Highlighting My Final Days

Hey Everyone!

I've been back stateside a few weeks now and just wanted to do a final send off and weave you through some pics of the great stuff I did in my final days with GRS and in South Africa! Let's get going, shall we?

GRS Alex HIV Counseling and Testing Tournament

Alexandra Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa

May 11, 2013

Action from the Men's U-17 Group

The Registration Team! From Left: Dipuo C., Thembi, Lentswe, Dipuo M. & Thandi

Waiting to receive HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) as a team!

Corner kick during a Women's Open Semi-Final Match

This HCT was the 2nd I had the great opportunity to coordinate and it was a huge success! Everyone had  alot of fun and we were able to raise alot of awareness among the youth community of Alex.

To see a full write-up of our HCT last November, click here.

Bushfire Music Festival

Manzini, Swaziland

June 1-3, 2013

Music festival? Swaziland? Beer? Count me in! Got to go to the awesome Bushfire Music Festival in Swaziland with my friends Rob, David, Simon, Eric, Nolo and Rita...needless to say we had a blast!

View from the Guest House

The Crew: Rob, Eric aka Danny K, David & Simon



A really big highlight was that we got to see The Soil perform! They're a really awesome acapella group from Soweto, check out a video I shot of them performing "Use Somebody" here!

President Obama's African Youth Summit

Soweto, South Africa

June 29, 2013

Yes, I know I'm not an 'African' youth...but I have been working on programs for African Youth this past year! USAID graciously provided an opportunity for GRS staff to go see the President speak at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto Campus. Needless to say but it was a pretty amazing experience and we got to sit front row! I could almost tap the president on the shoulder and challenge him to a game of b-ball!

Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries right before he spoke (of course...), regardless, enjoy the pics of my GRS Jozi staff and I:

The GRS Alex Staff Delegation: Mookie, Lenstwe, Me and Thandi

GRS Alex + GRS Soweto = GRS Jozi!

The Roomies: Matt, Ally and Me

My ticket in!

The obligatory flag/screen pose

Obama's presentation is available for streaming, he had some great stuff to say and my co-worker Mookie (yellow t-shirt) is in the backgroud for like 90% of it, check it out below!

Mandela Day

Planet Earth

July 17, 2013

It's become tradition in South Africa during Mandela Day to dedicate a part of your day doing something positive and helpful for your fellow man. Seeing that GRS does great stuff for our fellow man every day, we thought it would be great to do just a bit extra and help the lunch-ladies next door to us in the youth center do their dishes. Check out some action pics:

 Tebogo aka expert pot scraper!

 Thandi washing the dishes

Tebogo, Thandi & Lentswe in Action

The gang drying dishes

I got my hands dirty, too!

The Final Days in South Africa

My final week in SA was kinda a whirlwind--- alot going on, to say the least! A lot of celebrations, goodbyes, parties, the whole lot.

GRS Alex hosted a going away braai for me that I'll never forget

 And we got to play soccer!

 Green Team vs.

 Our Nemesis Archrivals the Blue Team GRRRRR

 Spider-Tebza made a visit...

And then there was meat!

 Curated by braai-master Tumza...

 ...And braai-master Deep

As this grill can attest, there was alot of meat

Followed by the awkward chair-hoisting finale (bar-mitzvah, anyone?)

And finally, I had my last going away Kota, the frankenstein-like fast food sandwich born out of the Jozi Townships...

Ingredients: A quarter loaf of bread (get it, ko-ta), fried hot dog, fried sausage, fried spam, french fries, pickled mango, sweet chili sauce, ketchup, cheese, and a little piece of bread on top just to be able to call it a sandwich. It's delicious.

 The last one :(....

Again, I couldn't be more thankful for everyone who supported me this past year, I couldn't have made this year what it was and did the work that I did without you!

I'm thinking about keeping this blog but changing the name...I'll keep you posted about that :)

GRS Alex Graduation Day Energizer!

Awesome Skillz Coaches, awesome kids and an awesome energizer!

Coach Potro's Supporters

Story and Photos by Karl Alexander

Coach Potro leading a Skillz Activity at Iphutheng Primary School, Alexandra

 “My supporters, are you with me?!”, shouts a Grade 8 learner from Alexandra High School, her eyes closed and her arms folded. Surrounding her in a tightly-knit circle are her friends and fellow learners who, with enthusiasm and excitement, respond to her screaming, “YEBO”!

The learner then falls backwards, the weight of her body left to be caught by her encircled supporters. To her relief, the circle is up to the challenge, bracing her fall and showing her that support will always be there for her.

