I don't really know what to write anymore. After five weeks, the initial buzz of being in Africa and of having a blog has been scaled back to a more realistic proportions. Seemingly, with all that hot air went my ability to just sit down and tell you about my life and (mis)adventures.
I am still having a fantastic time; it's just that my tolerance has gone up. There's nothing more tragic than stale excitement, besides maybe stale cereal. Maybe if I write about what I've been doing I'll realize that I'm actually still soaring and maybe I'll even uncover whats got me feeling deflated.
So last week was the goals for girls, or G4G for short. It was kinda hectic, fun though. I didn't end up spending all that much time at the camp. I was running around all day doing all the behind the scenes kind for stuff that is necessary. I had to get water for everyone, pens, and snacks and print diplomas for graduation. You wouldn't think they'd be hard to find but believe me, in the township, they are. I was also responsible for chauffeuring Tiffany Roberts and Titie around the city to various institutions. Trying to get a south african with no passport and no birth certificate to the states in 4 weeks is a herculanean feat. As always, its all about friends in high places and lucky for us, for Titie, the coach of the team of American girls, Ian Oliver, is in with the folks at the embassy. The wind is at her back for sure because someone from Ubuntu also knows someone at the office of homeland affairs and will be able to minify the normal 6 week waiting period for passports. I'm gonna try to go to Titie's game at Hofstra. I say I am but really I'm not gonna have a minute of free time during soccer season. My courseload is gonna be crushing...there's no sunnier way to put it. Ive been thinking that soccer is not something I really want to do this year. It's great because it keeps you in shape and its fun but Im beginning to realize I'm not much of a competitive player. Just considering skills I'm not sure I have a starting spot on the team, even with all the spots opened by departing seniors. And with my fitness where it is, I'm not gonna be making up of lack of skills with exceptional speed or strength. I am also thinking I would like to enjoy what's left of the good weather and do all the things I have wished to to with friends from school. Do you believe Ive been in the Hudson Valley for 3 years now and I've never gone for hike in the catskills or explored all the nice little ponds and waterfalls in the area. Plus, because I spend so much time working, my social life and non-soccer friendships get moved to the back burner.
But on the other hand this is the last chance Ill get to play truly competitive 11v11 soccer on a beautiful pitch. And what better way is there to enjoy the last few days of summer and the fall than to be outside playing soccer? Being in shape has its obvious perks and playing sports always helps me manage my time and steer clear of bad habits. Plus I love the guys on the team. What do y'all think I should do? (stop being a dweeb and start training... and stop eating so much!) thanks, guys.
That was my coach's voice. Coach's voice is a key concept in GRS. Its a pretty simple concept but you have to remember the curriculum is designed for 12 to 14 year olds. THe idea is that everyone has life coach's who will give them good advice but the most important life coach is yourself and you have to learn to listen to your coach's voice. It's a concept that works best for kids who love sports.

I suppose I should stop apologizing for digressing because it seems to be what I do.
So I went on a Safari the other night. that was a trip. African elephants are HUGE!! I was arguing with someone as we left that an elephant would not be able to knock over the flatbed that we were all in. Is suppose a little background is in order. Citrus is banned form the park because it used to be a main component in the Elephants diet back in the seventies. THey used to dump a ton of oranges in one spot regularly to get a reliable herd of elephants for park visitors. Eventually some genius noticed that this unnatural food source was seriously disturbing the natural order among the 400 or so elephants. tHe elephants, usually scattered throughout the park in small groups stopped leaving the immediate vicinity of the orange dumping spot. They learned what the orange truck looked like so whenever they saw it there was a massive stampede of hundreds of elephants that wrecked havoc on the plant life and on the social structures within the herds. Elephants started exhibiting abnormal aggressive behavior in competition for the resource. Some started showing signs of serious stress. What kind of people were in charge of the park at that point, I wonder. So I was thinking about how great it would be if someone on the flatbed had accidentally brought along an juicy orange and herd of elephants got a whiff of it and started chasing us around the park. I said it would be worth being unseated when an elephant put a shoulder into the side of the flatbed to see the spectacle. She said that if an elephant had a mind to do it, it could topple the truck and trample us all to pulp. After I saw one I admitted being wrong.
We also saw about a zillion kudu, a bunch of eland (the biggest antelope in africa), some humping zebras, a bunch of pumbas (alas, no timones), some black backed jackals, some chubby little foxes, some scrub hairs (boring), a couple of paranoid porcupines, a springer, a spotted eagle owl (270 degrees of neck rotation!!), and we think we saw a black rhino in the distance. No cobras or lions but it was nice to see everyone from G4G one last time.
