doing more in PMTCT, but HIV work none-the-less.  Great to meet and talk with her.

The second leg I slept a lot.  I watched Water for Elephants and part of Kung Fu Panda 2.  Also, we flew over the Ivory Coast. Exciting.  Landed in Joburg, but because of the initial delay we had missed our plane.  The airline rebooked us for the morning flight and put us up in a hotel for the night with food coupons.  I had my own little room.  It was so cute. And NICE to sleep in a bed.

The restaurant we had vouchers to was this little Greek place inside the hotel.  It was actually 4 hotels within a huge complex.  Anyways, the restaurant was inside, but in this area made to look like an outdoor European city.  The streets were cobblestone and the walls were facades of houses with restaurants underneath.  The ceiling was even painted blue with clouds and there was a big fountain in a square with a  giant David in it dressed like a South African rugby player.  Good food.

Woke up at 3:30 (BLAH) and went back to the airport and got on a plane to Port Elizabeth.  Pumeza and her husband picked us up and brought us to our house.  It's nice and big and I can see the ocean from my room.  Initially, just Jess and I were home because we had to do two trips.  So it's just us two girls in the house and someone knocks on the door.  I look out the window and have no idea who it is, he's just in a track suit.  I ask who it is and he says, "Open the door".  I asked again who he was and it went on like this for a while, he would just say things like "if someone knocks you should open the door"  It was so weird.   It turned out he was our site director and had come to meet us.  When Pumeza got back we let him in and laughed about it, he went back and forth on if we were cautious or rude.  Oops. 

Slept great the first night and we have been hanging out, cooking meals together, and picking up household items.  First day at the office is tomorrow!