Ting-A-Linga-Ling

So this week has already been a flurry of activity. Both Skillz Street has started as well as our 1-on-1 coach development sessions, meaning a ton of more work on the intern plates, which has been great. It was nice to have a slow start but definitely even better to be busy the whole day. Skillz Street is an all girls program that teaches about life-skills to prevent contracting HIV, how to have good self-esteem, and also having a ton of fun playing soccer and supporting each other girls. Safe to say that I LOVE this program. The first day at the school consisted of the girls being broken up into teams and making a team contract and a team anthem. All the girls are so creative and come up with great songs. Most of the team names also include the word ‘diva’ which super girly for my taste but completely awesome. Especially when one of the anthems included the lyrics from Beyonce, “diva is a female version of a hustler” it was too much swag for me to handle.

            The title of this post refers to how the coaches introduce themselves to the whole group. Skillz Street starts with a large opening circle and fun energizers for everyone to play. One of the energizers is where one at a time, the coaches run into the circle and yell “ting-a-ling-a-ling” and the group say “meh meh”, they repeat this a few times and then the coaches do a short rap about themselves. All of this is done in Swana so I really have no idea what they’re saying. So while I am trying to grasp the basic gist of the game, I get thrown into the circle. Me trying to rap is a sad sad thing. Luckily the girls got a good laugh at me running around and yelling with no rhythm in English. I’m hoping with a few more tries and better preparation I’ll resemble less of a spastic goose. 

            Some bad news on the GRS Kimberley front is that an HCT (HIV Counseling and Testing) we were planning was canceled. What we were prepared to do was set up a soccer tournament but also have testing partners on site for anybody who'd like to get tested. The Department of Education for the Northern Cape, however, decided that we were not allowed to provide testing for the students so close to their exam period. They said it would be inconvenient for the students to find out if they were HIV positive, and would possibly affect their exam scores. First off, we're not forcing people to test, we're just providing a convenient alternative if people would like to be tested. Also, while its most likely true, is there ever a “convenient” time to test for HIV? Wouldn’t the Department of Education want their students to know their own health status? Apparently not, unless they deem it the "appropriate" moment. We're still planning on going to the schools during the weekend and run the tournament as well as some of our Skillz curriculum, but at the moment it seems like a consolation prize at best.

            On an out of the office note, this past weekend we went to a fair that was in the middle of Kimberley. It was a lot of fun with all of the cliché staples of a county fair. It didn’t hold a candle to the Champlain Valley Fair that I’m sadly missing this year. Even more sad since Ke$ha was the headliner, would have loved to let ‘my heart beat to the beat of the drum BOOM BOOM’. Someday…someday. Nick and I did stumble upon an awesome local rapper at the Kimberley fair however, named Jack Parow. All of his lyrics were in Afrikaans but it was still a great concert. We even ran into him at a bar later that night and found out he’s going to be playing at Rocking the Daisies in Cape Town, a music festival that we had both purchased tickets for the week before. 

         

 Here’s a little sample of him, the hat and facial hair combo is clutch…