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Diary - South Africa - ABC - week 2
Today as we were not expected to go into schools till tomorrow as they will have a schedule then. I went back with Cheryl to get the other bike, this time, I got a nice video going back down the mountain, again, magnificent view, made more difficult by the recording whilst speeding! When I got back we started writing up drills to help with teaching different groups, we decided that by writing it up, we could print it all and get a booklet up with drills an sessions that will help with the organisation and thus, something we could show the coaches and would be sustainable after we have gone. We wrote a lot up and decided to get some paper and ink to get this all printer for several copies. We came back to the flat, there we wrote a neat copy of the drills with demonstrations. After a few hours of doing this we headed to the training session and met a man called Patric who was part of the safa (south African football association) in the area who told us it was paramount to get the children signed to the leagues, we thought of ideas with Cheryl as to how to get that organised. We met with Kenny and told him of our plans with the booklets, he seemed pleased, we headed on to the older players training and played a game, without cones so back to anarchy. Uneven pitch with not so much of a boundaries, was great! We came back and had showers and shared stories about life, was rather humorous. In the morning we got a text from Cheryl saying to meet at the bicycle shop near the beach to get a lock for the bikes, the ride there was stunning. We got the schedule from her which meant we spent The majority of the week at sentinel school. We had until 4 to see the sights, we headed to the beach to chill at, we headed back to the flat for around 2 and couldn't get the key to work in the lock, Ahh! We showed Gerry and he tried to work it and failed and even his brother Stuart who was staying tried, he have up and went to call a locksmith. We had to wait to get into the flat!! After getting in, we got ready and had possibly the best shower ever to get rid of the sand. We headed to watch the young eagles play at the field. There was a kid playing for the team who was 9 and playing for the under 13, he was awesome, stood out, we were discussing how to get him noticed as he had a lot of talent, he scored a free kick which was superb. From the field we for picked up to go to Marsh and meet with everyone from there. We had a good catch up and waited for everyone to get there before we headed out to the waterfront to see the night life there, we had a good time. The next day, me and Liam went down to the field where we were told to meet them down there at 8:30, Patrick didn't come as he felt ill, we were down there for 8:15 and there was nobody there! Even at half past there was nobody so we headed towards the township to see anyone, luckily Cheryl drove past and we spoke with her ad headed back to the field where people had just started turning up. We saw how it worked on match days, A few teams and loads of people turned up, Cheryl's friends from running turned up and also her husband to watch some of the games. The young kid who scored the good goal the day before scored an even better goal this game! Half volley over the keeper, classy. We spoke with the adults and they mentioned a tournament with the senior teams, several different people were asking me and Liam if we wanted to play for their team. Patrick was still ill when we got back so we left him at the flat as we went for a drive with Cheryl, she took us to see the coast, we couldn't see much as it was really misty. We saw most of what cape town has to offer. We got dropped off at marsh memorial where we spent some more time with the other guys. It was a nice time to unwind from the manic week, the plan was to go out somewhere so to try and stay within budget, I bought wine, it was 14 rand for a bottle! (about £1.10). We went out to long street which is like the place to be for going out. It was a good night and we stayed at marsh as we all got taxis back. Sunday was a very chilled day, many people spent the day getting over their hangovers and we had football, swimming and resting throughout the day. We headed back in the evening. For Monday, we went to the school with the schedule we had been given. We told the school how we were writing up a plan for the grade 7-9s and they were going to get a timetable for that, the timetable we had been given was for every grade! That means going as low as grade 1's! We said if we can work out a schedule which would mean going to other schools so going to sentinel school for two days. The principal said that she didn't want to, they couldn't accommodate us, teaching was more important and that we weren't needed. We text Cheryl about what happened and she said that they were crazy! We rode back to Gerry's and then made our way to Cheryl's house, riding up the mountain was an absolute killer! We got to her house eventually, her house was beautiful! we spoke about sponsorships, getting things for the young eagles and sorting out a schedule with other schools. Cheryl let us use her phone and laptop for contacts. Lindsay came to the house for a discussion and she saw what was going on. Cheryl had to leave so we stayed talking to Lindsay for another hour or so and got down many great ideas, as well as provision for phone, travel and stuff. She agreed with us, as we were talking, Cheryl's friend val came in. She is Cheryl's closest friend and the person who started ABC, she didn't agree with us not teaching the grade 1-6's saying we'd have a great impact, that we'd teach them how to kick a ball, catch and the basic things, she said the schedule was fine. She knew what the problem with our placement in terms of nobody being on the same wavelength, she did drag it out into about 10 minute rant which went along the lines of "some of us are doing non-fiction, some fiction, some a war story and others a novel"... You get the picture! She was a very head strong person and she wouldn't listen, I was losing patience with her but continued listening as she was the boss and 'dem da rules' the way I'd sum her up is she is the sort of person you'd love to have as a friend at a restaurant when your food isn't quite right. she left and we had a few words with Lindsay and she left, me and Liam tried to get some work done but we were melting in the room, apparently it was cold, I didn't believe that. We spoke with Cheryl's youngest daughter about us and about her, she was cool. We stayed there till around 4 and headed back to the flat to get ready before football. The football was a disaster, we wanted to get some drills with them and we tried to get them to do some fitness, they weren't listening and you heard them whining about not playing football and eventually, we gave up and set a pitch and did a two touch game, they complained about the pitch being too small, they really are stuck in their ways! We knew that was a failure and called it a write off, we realised that we needed to be more strong with them. We didn't do too much in the evening, we sat with Gerry for a bit and then went to bed. The next day as we weren't going to sentinel school, we stayed at Gerry's and used his computer to start writing a handbook that we would be able to use and also possibly hand out to the coaches. I was the one writing it up and it took ages, especially the illustration for the drills. We stopped this so that we could do our weekly shop. To make it easier, we wrote down plans for meals so we knew what to get. we rode down to checkers and got what we needed. It was another number crunching sessions and we managed to get it into 150 rand each (about 12 pound). We rode back and put away our stuff. We headed to the training and there was a much less turnout because of the older boys having football up near sentinel school. We did some fitness and a small game with some of the older boys and some men who came down, they didn't play a proper game, there were no goals, just a game of keep ball. It will probably explain why the way Africans play, they can't shoot! We left at dark and came back and on the way back, we all started a trend saying "ok" like the coach, Patrick. We got back and chilled before watching the Chelsea barcelona game, I spoke with Gerry about a number of topics, I'm surprised at the information that I retain when it comes to discussions and what to mention and add to conversation. We watched the second half. Patrick went mental when Torres scored. We ate our dinner and went back to the flat to go to bed. For Thursday, we were meant to go to into sentinel but Cheryl said not to go in as there was a 6 day holiday coming up so it was best to wait until the end of this. Instead we took another trek up to Cheryl's, this was the first time Patrick had been up and he was saying it was easy, that's because it was on a big adult mountain bike, I went up on a child's bike and it was a killer! We got to Cheryl's and I wrote a schedule so we know what we're doing. We used the internet whilst we were there. We went back down the mountain, it was just as fun as the first time! We got back and there was a huge storm! We stayed in the house whilst it happened, we got a phone call from Kenny saying if we were going to training, we said we'd go, he said that he didn't know if he were going to go. The storm stopped and after an hour or so of waiting, we went down to the football... Nobody was there, not one! It wasn't even raining, I considered going into the township and asking them all to man up. I thought against the idea though. We went back to the flat and called the day a write off. In the evening, two people from different placements came down for the evening. It was a chilled night.
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