“Very good”, proclaims Grassroot Soccer (GRS) Skillz Coach Moses “Potro” Malabela. “Now you can see how important it is to surround yourself with people who can support and help you when you need it most. By building a team of friends, family and supporters, you can create a network of people that can pick you back up if you begin to fall down in life.”

While Coach Potro expertly delivers the My Supporters practice, one of the many fun and interactive sessions within the Grassroot Soccer’s Generation Skillz curriculum for teenagers, his participants aren’t aware of the personal connection he has to the practice. For Coach Potro, the GRS team became his supporters in a time of need, helping him to realize the importance of building a team.

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Coach Potro grew up like most kids in Alexandra, playing soccer on the streets from sun-up to sun-down, only going home once it was too dark to see his own feet. For Potro, soccer was an outlet; a way to stay away from drugs and crime and provide him with a group of teammates and supporters that could help him channel his energy into something positive.

Potro’s talent on the pitch led him to a sports academy at the age of 13 where he was able to increase his soccer skills. By the age of eighteen, Potro had been signed by Hellenic in the Premiere Soccer League (PSL) where he would eventually receive various honors and recognition for his play.

“At that point in my career, I felt that I had made it. I was in the news all the time and had a bunch of fans,” said Coach Potro on his blossoming career. “With all that fame you begin to feel that nothing can stop you. I began to disregard my physical health and started partying every single night, even if we had a game the next day because I knew that I would be in the starting lineup. I didn’t realize that I was beginning to let my team and supporters down by thinking that I did not need them in order to succeed.”

Potro’s behavior off the pitch eventually caught up with him. While playing for Amazulu, another side in the PSL, Potro’s lack of physical fitness led to a career-ending hamstring injury that caused him to be released.

Now back in Alexandra, unable to play the sport that he had been a part of his whole life, Potro began to drink heavily every day, losing track of the things he cared about most. Potro was in need of a team, one that could provide him with the help and support he needed. That was when Potro found Grassroot Soccer, and Grassroot Soccer was lucky to find him.

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Coach Potro leading the "Find the Ball" activity at GRS Alexandra's HCT, Nov 2012

One day, Potro ran into an old friend of his who was wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with ‘Grassroot Soccer’ written across the front. Potro had seen people wearing these t-shirts in Alexandra since the World Cup and had wondered what they were all about.

His friend explained to him that GRS was an organization that used soccer as a tool in the fight against HIV, doing sport-based activities to teach kids about alcohol and drug abuse and other risky behavior that can lead to contracting the virus.

As soon as he heard the words “alcohol abuse”, Potro knew he wanted to be a part of GRS. He realized that if he could show just one learner in Alexandra the perils of alcoholism then his heart would be fulfilled.

Little did Potro know that, once joining GRS, reaching out to just one learner was about to become a whole lot more. Since becoming a Skillz Coach two years ago, Potro has graduated over 500 learners in and around Alexandra through his programs, an experience that, for him, has been a personal journey to see life in a new and fun light.

“I now have something to look forward to each and every day. My GRS team provides me with the support I need day-in and day-out. I also get to make a positive difference in my community. If a participant comes up to me and says that I’ve changed their life, I know that I’ve done my job, changing my own life in the process too.”

"Coach Potro's Supporters" is a story from the series "Coach's Stories" on Grassroot Soccer's Website. It can also be found published on the website of Youth Fit Africa, an NGO that encourages healthy living behavior among African Youth.

How Soccer Explains the Sucess of AFCON 2013

Last Sunday night marked the end of the 2013 African Cup of Nations, a night where South Africa had the opportunity to celebrate one last time the success of being hosts.

I got to spend the evening at the National Stadium, watching Nigeria defeat Burkina Faso 1-0 in a flair filled tournament finale. In the end, the hot streak Nigeria carried into the Finals outhustled the player of the tournament, Burkina Faso's Jonathan Pitroipa. While Pitroipa spent the evening making Nigeria's defense look silly, nothing on the attacking front for Burkina Faso fell into place. All it took was an act of brilliance by Nigeria's Sunday Mbah, a beautiful touch over a BF defender followed by a finish to the far corner, to turn the tide in Nigeria's favor.

Considering that Nigerians make up a large portion of Johannesburg's foreign population, the city's migrant neighborhoods of Hillbrow and Yeoville did not go to sleep last night. Even by the time I got back to my apartment in Parktown from the stadium at 1am I could still hear the loud humming of vuvuzelas eminating from Hillbrow a few blocks away.

The best thing about the evening was that I was not rooting for Nigeria or Burkina Faso but rather for soccer and AFCON 2013 as a whole. Standing among 95,000 screaming fans last night at the National Stadium was an amazing sight to behold.

More pics to come...