A look at Khayelitsha

The Wednesday of my first week in Cape Town (10/19) I was able to go visit one of Grassroot Soccer's main sites in Cape Town and where the Football for Hope Centre (FFH) is located. Khayelitsha is Cape Town's largest township and one of the fastest growing townships in South Africa. It is literally about 20 minutes from where I live on the N2. One minute you are in the city and the next minute you are on a highway that is surrounded by a township made up of a mixture of concrete low building and shanty houses that stretch as far as you can see with little to no street signs. The FFH centre was the first centre to be built by Fifa as part of its world cup 20 centres for 2010. Fifa put up the money to build the center, but GRS manages and runs the centre.

Mosaic that the kids from the township helped make during construction

View from upstairs office

View from upstairs office

The turf field

My favorite shot

At the FFH in Khayelitsha, GRS was running its Skillz Street curriculum. This curriculum is targeted at young girls in the surrounding community aged 12-17 that uses soccer to instill knowledge about HIV risks/preventions, sexual and gender violence, and a number of other life skills lessons. More than anything it brings together about 100 girls from different schools every Wednesday to the centre for a good 3 months where local coaches from the township build relationships and are able to make a direct impact in their lives. At the FFH centre there are a number of other community programs run such as photography, pre-school program (that I hope to help out with), community soccer league, etc.

Skillz Street Program

It was great to see the community centre first hand and how lively it was from the youngest to the oldest participants. I loved being immersed in the culture and getting to see how my work would help to impact the lives of the people I was getting to see first hand. This little girl in the picture below kept wanting me to take her picture. She is one of the local little girls who hangs around the centre everyday. The children love to take pictures and have their pictures taken. At one point she wanted the camera so bad she grabbed it out of my hands (good thing I was paying attention).

These kids kept getting kicked out during the practice, but kept jumping the wall to get back in...I was supposed to keep them out, but let's just say I was a sucker :).

Me and Sinhle (local 9 year old that every person at the centre has befriended and literally hangs out everyday...he loves to play music on the computers, Skye people and watch YouTube videos of his favorite Barcelona player...)

I will be out at Khayelitsha many more times in the next year, but wanted everyone to see what it is about. Plenty more pictures to come! Please do not hesitate to email me if you want more detailed information on what all we do out at the centre. It really is all about the kids at the end of the day!

Welcome to Beautiful Cape Town

Week 1:

Day 1

I arrived into Cape Town on Friday, October 14th after a 9 hour flight to Heathrow, London, a 7 hour lay-over and a 11 hour flight. Two of my house mates were supposed to pick me up at 8 am, but I arrived through customs to find only 3 people in the waiting area. It was a very weird feeling to not have any foreign currency, no phone and no phone numbers to call. i did, however, have the address to where I was living so an hour later (I was holding out hope) as I was negotiating my cab fare two friendly faces popped around the corner. Boy was I glad to see them.

From there we drove to our humble abode...3c Gordon Street, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001. The house is basic at best and has been through 3 years of prior housing for GRS volunteers...needless to say it is not in the best condition. The location, however, is stellar. We are a 10-15 minute alk from the downtown office, 1 minutes from decent grocery stores and 5-10 minute walk to Long Street which is home to restaraunts and bars galore (don't worry mom).

The front of our house (we have the first 2 floors and the top is rented out)

Street in the Gardens (what the neighborhood is called in Cape Town of the Westerm Cape)

Looking up Gordon St. (table mountain is straight ahead)

Just around the corner from the house

Roommates side of the room

My fine twin bed with springs that stick through (very pleasant)

Lovely kitchen with a fridge that shuts on and off

Family room to hang out (note the coffee table of cinder blocks)

I was able to unpack, shower (which we all know I love) and then was asked to head into the Grassroot Soccer office for a quick meeting with my "boss" who was heading out of town on Monday of the next week to Johannesburg (Joburg). I ended up "getting" to sit through 3 meetings and left the office with the rest of my house mates at 5:30 pm. I made it to 11 pm hanging out with everyone until I passed out sitting on a chair in the living room while everyone pre-funked around me prior to heading out to Long St.

Day 2 and 3


The weekend was a blur as I tried to get settled, organized and learn the lay of the land (which I stil have a ways to go). On Sunday I made it to cathoclic mass at the local St. Mary's (go figure) which is a 10 minute walk down the street. After mass I went to a cool breakfast place called Buzz before heading to Camps Bay  to a beach call Clifton beach # 4 (supposedly #2 is the best).

View from the sand

Camps Bay and the beaches remind me of so. cal beaches- there are some nice house around there

Looking up from the beach- Lion's Head

After the beach we headed back to play some pick up soccer with GRS staff and other NGO staff based in Cape Town. It felt so good to play again. There are turf fields about 5 minutes away from our house (when I say 5 minutes away I mean walkin distance if you haven't caught on by now).

First week of work (Oct. 17-21, 2011)

To come shortly...

Packing...

So I know I have not yet posted much, but thought I would share with you all why packing took me so long... :).

Thank you to all who helped to get me ready, supported by efforts and contributed to my adventure. I am sitting in London on my way to Cape Town feeling good, but missing everyone already. More to come soon!