The HCT Dust Bowl

          It’s been a while since I’ve written a post and I have a very good excuse. GRS Kimberley turned it way up by running a Skillz Street Holiday Camp and having an HCT (HIV Counseling and Testing) in one week. I went to 4 out of the 5 days of the Skillz Street Camp, which ran from 8am to 3:30pm every day. I wasn’t even teaching the curriculum and I was completely depleted of energy by the end of every day. Each day we did 2-3 Skillz Street practices and play soccer at the end of the day. Skillz Street practice topics range from body changes that occur during puberty to having good self-esteem to what you should do if you’re ever sexually assaulted. The girls were great and really learned a lot. We unfortunately had low numbers but the coaches still gave it their full effort.

Coach Billa hosting the Wara Wara What What Talk Show

A participant showing off her community map that she drew

            One of the things I was disappointed about was that not many of the female coaches really like soccer and they made it very apparent whenever we went outside to play. If we were ever running low on remaining time it was soccer that was cut first. I got very frustrated that the coaches would have all of this great energy inside the classroom and then once we got outside it seemed to evaporate. For being an organization named Grassroots Soccer, there was very little emphasis on the actual ‘soccer’ in the camp. I really think it’s a shame that it’s so easily disregarded and undervalued by the coaches. The girls are split into teams at the very beginning of the week and play on those teams for the whole week. I think if done properly they can really learn about how to be good team players as well as building some serious girl power mentality. I’m definitely biased because I feel like soccer gave me so much, and I just want to see the same effects it had on me for these girls.

            HCT tournament was a great success. We had 8 U-19 boys teams and 4 U-19 girls team registered to play in the tournament. There were a few bumps in the road but in the end we had over 200 participants get tested for HIV. The games were played in Galeshewe, one of the townships in Kimberley, on these two dirt fields with no markings and no nets, just goal posts. It was amazing to watch. I was very fidgety, I wanted to jump in and play so badly! I luckily was given the task of taking photos of the event so I got to watch the games. At one point I went over to talk to the coach of one of the girl’s teams to tell them we were running behind schedule and they would be playing a half hour later. The guy was very upset and told me that GRS was sexist and never gave the girls teams the proper respect they deserve. Whoa there buddy…you’re talking to a gal who’s devoted the majority of her life to soccer and believes in total equality in sports. Side note everyone should definitely check out the 9 for IX series on ESPN. It’s nine documentaries focusing of females in sports, it’s awesome. Anyway, I start explaining to him that everyone has had to wait for their games, both males and females, and it had nothing to do with sex. I did appreciate that he defended his team so adamantly, which I’m sure he has to do quite often, but in this instance it was misplaced feminist rage.

Players still wore cleats on a dirt field

Our CPC Thembi's adorable daughter Warata and a bunch of the coaches watching the finals.

            Our coaches are crazy by the way. They are awesome at doing their jobs but they also are always goofing off. Below is a video of two of the coaches, Big Eyes (pink backpack) and Fire having a dance off. This is also a good example of why I look like an idiot when we go out dancing because the grasshopper dance move, while a showstopper, cannot compete with this level of skill.

            Some personal notes I’ve started to get up at 6 to go running. By 6:30 everyone is on their way to work and I hate having to dodge people, bicyclists and cars, so I get up extra early to avoid to traffic. It’s definitely worth it. Just check out this sunrise I get to look at every morning.  

          I also got in a car accident two weeks ago. It was me and 3 other staff members in the car. I was sitting in the back seat next to one of our CPC’s Christa. We came to a 4 way stop and started rolling through when it was our turn. I look out my window and I see a taxi heading toward us. I’m thinking, ‘he’s gonna stop right? He has to see us. He’s not slowing down. Holy shit’ and then bang, he T-bones our car. My head knocks into Christa and then her head hits the window on her side. I’m pretty sure she got a minor concussion but besides that everyone was fine. Unfortunately we were driving a rental car because the condor was still in the shop.

