Arriving in Vaalwater

I have been without Internet access for several days so I am going to attempt to catch everyone up on the activities of the past several days.

Saturday, July 3

On Saturday, we met up with the other half of the South African Lacrosse Project volunteers and drove up to Vaalwater to get settled.  The Texans in our group include my husband Joe and myself, our daughter Rachel, and her Highland Park girls lacrosse teammates Haydyn Anigian, Bailey Ewing, and Sarah Morgan.  In addition, we are so lucky to have Tom Greene, assistant mens coach at SMU, along with us.  The Maryland-based group includes South African Lacrosse Project (SALP) founders Barb Cox and her sons Kip and Harrison Hart, US Womens Lacrosse National Team coach Sue Heether, US National Team member Katie Chrest, and SALP members Mike Jackson, Cody Jackson and Max Crockett.

Our group has basically taken over Zeederberg’s Cottages, a lovely little oasis in town, located behind a cluster of shops.  We are divided into different cottages for sleeping but convene in the main lodge, usually in the kitchen or in the living room in front of a fire and a TV where we can keep up with the World Cup games.  Mary Stephenson of the Waterberg Welfare Society kindly stocked the refrigerator, and Saturday night we enjoyed a great mac and cheese casserole, salad, and garlic bread.  After dinner we gathered around the outside braai (campfire) for awhile, where the kids made a South African version of  s’mores, but we were all still pretty tired from the flight over so we all crashed early.

Sunday, July 4

On Sunday morning we gathered for a quick breakfast and then transported all our donated lacrosse gear to Meetsetshehla High School, where we would be teaching the camp. It was a great to see all the sticks, helmets, gloves, goggles, and pads that have been provided for our group, and even more amazing was to realize that the South African Lacrosse Project has literally introduced the sport of lacrosse to the children of South Africa!

In the afternoon we went over to the Waterberg Welfare Society (WWS), where we walked through a receiving line of singing children, who honored us on US Independence Day dressed in red, white and blue costumes with their faces painted like the American flag!  Others were in traditional South African costumes with faces and heads painted like the South African flag.  They then entertained us with traditional dances and songs.  They started with the singing of the South African national anthem, then surprised us by singing “The Star Spangled Banner”, which they were taught by Kate Gillette, a Wilson Foundation volunteer from Dallas who has been working at Timothy House for the past six weeks. 

A special moment in the festivities was the dedication of the wall around Timothy House, the youth center, where the children had painted the logos of The Wilson Foundation and the South African Lacrosse Project.  They invited Kip and Harrison to come autograph the SALP logo on the wall and thanked Barb and the boys for their incredible efforts in bringing the lacrosse program to South Africa. 

Next, youth center director Zach told us we must learn the Wacka Wacka dance, the official dance of the 2010 World Cup!  All the volunteers mixed in the with WWS kids and staff to learn the dance, complete with lots of vuvuzela-blowing and celebrating.

Afterwards, all the kids and volunteers grouped together for what seemed like hundreds of photos!  The dance proved to be a great ice-breaker and everyone left excited and greatly anticipating the week ahead.

Following the celebration, Zach drove us through the Leseding township, where we had a chance to see where the children lived.  Most of the township consists of tin shacks, most without plumbing and electricity.  Outside the

shacks, people gathered over fires and when they saw the WWS driving by, waved and smiled at us.  The drive through the township was an important opportunity to understand the local community and its challenges.  It seemed hard to believe that the smiling, loving children we had just met lived in such difficult circumstances.  But perhaps that is one of the main lessons we are to learn this week- that joy and happiness are not to be found in what we have or where we live.

We all look forward to the week ahead.

Read Full Post »

Great Night at the World Cup

The 6 of us and our 18 pieces of luggage landed safely in Johannesburg Friday evening. The first order of business was to exchange US dollars for South African Rand, and then purchase vuvuzelas for all!  After a quick change of clothes, we loaded up our gear with our driver Alan and set off for the bus station to catch a ride to the Ghana vs Uruguay game.  Johannesburg has vastly improved its public transport system, just in time for the World Cup and the bus ride was quick and easy.

Seeing the Soccer City stadium in person was so exciting.  From watching the games on TV you get a sense of its design, which is meant to resemble a traditional African calabash pot, but in person it is even more massive and beautiful. Navigating our way to our upper deck seats was easy, and we arrived just as the teams were being introduced on the field. The noise level in the stadium was unbelievable, with thousands of vuvuzelas blowing every second of the game. At times they created a sort of rhythm, as people joined together in a pattern of two blasts, then three, or with one side of the stadium blowing at intervals, then answered by the other side. You don’t pick up the nuances of vuvuzela blowing on TV back home as it all just sounds like the steady droning of bees!

Of course we were cheering for Ghana, which had beat the US for the chance to play tonight, and which was the only African team left in the competition.  It seemed most of the fans in the stadium were also cheering for Ghana. Everywhere you looked people were showing their support for Ghana: painted faces, hats, wigs, costumes, scarves, and many who were wearing the Ghana flag over their shoulders as a cape.

The game was exciting from start to finish. Every time Ghana got a corner kick or forced a turnover, there was a great crescendo of vuvuzelas. They had so many chances to win outright, especially the last PK of regular time, which would have advanced Ghana to the semis.

Instead, it all boiled down to what our goalkeeper daughter Rachel knows is every keeper’s nightmare: a game decided on penalty kicks.  The fans booed when Uruguay walked up to take a shot and loudly cheered each stop by the Ghana keeper. When the final Ghana shooter failed to score and the game was over, the crowd went almost silent and people took their vuvuzelas and left.  I think everyone was exhausted by watching 2 1/2 hours of top flight soccer!

To sum up the evening, I had a few final impressions: Soccer City is a beautiful facility, clean and well-organized. There was plenty of security and the crowd was civil and very well-behaved, much to my relief. Finally, there was an overwhelming spirit of unity and friendship among people of many nationalities and ethnicities.

As we left the stadium with thousands of others sporting the flags of Ghana and many other nations, I knew that this is what the spirit of the World Cup games is all about.  It was an evening the six of us will never forget.

On Saturday we meet up with the South African Lacrosse Project volunteers and head to Vaalwater. First, some much-needed sleep!
Tori

Read Full Post »

World Cup Fever in Vaalwater, South Africa!

We just received these photos from the Waterberg Welfare Society’s youth center, Timothy House.  They had a party celebrating the opening of the World Cup and all the kids dressed up and painted their faces.  See the murals the kids painted in honor of The Wilson Foundation and the South African Lacrosse Project.  They are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of the U.S. volunteers who will be coming for the Lacrosse Camp in July.  At last count, there are over 150 kids signed up for the camp.  That’s more than twice the number who participated last year.  We’re going to be busy!!

Read Full Post »