Another visitor

This time his name is Joe. He's another friend of Kourtney's from UVA who happened to be in the country. They met up in Musina, out in the middle of nowhere on the Zim border, and went to Durban together and then showed up in PE on Monday.

Meanwhile Id been enjoying a more solitary existance, nursing a persistent cough and doing some pleasure reading that I promised myself when my reading list was: CH17: Aldol Reactions, CH18: beta-dicarbonyl compounds, CH19: Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution Reactions...and then read about the Wnt cytokine pathway in caenorhabditis elegans. I finished The Brothers K last weekend and I'm a hundred pages into Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

We had a pretty busy week. I met with the headmasters of 4 primary schools and gave them the GRS sales pitch. At one of the schools, a teacher on the sports committee asked me straight up, "what do we get from you? some other guys donated us balls and equipment, will you?" I was a little shocked and didn't know what to say. I wanted to say "you dont get anything. you get your kids an effective HIV awareness and life skills curriculum that they're gonna love. You get us to take them off your hands for a couple hours a week." Im glad I didn't.

My diplomatic colleague said "I'd have to say no".

Schools in this country are really different. It seems like the kids only spend 2 to 3 hours a day in class. Maybe its just on the days when we're there, but it sure seems like they just hangout in classrooms without teachers or in the stairwell or play cricket on the field or just do whatever they feel like. I suppose it's better than wandering the streets and causing trouble but some of the schools are shockingly disorganized. At one of the schools I visited this week I explained how we have been delivering the curriculum in the schools were currently in, Sithembile and Isaac Booi. I said we are working with two groups of kids and he was amazed that the other schools could manage that simple task of dividing the kids into groups. Ive seen the kids act up and be hard to manage but the vast majority of the time have them well under control, tranfixed even, staring eagerly at whoever is leading the game. Having young coaches, and a fun curriculum makes a huge difference it seems.
Don't get me wrong (Tim). I dont want to antagonize the teachers or come off as condescending but my memories of primary and high school are not better, but certainly more orderly.

At Sithembile on tuesday, we (Kirk, Tumie and I) had a meeting with the headmaster where we told them about a certain German company that approached Grassroot Soccer expressing the desire to donate a new soccer pitch to a South African primary school. Just by chance, the headmaster had given us a prayer of a request to donate them a soccer pitch a week before hand. WE had the pleasure of hooking up a needy and appreciative school with a willing donor. The proposal was for a job that would have cost about $22000. The donor has a budget of $90000. It was so amazing to see his, the headmaster's face, and the faces of all the teachers present, light up and shed 10 years instantly. When Kirk was done presenting the idea, the headmaster said, "wait a minute. I'm a little confused about the figures." Wnen I tried to offer him a business-like handshake at the end of the meeting, he pulled me, crushed me into his vast person, and lifted me off the ground for a real hug.

On thursday at the same school we graduated a group of about 50 students. Every graduation is different because the kids sometimes have prepared poems, songs, dances and skits, and sometimes you get parents or teachers with big personalities who take it on themselves to lead the kids in prayer or song. Sometimes we do it inside, sometimes outside. Sometimes we have a PA System, sometimes we have a stereo, and most of the time we have nothing at all. Sometimes we have 3 guests and sometimes we have 60. There are also some strong personalities among the coaches, myself and Kourtney included, and we end up doing the same thing in three different ways.

This particular went pretty well after Titie took control and let her personality guide us through. SHe called on me to make a speech and of course I could do it in the only language I know and I had no idea what had already been said because everything had been in Xhosa. I had thought about it the night before and that morning but I didn't write notes or anything. Of course as soon as I started talking, all the planning had combusted. I'm not someone who can rattle off a ramble and crack jokes that people will get on the spot. For, me these things take practice. I think I did pretty well. I remembered to thank all the important partner organizations abut I couldn't thank the representatives by name because I hadn't written them down. That was one mistake. Another on I made is I didn't work out the phasing on certain things and my word choice was a little dubious on a couple key points. THe biggest mistake I made was that after everything was done, the kids had gotten their certificates and songs had been sung, dances danced and whatnot, when I offered refreshments to the parents I didn't lead them in prayer before hand. Big mistake. Everyone looked confused. "how can we eat without praying?! shown through their furled brows) Next time Ill use the prayer of the father in the Brothers K, "GiveusgratefulheartsourFatherandmakeusevermindfuloftheneedsofothersthroughChristourLordAmen".

Joe, Kourt and I have been having some good fun together. We got wrecked on springboks (a popular local shooter made of peppermint liquer and amarulla) and then went down th street to the best restaurant in all PE. Its a house identical to our own with an inconspicuous sign out front in Thai. I always assumed it meant "open" or "welcome" or "restaurant", even "Natti's Kitchen" but who knows. At first it was very difficult to find because it just blends into the neighborhood. The food is delicious at this place and if you say you want it hot, youll get a delicious smelling poulty of seafood filled murder attempt. The owner Mark, orNatti, his wife rather, is pepper happy. If I wasn't lit I dont think I would have been able to take the burn. But as it was, it was delicious. Brought me back to the old days at the McKenna household when I still had full feeling in my tounge, before my father's cooking burned my taste buds off. Yesterday we all drove down to Cape St. Francis to see a lighthouse (Kourtney's obsessed) and some of the coolest tidepools Ive ever seen. The surf is so powerful it sprays water 5 or so meters onto the rocky shore where it forms pools. Afterwards we went to J-Bay for a dinner party hosted by the oldest brother, Adam. Good times. THis morning we got cappuchinos at his cafe (The best in the world, I swear!) and then headed back to PE for a development session with th e coaches.
Tomorrow is the funeral of the on of the coaches mother. Ive heard African funerals are very different from anything Ive ever seen. I not looking forward to it, its an awful tragedy, but I am interested to see what it will be like. Forgive me if I seem detached.
I miss you all.
NOah