Welcome to Jozi

 It’s been a little over a week since we touched down in Johannesburg. Johannesburg…Jo’burg…Jozi, whatever you call it, is a city of many faces. People from all over South Africa, and Africa for that matter, have chosen to make this place the hub of pretty much everything. It has unbearable poverty and unfathomable wealth. It’s the hub of nation’s sports and also the center-point for the country’s arts. If you can think of something, anything, chances are it’s in Jozi.

The question is how can a 22 year-old intern from the US take in all such a big city has to offer? Little by little, I guess. This past week has been a whirlwind of logistics and orientations but Ally and Matt, my fellow Jozi interns, and I have been getting to know the city and its people with what free time we’ve had.

Ben, an intern this past year @ the GRS Soweto site who, from the coach’s accounts took the place by storm, was able to welcome us to the city and help us get settled in. He left this past Monday but not before we had a pretty sweet braai (a South Africa BBQ) and made a toast with some Savanna Ciders in his honor.

X wailing on the Vuvuzela

Ally enjoying her Savanna

Since getting here, the question that we’ve been asked has not been “You sound funny, where are you from?” or “Why the f*&k did you cut me off back there?” but instead “Who do you support”? In South Africa, Jozi especially, allegiance to your favorite soccer club is a must. In Jozi, the two biggest teams (and two best in the country) are the Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs. Both are based out of Soweto, the township of about 4 million people Ally and Matt are working in, and have crazy passionate fans. We went to a Chiefs match @ Soccer City Stadium to check out the scene and were welcomed by bright-colored costumes, deafening vuvuzelas (yes, the horns that made it sound like you were watching a bee hive during the 2010 world cup), and a couple fans that for some reason were eating whole bushels of cabbage…I’ll get back to you on that one. The atmosphere was amazing and the Chiefs fans were out of control but I’ve decided to side with the Orlando Pirates. Their first derby (rivalry match) against the Chiefs is in December and I hear things get wild so we might need to invite some of the other interns into town for that one!

Matt and Ally @ the Chiefs game with some diehards

The rowdy section

Just a boy and his cabbage...

To be surrounded by a soccer-driven culture is awesome and reminds me of my time in Morocco back in 2010. This time, however, I get to a have a job with soccer @ the heart of it! I started up in Alexandra last week and things so far have been great. The coaches are lively and passionate and I’ve been fortunate to have seen them in action during a few of our teen-based Gen Skillz programs this week. SK and Mooki, GRS Alex’s site coordinator and Community Project Coordinator, are awesome too. I knew that when I heard Kendrick Lamar’s “The Recipe” bumping from SK’s CD player the first time I drove in his car that I was in for a good year.

Alex coaches rocking an energizer

Ronnie, my man, you are out!

X had a brief stint on Whose Line is it Anyway...

...as you can very well see

I’ve been really fortunate to have been placed in Alex. Besides the amazing coaches and admin, the GRS program in Alex is only about a year old and is poised for a lot of growth in the community in the near future. We have a FIFA Football for Hope center being built for our use and facilitation that will be done early next year and will help us expand our programs substantially as it did for the GRS crew in Khaletisha back in 2010.

Ally, Matt, and I just finished moving into our new apartment in Parktown which is almost too nice for us to handle. We’re thinking about doing an MTV Cribs-style tour of it so I’ll keep you posted.

More blogs to come,

Karl

Heathrow 1 Day After the Olympics: Pros and Cons

We had a 7 hr.-turned 12 hr. layover in Heathrow yesterday, which just so happened to be the day 16,000 athletes were leaving the country. Here are some notes, some good, some bad, that I took while there...

The Good:
- Got to see athletes from Spain, Russia, Brazil (maybe Juan?), Mexico, Australia, The Bahamas, South Africa, Peru, and a few others I forget
- We spotted an incognito Manu "Left Hand Flow" Ginobli going into the British Airways lounges. Sweet.
- Strongbows are delicious

The Bad:
- 12 Hr. Layovers
- The floors @ heathrow are wicked cold
- small sandwich= $8, whack

Made it to Jo'Burg, more blogging to come,

Karl

GRS Orientation, Hanover, NH

 The 2012 GRS intern class during orientation

Sitting in logan airport waiting for our flight to London. There are about 15 of us awesome GRS interns on the same flight before we part ways towards Southern Africa!

Where to begin with orientation, the whole thing honestly blew me away. Everything from the enthusiasm and the excitement the orientation leaders provided to the awesome Skillz games we got to learn was a blast, only getting me more excited for Jo'Burg and to be an important part of an organization that ceases to amaze me.

Our orientation leaders- Hooter, Elise, Leah and Austin (our intern coordinator)- had endless energy throughout the whole 5 days, starting from the very moment we got to Pierce's Inn, just outside of Hanover, NH. While waiting for all the interns to arrive we played soccer (surprise, surprise), it was great to get a quick game in and to get to see how good the other interns were! I'm still definitely shaking off my rust from baseball season.

Once all the interns arrived, we made our way to a cabin owned by Dartmouth where we camped out for two days while doing plenty of team-building exercises and GRS-curriculum activities, not to mention teaming together to make some delicious meals (my cheese cutting skills have increased substantially).

On Friday, we headed back to Pierce's Inn where we began a two-day blitz of powerpoint presentations, meet-and-greets with the various branches of the organizations, kilos (the official cheer of GRS), and constant "energizers" that the leaders used to keep us engaged, energized, and having fun. I can't wait till I get to see a bunch of 11 year olds chase down and kill an imaginary bug in Jozi!

The bottom line about orientation was that it was inspiring to see how powerful and influential GRS's practices really are. Here's a top 5 on what I'm so far impressed by:

1. We've now had over 520,000 youth go through our skillz curriculum, all of whom are now educated and empowered in raising awareness in the fight against HIV.

2. GRS has an amazing track record of monitoring, evaluations, data collection and constant curriculum innovation that has led to a number of strong partnerships with a series of major private and government donors (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Elton John AIDS Foundation, USAID, Nike, and the Peace Corps to name a few). I was particularly impressed by our growing relationship with the Peace Corps who have now began adopting a modified version of our "Skillz" curriculum in their rural sites accross the world. The sky's really the limit for this partnership.

3. Tommy Clark, the Founder and CEO of GRS, led a panel at the International AIDS Conference in DC last month on sport-for-development and not just a warm response from the crowd upon the completion of his speech but also a kiss from Sir Elton John backstage!

4. GRS's staff, all the way from the coaches on the ground to Tommy and the members of the Board of Directors. Not only is everyone enthusiastic and crazy energetic but they also breed a culture of community and mutual commitment that has lead to sustained success since it's formation.

5. GRS's sound business model. Charity Navigator, the go-to site when looking for NGO productivity, gave GRS a perfect 4/4 star ranking on transparency and finances, making it one of the highest ranked US-based NGOs and also one of the country's fastest (and most sustainable) growing NGOs.

With orientation done, it's off to Jo'burg! See ya there.


KILO!

Karl