            Next weekend is the Diamond Cup in Kimberley. It’s a huge skate boarding competition that pro skaters from all over the world come to. Also the Joburg interns will be joining us in Kim!! So excited and I can’t wait to see these guys shred the gnar.

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…

PIRATES

Ahoy mateys!! I’ve found my true calling as a pirates fan this weekend. After a good week of work Nick and I rented a car and drove to Joburg to spend the weekend with friends and watch the Soweto derby. The Soweto derby is an awesome soccer rivalry between the Kaiser Cheifs and the Orlando Pirates, both professional teams that hail from the mighty city of Joburg. The weekend was INSANE. Lets start off from the beginning….

The Drive

From Kimberley to Joburg it’s about a 5 hour trip, a total cruiser with just staying on the same highway all the way there. A few hours before leaving we had a coworker ask if he could hitch a ride with us to Joburg. Of course we happily accepted. Little did we know…that he has the smallest bladder in the world. Within a 5 hour trip we had to stop 5 times. It felt like we had a 9 month pregnant woman in the back seat. But even with a 7 lb fetus compressing a bladder the pregnant woman probably would have peed less. So the 5 hour trip quickly turned into 6 hours, with us not arriving in Joburg until 1 am.

FOOD

The next day we all got ready to go to the soccer game. Many of us still did not know which team we would pledge our allegiance to. Kickoff was set to be at 3 but we were told to show up at the stadium no later than 12 because it filled up so quickly. We were incredibly punctual and arrived exactly when told. However, people showed up that early to tailgate, not go straight into the stadium, which we did. The stadium is incredible, its one that was used during the 2010 world cup matches and is a thing of beauty. I was swooning over the perfect grass pitch. After some exploring we bought drinks and food. Brittany and I decided to go big or go home and got these massive pieces of chicken along with a bunch of sides. I was finally healthy again and after a full week of the BRAT diet I was ready to chow.

Half-time Chaos

The first half flew by with the Pirates going 1 up over the Chiefs on a free-kick right outside of the box. By half I knew I had to go pirates. They worked hard on defense, tried to play out of the back, oh and they also danced out of the tunnel onto the field just like the Titans need I say more.  During the game I had spotted people with bucket hats and knew it was investment that needed to be made. During the half we all left to get our team gear to show our support. Loving our new hats Brit and I along with Sarah went over to get more drinks and that’s when went bonkers. When walking up to the line an overly-enthusiastic pirates fan picked up Brit shaking her around and yelling ‘GO PIRATES’. I’m thinking this guy is about to give Brit shaken baby syndrome when all of sudden she turns to me with her camera in her hand and says, “That guy just pickpocketed me.” It was all so fast I couldn’t even believe it. I guess while the guy picked her up his friend took her camera out of her pocket. Luckily Brit felt the camera slip out of her pocket and told the guy to give it back which they surprisingly did before disappearing into the crowd. Freaky but disaster was averted.

Afterwards we get back in line for drinks and see that Sri is near the front. Brit starts trying to get his attention to get him to order drinks for us too. Sri whips around and tells us, “no f***#$% way”. Now since knowing Sri I would describe him as cool as a pickle so this outburst was strange to say the least. Its then that we notice there’s pushing going on with it centering around Sri and a chiefs fan. People quickly break it up but Sri is pushed to the back. Apparently this guy just cut everyone and Sri stood up to him, but there’s really no way to reason with a pushy drunk, so unless he wanted to start an actual fight he had to let the jerk pass. I decide to head back to the seats not willing to brave the beer line. Once reaching the seats I see that during half time people had swiped a few of them. This has happened to me before and its really no biggy because people usually move once the actual seat holder gets back. So I talk to the couple and tell them that these are my friends seats and that they will need to move once they get back. The guy nods his head and I think to myself, ‘nice we’re all good’.

