My first month in Kimberley, South Africa has been excitingly outside of my comfort zone. I am constantly forced to criticize and adjust my perspective of the world that I grew up in. I knew that my experience here would be culturally "different" but it has been amazing to see my expectations turned upside down and to open my mind up to entirely new experiences of life. I'm sure that words will not do an adequate job to explain this, but I want to share some of it before I run out of space in my overflowing mind and I lose it all.
It took me a couple weeks to begin feeling settled in the office. I'm not sure if it's because I've never had a job sitting at a desk or if it's because I'm still getting a grasp on the work I'm doing. I find myself needing to get up and move around a lot and taking any opportunity to drive to a school for an intervention or down the street to pick up office supplies. We're also working on a wall mural in the meeting room because the new office we recently moved into has extremely bland beige walls. That project has provided me a nice creative outlet when I'm tired of writing for the newsletter or editing letters to local schools and departments in the municipality. As a programs intern, one of my main responsibilities right now is to plan an upcoming HCT (HIV counseling and testing soccer tournament). I am the point person on the project along with our Programs Coordinator, Coach K. He has been with GRS Kim for several years so he is leading me through the process of reserving a local field, advertising for the tournament, contacting local officials and testing partners, and the many other required steps to running an HCT. I still have loads of information to learn but anything I can do to help GRS Kim running smoothly gives us more opportunities to work with more local youth and give them access to the important life skills curriculum that GRS provides. As an intern, I have some flexibility to pursue new projects that can improve the GRS programs. The more I learn from GRS coaches, Programs Coordinators and our amazing Site Director, Thuso, the more I can support the growth and outreach of GRS in Kimberley, and in turn promote the health and success of local youth in the coming generations.
In my first blog piece, I talked about how young Kimberley is as a city. How it feels 10 to 20 years behind other places I have been - culturally, fashion-wise, in terms of general development. Unfortunately, because I'm tall and blonde, I look like an Afrikaaner (the dutch descendants of the colonists). Not to say by any means that all Afrikaans are bad, oppressive, racist people. I have met some great people from all across the spectrum of the culture and class structure. A structure that is seems much more rigid and unavoidable than any place I have been. I have also met some undesirable people from all parts of the social structure as well. But that is to be expected in any place. What I have found most interesting and difficult to cope with is how racially divided different places are, and how openly that's accepted and understood. Just left over separation. It's hard to imagine how intensified that was less than 30 years ago here. There is still a whole generation, maybe two, that lived through all of that. I've made a some new friends (a skill that I'm still working on) at the gym, local restaurants and with the GRS coaches. It's not easy to discuss the social structures but I think it's important for both me and them to be able to discuss these things.
It's obviously difficult to put these ideas into words. Words are almost always inadequate to describe places, people or cultures. But i'll keep trying and maybe in 10 months it will start to make sense. Maybe not.
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| Weekend trip to Lillydale |
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| Zebra Sighting |
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| The Beautiful River |
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| The Local Pitch at Sunset |
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| The Condor at the Pitch, basking in the moonlight |
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| Skillz PC Team. Thembi and Coach K |
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| The Fabulous Braii Stand |
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| Skillz Team 2.0, Thembi with other intern, Mimi |
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| Local Band; Snotkop |
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| Letting Off Some Steam on the Bongos after a long Day |
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| PC's daughter, Owa. Can't beat that smile. |
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| In Action! Mother looking on proudly in the background. |
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| Skillz Street intervention activities at local Tshiamo Primary School |
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| Doing her best Avril Lavigne Impression |
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| Doing her best Jim Carrey impression |
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| T.J. Newborn Son of Community Programs Coordinator, Christa. Photo cred: Owa |
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| Selfie, as promised. |
Now that one month has passed, I have many of the things I need to live on a day to day basis in and out of our intern house. As you may know, my volunteer internship with Grassroot Soccer is completely unpaid. Generous donors have made everything possible so far and for that I am extremely grateful. Funds from donors go directly to food, gas costs and any needs around the house (lightbulbs, electricity, soap etc.). In the upcoming months, any donations are greatly appreciated so that I can continue to do the good work on the ground here. You can make donations and follow the work we are doing right here at my blog. Or, if you wish to make a tax deductible donation to Grassroot Soccer (a registered 501c3) in my name, you can follow this link and make the donation "in honor of" Nick Barron. I have included a short piece on my first month below. Thank you for taking the time to read and support my internship and Grassroot Soccer.
If you have any questions or want me to write about different experiences in my blog, please feel free to ask or comment on my blog posts.
