Day 2 - Soccer 4 Hope Meet and Greet

Formal apologies for the blogging delays – I know you have all been refreshing your browsers every minute. The internet at our hostel has been mysteriously down for the past four days…

Day 2

On Monday morning we afforded ourselves a relaxing wake up time to recover from our two days of travel, and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the rooftop of our hostel with a magnificent view of Table Mountain.  We were eagerly anticipating the arrival of our final two team members, however, their flight was delayed by three hours, putting a wrinkle in our day 2 itinerary. Luckily, our fantastic tour guides - Craig and Ilze - arranged to drop us off for our Soccer 4 Hope meet and greet at the Rainbow Centre in before heading to the airport to pick up Salina and Kristen. Crisis averted. 

The Rainbow Centre, located in the community of Guguletu, is Soccer 4 Hope’s main headquarters in Cape Town, and it is here where we will be spending four hours every morning for the next six days. Our first session was dedicated to meeting the S4H staff and, as Monday was a holiday in South Africa, all the All-Stars, MVPs and staff were able to welcome us. The facility is equipped with a sport court where we played eight aside soccer before enjoying refreshment and getting to know the staff that we will be working with for the next two weeks. The highlight of the afternoon was giving S4H the equipment – ball, pinnies, jerseys, whistles, stopwatches, pumps and cones – we brought with us. They were extremely grateful to receive the much needed equipment and assured us that it will be put to good use to enhance the S4H programs. 

S4H works in 37 schools in 8 districts in Cape Town. There is one All-star coach for each of the eight regions, and these individuals, who were chosen for their exceptional leadership skills, are responsible for coordinating the after school soccer programs and league games. These programs run every school day for one hour, and it is the responsibility of the MVPs coaches to instruct these sessions. In the mornings we will be working with the All-star coaches, enhancing their technical soccer knowledge and developing other skills of their choice, such as time management and budgeting. In the afternoons we will be traveling to a number of the different schools, to distribute gear and assist the MVPs with after school sessions.

The evening was spent eating at an Italian restaurant near our hostel, and planning the morning’s session. Then some went home to bed, while others continued the evenings festivities with a couple bottle of wines at the hostel bar – a great place that I’m sure will be frequented. One night soon we will compare and contrast night life in Cape Town to that in Calgary. Stay tuned for this and other exciting details on the S4H sessions.

Ciao from Cape Town