So the other 4 interns get back and I tell him that he needs to move now and he says, “There are two seats in front of us they can sit in.” Wow, now this is not what we agreed upon. I start to argue with him and then his girlfriend starts to give me ‘tude about how they also lost their seats to other people. For some reason I snap and tell her that it’s not my problem and that I’ll go and get someone to make them move. This doesn’t go over well and if anything it causes their butt cheeks to grip tighter to the plastic seats. I yell a little more and finally one person moves and we’re all able to squish together. It wasn’t till everyone was sitting that I realized I’m still wearing my bucket hat and my giant bug sunglasses. So just imagine this….

yelling at you to move your ass. Last I checked asian tourists weren’t that intimidating.

The rest of the game/weekend went swimmingly with the pirates getting the win over the chiefs. It was an awesome time and thanks so much to the Joburg interns for showing us around and letting us crash at their place. Can’t wait to have them visit us in Kim!! 

Microbiologist Musings

WARNING: this blog entry is about food poisoning. I really don’t go into too much detail but if you hate bodily functions don’t read on. Also don’t read on if you’re hoping to get some gross descriptive prose on me being sick cause that also doesn’t occur here.  I do however talk a little microbiology cause really, how could I resist?

Saturday night we were all out at a club in town called Ch-ch-changes, really its just called Changes but I like to sing it like the David Bowie song. At about midnight I realize I’m feeling really sick and ask to get a ride home. That’s when it all began…the debilitating stomach cramps, the naseau and yes…diarrhea. In clinical microbiology class we always made jokes about how the class was really just about all the different types of bacteria that can cause humans to have diarrhea. But now I was relieved for the month long lectures on the gut microbiome, Dr. Doug Johnson had prepared me well for this catastrophe.

            I started wracking my brain of what did I eat the last few days? Did I not wash my hands often enough? Had I pet any ducklings in the past 12 hours? Really…baby ducks carry salmonella, they infected like a whole class of kindergarteners once so watch out. Also baby turtles have salmonella on their shells, they’re adorable carriers of indigestion. Anyway, I realized it had to be the most obvious thing- chicken wings. Friday after work Nick and I went to a bar close to our house and ordered chicken wings. Nick is fine, but I also think part of why I was hit so hard is because I’ve never had bad food poisoning before. So my delicate and antibody-free gut was unable to clear the invasion of E.coli, campylobacter, shigella, or whatever had decided to colonize my intestines and wreak havoc on my native microbiome.

            After two days I still hoped that my body would be able to get rid of this on its own. I thought, my immune system is kick-ass, its never let me down before. Sure I get a head cold like once a year but it only lasts for a week.  I look up on google what to eat and drink and learn about the BRAT diet, (bananas, rice, apples, and toast). Oh so that McChicken sandwich I ate yesterday was not the best idea. Hey, I know it was stupid but it looked delicious, we all make bad decisions in our life. After the BRAT discovery it was all I ate as well as guzzling powerades and energades to keep the dehydration at bay.

            Unfortunately the cramps did not cease. All I had eaten that day was a piece of toast and a spoonful of rice. How could my digestive system still be in revolt!! I started to think, ‘hey at least you’re probably losing some weight that’s not too bad’. But then another gut-wrenching (not even a pun, totally accurate statement) began and all I could think is, ‘not like this, if this stops I’ll work out and not eat as much Panoratti’s pizza to lose weight’. The next morning I called a medical clinic close to our house for an appointment. By 1 o’clock I had broad-spectrum antibiotics, probiotics and another medicine for the stomach cramps. All for only 150R (that’s $15 CRAZY). For you other microbiology nerds out there, the antibiotic I got is ciproflaxcin, a quinolone derivate that inhibits bacterial DNA gyrase. DNA gyrase is necessary for the replication of bacterial DNA, so no more DNA no more bacteria. Microbiology YEAAAH!

