Hello my lovely family! Dearest Chasans, dearest Canfields I am so sorry I havent been updating my blog. I just am so focused on what is going on around me that I forget to let all my followers back at home know what Im up to! I just hate sitting on the computer when I could be out kicking a ball, or wandering the city around me to learn more about it. My mom has pleaded and pleaded tho, so I will take a few chunks from my and hers back and forth over email and insert in my blog so you can all read up on how im enjoying myself. Some things that arent included below: I went seal diving on Saturday, and cage diving with Great Whites on Sunday!!! It was awesome!!! The seals are so friendly, they are the puppies of the sea. They love to bounce around and do flips with you, and they love clapping their fins and barking with happiness!! The cage diving was so intense...those are some scary beasts, let me tell you. But I will have all you readers know that after I went diving with those big ol sharkies, my fear of them lowered dramatically...did you know more people get killed by toasters every year than by sharks? More people get killed by chairs, CHAIRS, then by sharks...so, ya. Oh and how could I forget...on Friday, I went to my first club in Cape Town. Well, Ive already been to one, but that was on a Wednesday night. This was Friday. WOW. WOW. WOWZERZ. WOW. I thought I had seen beautiful girls in my life, and then I walked in the doors "Fez." Now I have so many reasons to go to UCT; the natural beauty of the land, the ocean, the animals, the sea life, the surfing, the 7 soccer channels, the rugby, how nice the people are, Masi, and now, how gosh darned spanking HOT the girls are. Not that Im going to marry one of these club hoppers, but I will certainly have my fun for the next 6 or so years in Cape Towns club life, oh yes I will.
On to my back and forth with my mom..if anything is unclear, feel free to comment and I will respond with pleasure:
Every week day is the same in some ways and different in others. Every weekday im at the school, in the classroom that ive been moved to. Miss Xhabsi is the teacher (click-absi), and shes great. The class is much more well behaved then my last class, but I dont want to help the kids that dont need help, I want to help the kids that do need help :( Every day im helping miss do various things, from typing new assignments on her laptop to grading assignments (quick anecdote to show you that Im really in Africa; one of the assignments had a part where the kids defined english words. One of the words was abuse. The kids either looked up the definition in the dictionary and wrote that down, or put something like 'abuse is when bullies steal my rand.' I was scating through the papers, until one girl wrote "Abuse: Abuse is when my father has sex with me." I just stared at the paper for a while in disbelief...) Its very interesting being an assistant, as sometimes I am correcting Miss Xhabsi's english, and helping her explain things in a simpler way to her students...I suppose its not all that weird though, as thats what a teachers assistant should be doing, right? Helping out and stuff!
All i heard about SA before i came was about how dangerous everything was going to be, and how scary everyone was, but it is really quite the opposite. Everyone, EVERYONE I walk past on the street nods, smile, and gives me a thumbs up. The bartender at the bar we go to the most often consistently gives me free drinks...but who knows, the more I think about it, the more I think that the only reason I am being treated so well is that I am going out of my way to treat everyone around me well. Just like my mama always says, if I can pass love on to one person, they can pass love on to another person, who can pass love on to another, and so on and so on.
Ive been surfing a couple times, which I have fallen in love with. Its soooooo fun!!! Were so unlucky in seattle with no surf spots!!! Im sleeping fine, eating fine. Our maid Belinda makes us sandwiches for lunch every weekday (sometimes theyre mayo, tomato, and cheese :/ mostly theyre good tho ) and cooks us up a dinner every weekday. Weekends we get to eat out. Im trying to find some nice cultural food, but its very hard here for some reason. I guess ill just have to look harder. Today though (September 12th), a couple coaches, volunteers, and I went out to lunch in the township...wow, it was so DELICIOUS!! 11 of us walked into the "braii" (south african barbecue) and ordered some raw meat to be thrown on the grill. We each had multiple beef and pork steaks (I think we ordered 25 steaks) and sodas, and we only paid 220 rand. Thats R20 a person, which is less then $3 for 2 steaks and a drink...remember though that this was in Masi, where no one lives in nice living conditions. Shacks for houses, broken down cars everywhere, broken glass cover the streets, and 1/3 people have HIV. Still, the meal was the best Ive had all trip. Cant wait to go back.
These last two weeks have opened my eyes to the amount of soccer talent in the world that no one knows about, because the talent resides in small, poor, unknown villages. Every day after i do my teaching, from 2:30-3:30 us volunteers set up five a side games. The majority of kids who play with us are between 8-11 years old. I have NEVER seen such talent at this age. The ball skills, the passing and shooting skills, and the tactical awareness of these kids makes me nearly soil myself every time I see them play. 90% of kids are unbelievably talented, 5% are a little less talented but still talented, and the other 5% are gems. Absolute gems. They would be the next messi's of the world if a club signed them and put them to work, but no clubs know about them. In all the seriousness, whoever is reading this should come down to visit me so you can watch these kids play. THEY ARE 8 YEARS OLD!!! Some of them are better than me, they're just small so they can't compare in strength.
Here is my plan. My new found passion, if you will. Ive talked previously many a time with my family about going to University of Cape Town. UCT is a half hour drive from Masiphumelele, the township that the school resides in where I teach and these little pele's play. Plan: I want go to UCT, earn a degree in business (MBA) and every day during the week come to Masi to coach these kids. More specifically, I would set up a month long tryout where I would decipher who the greatest of these players are (there are 1400 students, around 800 boys, around 400 are between 7-12) and handpick my team of all-stars which would consist solely of that 5% of gems. If I went to UCT for 6 years to earn my degree, and spent 6 years coaching my boys, by the time they were 15-18 yrs of age, I would have the South African national team on my hands...and if not, then its not like I waisted my time because I had just gotten my MBA!!!! But, say they did become as great as I think they will, then not only will I have a team of greats, but I have a degree in business to bring them somewhere.
I hope that all makes sense! Like I said please feel free to ask any and all questions...I love answering questions!!! I just dont like having to take an hour out of my day to rethink my day and type it up.
The ultimate point you should take out of this editions blog is this: I am fairly sure I am going to UCT. I have sent an email to their International Admissions office, and I hope to set up a meeting soon. When I was searching for colleges back home, a huge point towards deciding what college to go to was how much I enjoyed the city. Willamettes a wonderful school, but how much am I going to enjoy Salem? I LOVE CAPE TOWN. You can never run out of things to do: Play soccer, watch soccer, play rugby, watch rugby, go surfing, go clubbing, go work out in the beautiful mountains, go hiking, go to a game reserve, go fishing, go diving with sea animals, go help at Masi, go eat in some hidden hole in the wall, wander around the city...the possibilities are endless. I have been talking to true homies ive met here (matt, andre) and they are both 20. They keep stressing that theyve lived here their whole life, and they have barely scratched the surface of the amount of things that one young sprite man can do in this illustrious city. How much I love this city, plus what I want to do over the next 5-10 years with my kids in Masi (plus the beautiful Afrikaans women...OWEEEE) are huge factors as to why I want to come to University here. Lets cross our fingers that my meeting goes well!
Cheers!!!