I went out in the township yesterday for the first time. Straight from the night safari, Kourtney, Tyler (another GRS field intern and friend of Kourtney from UVA) and I picked up Titie and went to a club called Eyethu in Zwide, just down the street from Ubuntu and the future site of the GRS headquarters. 5 rand (~75 cents) for guys and free for girls, not bad. The place was packed. it has a cool multilevel layout with two massive fires burning in open rectangular smoke stacks at the edge of the dancefloor. The place was massive; there were probably 400 people there last night and you could have squeezed 100 or so more. Strictly house all night long but good stuff. Everybody in the whole place was moving and more than half of the people were giving it all they had on the dance floor. dance circles are big here, really big. Its fun to test out all the different combinations of people or show everyone what you've got in a public forum but what happened to two people sharing a private moment on the dancefloor? The club had huge number of gays and guys in drag. There were a couple freaky 6 footer giving Tylerr a litle too much attention. In general we felt safe all night long, mostly because of Titie's relentless patrolling. There were only a few obnoxious drunks. It seemed like everyone was there to dance and believe you me, they knew what they were doing. I got schooled in the art of getting freaky. I think of myself as a pretty decent dancer when I'm feeling the music but I was humbled last night.
Tyler randomly bumped into an acquaintance from the bus ride down from Mussina, where he's working to get GRS established. This guy was a really interesting character. He was Zimbabwean and he and his three brothers were down seeing their mother. They are in the "imports and exports business" and apparently are doing quie wel for themselves. He invited me to a party he was throwing up in Zim in two weeks to celebrate his becoming a dollar millionaire. He's already a trillionaire in Zim. He kept flashing Benjamins all night as if I didn't believe him. It was pretty weird but I was glad we ran in to him because we'd been standing in the bar line for half-an-hour without moving when he told us to come have a seat while he sent someone to fetch us drinks, on him of course. A little shady but I had some funny conversations with his brothers and I felt safer that everyone saw they knew me. The only real problems we had all night were from drunk guys giving us too much attention because of our white skin. We were the only white people there that night and I don't think whites are a common sight there. The club is about a million times better than any white places on the upscale side of town.

Saw Die Hard 4.0 tonight. It was fantastic! at least it blew my expectations out of the water. Its so fun watching an aging Bruce Willis getting kicked here, exploded there, shot multiple times, and then finally utter the greatly anticipated phrase, Yippy-kye-yay motherfucker! some really good action sequence cinematography.
way passed my bedtime.
I also went down to cape recife, south of PE and climbed out onto the rocks where the absolutely massive waves were crashing. Found tons of nice shells. This coast, or what Ive seen of it between cape town and PE, is paradise and i hear the coast to the east, between PE and Durban, is even nicer.
I hope everyone is doing well. I feel a little out of touch.

Sorry friends,
It's been nearly two weeks since i last wrote something. Ive got a bunch of excuses that you probably don't care to hear but ill tell you anyways, because honestly I just like to whine. The internet at the office/house was down for the last two weeks. It was working ok, occasional hiccups but fast and consistent enough, and then wam! all of the sudden it stopped. It took us a while to believe it because it would come on for a few seconds every day but eventually we got mad enough to call the company. The guy showed up when we were out but luckily the realtor was there giving a tour and let him in. The only evidence of him being here is a bunch of electrical tape on one of the wires. They do this weird thing here where they splice the wire from an AC adapter into the internet wire from outside. What is being powered? I havent got the slightest.
But thats neither here nor there. I was talking about the reasons why Ive been a bad blogger. Besides not having internet, a hurdle I suppose I could have overcome, I have been exquisitely exhausted. I mean I passed out at like 8 the other night! Maybe its cause my coffee maker broke. Even though I didn't even have any coffee today I have lasted a good deal longer just because I know I have a working coffee maker in the other room.
So, as some of you may have picked on, the GRS house/office is on the auction block. Almost every day this week, when i pull up in the Jetta I'm met by a crowd white couples who have just finished or are just about to take a tour of my life and affix a price to my much loved home.
I dont think I ever told you about pedro the lizard. He was the former resident in the house. Used to spend most of his time in the bathroom. He wasn't but an inch long. Some people would say he didn't stand a chance. I always said he was good company during my lengthy baths. I have a guilty conscious though because It was me, his housemate, his protecter, his compadre, who took his life. One infamous night, while rinsing the soapy scum from the bathtub before bathing I clumsily turned the faucet on full blast and watched helplessly as my slimy little friend drifted down into the damp darkness. I still feel awful about the whole ordeal but nothings as bad as the bathtime confinement.
that was a bit of a tangent, sorry. So the other main reason I havent written is becuase Ive been dead tired. I thought i might be getting sick but i never really plunged in to the depths of real sickness. I havent been sick in quite a while. almost a year i reckon (knock knock knock). A coleague and new firnd if mine, Jessica just recovered from a pretty nasty stomach virus. Jess is a former GRS intern in Zambia who is back in Africa with a team of American Girls who are doing a cultural exchange girls' soccer promotion trip. These girls are doing a week long camp with a group of local teenage girls run by Grassroot Soccer this week. Jess is really cool and Im already sad she'll be leaving in a few days back to the states. Shes super sharp and funny even when shes not all there because of this bug.