            So now I’m still on antibiotic regimen and will hopefully be able to eat outside of the BRAT diet in the next few days. I’m not sure if it’s the nutritional deficiency causing delirium thats caused my oversharing or my overwhelming obsessions with microbes but either way here it is! Also shout out to Nick and Nora who’ve been my energade delivery system as well as always checking in on me. Without you guys I would’ve been lacking so many electrolytes as well as depressed of being sick only two weeks into South Africa, thanks so much!

 And this is for you Scrubs fans (Tyler sorry its not the med school theme song)

First Week On the Job

        Last week was my first week of working at the Kimberley GRS office. Unfortunately there wasn’t much action going on that week, so most of the time I was literally twiddling my thumbs. I’ve never had an office job, or a 9-5er so it was definitely a new experience. What we worked on the first week was going over our intern job descriptions as well as getting all the handovers from the last interns. I’m taking on most of the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) work and also sharing coach development responsibilities with Nick. I’m incredibly excited for the 1 on 1 sessions with the coaches. So how Grassroots works is that it has the curriculum of HIV/AIDS prevention that is delivered to kids at schools by coaches that we recruit. The coaches are from the same community that the kids go to school in and are between the ages of 18-30 years old. They are hired based on whether we believe they are the right role models that kids can really look up to. The other part of the coache’s job is going to coach development sessions. This is where we teach them employability skills like computer skills (word, excel, powerpoint), resume writing and interview skills just to name a few. Their contracts at Grassroots are only for 2 years and we want to make sure they have the correct skills to be leaders at their next jobs after GRS.

            Last Wednesday Nick and I joined Thembi in going to one of the schools in Roodepan to watch on of the interventions where the coaches are working with the kids. It was really great to watch and see how the kids responded to coaches. The class I was in was a very large class (about 35 kids), and the coaches played ‘Gender Stadium’ with them. In this session they talked about what was good about being a girl and what was good about being a guy, and about gender norms. A lot of the answers given by the class surprised me, and really highlighted how there has been a lack of any type of feminist movement in Kimberley. The boys said how it was great that they could be with many women and also how it was expected for the women to clean the house and the men to work. It was great to see the coaches bring up a discussion with the kids about how we don’t need to follow these gender norms and how everyone should challenge them. I’m not sure how well it stuck with the kids but it’s a discussion that they obviously had yet to discover. It makes me excited about GRS of how they’re being trailblazers in their community by bringing up topics that would otherwise be ignored.

            

Getting Acquainted with Kimberley

I’ve spent my first week in Kimberley and am so far loving it. Its very flat, dry and dusty city with not a ton to do, but has a lot of character. A little background on Kimberley; it’s the capital of the Northern Cape province with a population of 185,000 and used to be a large diamond mining town that is now completely shut down. The climate is similar to a desert with the weather being hot and dry during the day and then the temperature dropping drastically at night. Right now it’s the end of winter with the high usually being 65 and the low 30. The Kimtern house has pretty much no insulation, so it gets chilly at night. The house is split into two parts, one side with the kitchen, living room, Nick’s room and a bathroom. The other side is my room and another bathroom. To get from one side to the other you need to go outdoors. My side is also called ‘the cave’, because it gets much colder since not as much light gets in. Growing up in freezing state of Vermont has definitely helped me in dealing with the cave. By summertime I know I’ll be very happy to be on the colder side since I melt at any temp higher than 80.

            So far we’ve done some cool things in Kimberley. Nick and I are lucky enough to have Nora (’12-’13) intern to show us the ropes around town. We went to the mall where there is a great pizza joint called Panoratti’s that has a deal on Thursday night for all you can eat pizza for 60R (=$6). It was like pizza dim sum with waiters and waitresses bringing all these different kinds of pizza by and you picking and choosing what you want, very awesome. In honor of the PGA finals we went to the Big Hole driving range where we hit a few golf balls and grabbed a beer. Unfortunately they were not showing the tournament much to everyone’s disbelief.  I’ve also been learning how to drive stick in our car the condor. I went on the roads for the first time today, and it was terrifying but also exhilarating. I really can’t wait till I’ve gotten accustomed to it because right now I have 20 things going through my brain at once. My shoulders were tensed the entire time I was behind the wheel. It also doesn’t help that they drive on the left side of the road which definitely adds to the mental work put in.

