So my first week in Mitchell's plain was a little quiet... The schools in the area are on half term break, so we spent time in the Portlands indoor centre, which is where MITS is based. Here we were learning a little more about the work we are expected to do over the coming weeks, the schools we will be working at, and a lot more about our SA partners. The South African school system is different o the UK system, they hAve specific lessons in "life skills", this varies from learning about their country to road safety to staying away from gangs, drugs and avoiding teenage pregnancy... It was here that we found out that we are expected to fit these life skills into our coaching sessions... Since then, I have been trawling back through all of my carefully prepared lesson plans to fit in life skills lessons and real meaning behind warm up games and drills...
On top of this, I have been told that the school I am placed in speak only Xhosa!!! The children don't understand English very well, but there are roughly 10-15 who do that we can use to translate... so it looks like the next 8 weeks are going to be spent playing charades, whilst I work on my Xhosa!!!
On Wednesday, we went up to Oasis (another of the partner organisations) to have a coaching workshop with a local coach, called Barney. He is a super cool guy who used to be homeless and have drug abuse issues etc, but he has worked his way through this and made something of himself... He is now one of the top coaches in South Africa, and travels the world from Sweden to Brazil and Australia coaching football... He has set up a charity running football coaching and festivals for homeless people, also he is in charge of the South African homeless world cup team... His biggest block of stories comes from being David Beckham's personal tour guide during the World Cup in 2010··· Some super cool stories from that time of his life, and man, he can talk for hours...
On Thursday there was a basketball tournament, it was run by the coaches, but we were drafted in to help, our first taste of coaching since arriving in South Africa.. Charlotte and I were left in charge of the creche kids, nothing too challenging here, especially as I didn't need to know anything too detailed about basketball!!!
We had been asked to prepare a coaching session each ready to deliver on Friday... So Friday morning was spent running through all of our sessions, a lot of running around, was good :)
On Friday afternoon, we went to Cape Town for some team bonding, planned by MITS, and chilled out at a bar called The Neighbourhood on Long Street... A couple of beers were very welcome, the first time we have been able to drink since arriving in South Africa... Nice and chilled :)
On Saturday, Patsy and Barney took us to Muizenburg Beach, where Oasis (another of the partner organisations) were hosting a homeless football festival... It was really nice to see some of the other volunteers again, and to chill at the beach whilst they were working...
Sunday was a very chilled day, some more lesson planning and reading in the sun... WAS a nice day to relax before actually starting work on Monday...
I'll update at the end of the week regarding my first proper week working, and too tell you about my SUPER exciting weekend plans!!!
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