These American girls who call themselves the DC Blast are mostly from in and around bethesda, maryland. THey are a pretty fun bunch and they have been great so far in the camp. THey have a blog called worlds united that you can get to on the washington post website. There are some cool pics and supposedly there is a recording of Titie, the GRS protege, telling her coaches story. Coach's story is about how HIV/AIDS has had an impact on the coach's life and how education has helped her deal with the tragedy of losing a loved on or seeing the stress on the community but youll see if you look up the blog. Titie is amazing. Im sure Ive said it before but she is one of the most positive, motivated and thoughtful people Ive ever met. Shes also a phenomenal soccer player. Her charisma and soccer skils have won her an opporunity to change her life in a BIG way. Tiffany Roberts, olympic gold metlaist, women's World Cup champion and head coach of the division 1 womens soccer program at Virginia Commonwealth university, is also traveling with the DC Blast Girls. After meeting Titie and seeing her on the soccer pitch she immediately offered her a full ride to VCU with a sports scholarship starting in the fall. Making this huge project happen has consumed most of my time in the last couple days. THe logistics of it are quite a challenge, especially because its so late. I wasn't at the camp at all today becuse I was the choffeur for tiffany, Jess and Titie as they tried to get together all the documentation and persuade Titie's family that it is the right choice. Forgive me lord for I have sinned. I have been an accomplice in the crime of Bran Drain. I think shell probably end up coming back after she gets her engineering degree but well see. a lot can happen in 3 years.
Tomorrow is the fourth of July. WOOOHOOO!! Weve got a plan for a braai (BBQ) for the american girls and the south africans. Weve been forced to have it in a shebeen or township bar because it gets dark and dangerous at nightfall around 5:30.
I hope it goes well and there arent tons of drunk old guys in the bar.
Last time I was there a bouncer had to remove one guy who kept on trying to hug Kourtney and I. Our partners, ubuntu, have taken it upon themselves to arrange the venue and the food so i dont know if we have the whole bar or what. We're gonna have smileys, boiled sheep's heads, hot dogs, hamburgers, and a American/South African flag cake, and sparklers too, I hope.

There is so much to tell that is already happened. I hate playing catch-up but some of has been really amazing and I feel I can skip it.
Im the sole driver of the company car, a pretty nice VW jetta that we loving refer to as baby blue. Its just like a jetta in the states except the steering wheel is on the wrong, the right side. Drivng here was somethig I had to get used to really quick. At first ths thought keeps jumping into your mind screaming "what are you doing! Youre on the wrong side of the road and were gonna die!!" wide rights and tight lefts, and no left on red. I managed to adapt pretty quickly but my manual technique is a bit rusty after a semester of not driving one at all. I started teaching the other intern how to drive today because sometimes you just want to be driven places. It will also help a lot when she can drive so that we dont have to do everything together all the time. Honestly I really dont like driving all that much anyways.
Some of you may have noticed a hairy faced Simon Eisenburg inthe photo in the last post. Thats right he came out to visit me for a few days and we pretty much had a blast. He came to two Grassroot Soccer events and he said he had fun. He got a pretty good sense of the stuff Ill be doing out here for the next few months. Besides that we explored Port Elizabeth nightlife, which seems pretty bland. We checked out the Boardwalk, which basically has nothing to do with a board walk. Its not actually on the beach. Its a couple hundred meters back and its like a fun park of some sort. An adult disneyland complete with a casino, a handful of fastfood places, a couple bars and the kind of tourist shops that you might see in an airport or the Africa section of an american fun park. Inside the boardwalk you really could and might as well be in the united states or any other country for that matter. I mean its nice but I dont think Ill be going back.
That night was kind of a disaster from the start. First we went this bar called the the slurping owl or the chirping owl or something. Everyone was an Afrikaner and virtually everyone was over 50. Just imagine a little pub full of large people dancing to an unremarkable band with an electronic drum set. We drank our beers and fled quickly. The only girl under 30 was a waitress and she was too busy to give me decent direcions to a younger spot, but I think she was interested.
The next night we checked out the bar thats in all the tourist books. It is an English pub
called Barney's aand its supposed to be a great place. It had great potential. THere were people of all ages and skin colors but, alas, the same band from the night before at the chirping owl was playing. They did sound a little better tonight because the crowd was a little more energetic but they weren't good enough to get me off my bar stool. I was content with watching these two women just tear up the dance floor. One was a mixed woman who appeared to have an old white sugardaddy that she would drag around the floor everyonce in a whil. The other was a striking tall skin-and-bones indian girl. In all seriousness I think they may have been the two best dancers Ive ever seen. They could go on spinning eachother round for 5 minute stretches without breaking, and I didn't get the sense that they had ever even met before.
Hopefully next time there will be a different band.
thats all for now. I still havent talked about my most interesting cultural experience so far, where the picture in the first post is from.
thanks for tuning in.