The best thing we’ve done has definitely been going to Lilydale. Lilydale is part of Mokala National Park. Its about a 30 minute drive from where we live with lots of wild animals and a beautiful river. We hung out by the river for the day tanning on the rocks and soaking in how gorgeous Lilydale is. Nick was brave enough to take a dip in the water which was way too cold for my taste, Nora and I were happy to sucking up some rays. On the drive we saw a ton of animals including kuru, warthogs, ostriches, zebra and some type of musk ox. There were a few other little critters but I really don’t know any of their names. I’m definitely planning on making a lot of trips to Lilydale in the future.

Tomorrow will be the first day of work in the GRS and I’m so pumped to get started. We went by the office last week and had some introductions to the staff and I’m excited to work with all of them and to meet the coaches.

           

           The living room

My room aka 'the cave'

Our beautiful yard

Can I Get a KILO!!

          My first ever blog post and I’m posting it from Tambo Airport in Johannesburg at 5:43 am. I’m not sure anything I’m writing even makes sense because I’m so tired. The past week has been amazing and I have yet to reach my final destination of Kimberley. The first two nights were spent in Harris cabin, a cutesy New England cabin in the middle of the woods of Hanover, NH. As everyone was saying, it felt like we were in summer camp. We played fun energizers and other get to know you games, with kilos galore. Kilos are a clap pattern with a big WHOOO at the end completed by a group to praise someone or an event that just occurred. Its been ridiculous of how cool everyone is in the organization. All of the interns, former interns and staff included in the orientation were awesome. All of this gushing is totally called for, people who know me know that I don’t just gush for anything.

            We then moved into Pierce’s B&B which is as sleepy idyllic New England as it gets. All the games continued along with more GRS games that are included in the curriculum delivered to kids. The GRS games really made it concrete about why I was there. All of the activities were super innovative but always clearly made a connection to the lesson they were trying to teach. It also helped that Sista B and Hooter were the most energetic, passionate people that were teaching us. Our days were so jam packed that I didn’t have any time to shoot my parents a phone call until the day before I left (sorry mom!).

            Travel was normal, meaning little hiccups here and there (mostly at bag check-in) but ended with everyone making the flight. We flew from Boston to Dulles, to Senegal to refuel, and then to Johannesburg. At Jozi, Nick and I spent the night since our flights were not until the next morning. We went to a really cool street near the university that reminded me a lot of Burlington, except for the plethora of sushi places. So random I know. Well, we ended up at this Indian restaurant that had the nicest people working there. Matthew, a former intern was slicing and dicing paper the entire night, but that just gave more entertainment for the night. It was great to get to know the Jozi interns a little better since we’ll be spending plenty of time visiting eachother this year since we are the closest sites to one another.

            We ended up having so much fun together that we didn’t end up going to sleep until 2:30 am…when Nick and I had a 4:00 am wakeup time. Not the smartest idea but totally worth it. It was the perfect way to kick off our year in South Africa. Nick and I unfortunately did not get the same flight since he left at 5:40 and I don’t take off till 9. And that’s how I ended up by myself writing in Tambo Airport. I’ve been drinking this super pulpy OJ and typing this blog entry in order to stay awake. I’m still super paranoid about my stuff getting swiped, consequences of growing up in one of the safest cities in America, you assume everywhere else is crazy dangerous. Oh well, I’m prob just gonna grab a coffee and hunker down to watch Prometheus (the only movie on my comp, not sure why that’s the case).  Anyway its been a whirlwind of a week and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon!