When In Rome

I spent my first full week becoming more familiar with the Grassroot Soccer people, curriculum, and organization.  I watched classes taught by GRS coaches in the townships, subsequent evaluations of the coaches, and subsequent evaluations of the evaluators, all of which gave me a more practical understanding of both the content and delivery of our curriculum. 

At the start of the week, it looked like I’d be out in Mtubatuba by now, but, unsurprisingly, things did not go according to plan, as there are some logistics that haven’t been taken squared away.  I expect to take off within the next week, though I’m strangely comfortable with spending some more time in Cape Town.  Our mantra thus far is “be liquid”, as flexibility and patience are so often essential in South Africa, the NGO universe, and, needless to say, the South African NGO universe.

I had a conference call with other GRS members and Thokozani, who works for our partner organization Mpilonhle based in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu Natal.  I will facilitate the relationship between GRS and Mpilonhle, helping the latter use its established ties with local schools to implement the GRS material.  I’ll have a variety of responsibilities, which will include helping Thokozani oversee the coaches, setting up street soccer leagues where GRS lessons can be delivered, ensuring effective Monitoring and Evaluation of the program, and providing financial and administrative guidance to Mpilonhle regarding their pending subgrant from GRS.

This video, called Lusaka Sunrise, might help you get a feel for the GRS approach:

http://www.youtube.com/grassrootsoccer#p/c/E1B62C7678488210/3/kyplef2Hi6Y

I didn’t embed the video on my blog, because we only have a limited amount of bandwidth here.  In other news of technological constraints, our office lost power on Friday morning, so after our laptop batteries died, we descended the dark stairways elevatorless and stepped out into the warm and sunny winter day in Cape Town.

Some GRS staff and coaches after delivering and evaluating a lesson in the township of Gugulethu

If you’re looking to learn more about HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, its worth checking out Helen Epstein’s book The Invisible Cure, which covers a bunch of different aspects of the fight against the epidemic and is a good balance between telling interesting stories and presenting informative concepts and explanations.   

Outside of work, I, along with my fantastic fellow interns, stuffed myself with fresh food at the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturday, ran through the Company’s Gardens, walked the labyrinth at St. George’s Cathedral, and checked out the bar scene on Long Street.