http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/ 15 en Copyright 2007 Sat, 07 Jul 2007 20:30:44 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss By Jessica Cates-Bristol (Editor's Note: Jessica Cates-Bristol, who grew up in the Washington area, played soccer from the age of five through college. She was an HIV/AIDS educator in Zambia and currently works in Maryland for an agency that serves at-risk youth. This is the final blog for Worlds United. The D.C. Blast team returns to Washington Monday July 9. A wrap-up of the girls' experiences, as well as a photo gallery, are coming July 17 in the Health section of The Washington Post and at www.washingtonpost.com.) Wow, this trip has come and gone too quickly. Here we are, getting ready to board a plane tomorrow morning, and it feels like we were just selling umbrellas in Dupont Circle and pleading for money from friends and family. I remember feeling slightly intimidated when meeting the D.C. Blast for the first time. I wondered, "Teenage girls, what will they think of http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/post_4.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/post_4.html Sat, 07 Jul 2007 20:30:44 -0400 On Thursday, a group of girls came up to the window of our van and started knocking. One girl whom I didn't recognize held up a folded piece of paper and signaled me to come get it. She handed it over and walked away without saying anything. I started reading it when we got back to the lodge and at first I didn't think it was anything more than a note saying hello. Then I realized it was written by a girl I didn't know who said she had been raped less than a year ago and later found out she was HIV positive. She was an orphan, she said, who had isolated herself and needed someone to talk to. She told me that other than her counselor at Ubuntu Education Fund, I was the only person she had told. What struck me most was that she was angry with http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/post_3.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/post_3.html Clare Greenberg Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:00:00 -0400 Molly and Zizipho (Alice Keeney for the Washington Post) Of all the Xhosa names I learned to semi-correctly pronounce, Zizipho was the first one I memorized. On the first day of camp, Zizipho came up to me and we started talking. She told me her name and said, "Don't forget my name!" At first we didn't quite know what to say to each other, so we kept on asking each other "Do you remember my name? What's my name?" We ate lunch together and talked about everything from school to boys. On the second day after we had finished lunch, Zizipho grabbed my hand and started pulling me away. Because the school the camp was at her school, Ndzondelelo, she decided to give me a tour. She pointed out her classrooms and the library and computer lab of 25 computers, both of which were financed and set up by http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/do_you_remember_my_name.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/do_you_remember_my_name.html Molly Brune Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:40:06 -0400 By Natalie Hensley and Rachel Starnes Grassroot Soccer Coaches Titi, left, and Jessie Cates-Bristol, second from left, lead "Juggling My Life" on Thursday. (Alice Keeney for the Washington Post) Lying on our bed, enjoying our usual bowls of Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes topped with piles of sugar, we are nervously awaiting our third and final soccer match. The morning started like always with the 7:30 a.m. breakfast, which apparently the coaches assume that all 11 players are capable of getting to without the help of an alarm clock. We were missing a fellow player because thanks to the South African "winter," teammate Jo wasn't feeling her best. At soccer/AIDS camp, run by Grassroot Soccer, we were greeted by the South African girls who have become our new friends. Together we did exercises helping us all understand how quickly HIV can spread in a short period of time. We then http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/last_day_of_camp.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/last_day_of_camp.html Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:21:54 -0400 "Smiley." I used to think of the happy Wal-Mart logo when I heard that word, but my innocence has been stripped. "Smiley." (Alice Keeney for the Washington Post) When we first arrived here in Port Elizabeth we were told by South African girls that we had to try smiley, a delicious cookie, which we all agreed to do whole-heartedly. Then, while touring the townships with Ubuntu Education Fund, one of our sponsors, we saw our first smiley. It is not a delicious cookie. It's roasted sheep head, eyeballs and all. It's called smiley because when you kill a sheep supposedly the tongue flops out and the sheep smiles at you. Ewww. We sat down on a wood block and watched a large woman unwrap a smoking newspaper sitting on a fire. Molly and I prepared ourselves to deliver on our promise. Out came smiley. She threw it on a dirty http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/eating_smiley.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/eating_smiley.html Anna Rassman Thu, 05 Jul 2007 07:45:46 -0400 Every year for the past five or six years, I have watched the Fourth of July parade go down my street, had a barbecue, gone to the fireworks with my friends and all that jazz. Today, instead of celebrating American culture, I celebrated Xhosa culture. On a tour of a market, at a place selling herbs, we were taught about an herb that chases away bad dreams and another that clears out your system. Then there was an herb that you were supposed to put under your tongue if you were ready to propose to somebody or when you walked by somebody whom you wanted to "get with." On another stop, we learned about apartheid and the history of South Africa; at another, we watched a man scrape all the meat off a cow's head. After finishing up lunch, Molly Brune, center, visits with two girls from Port Elizabeth on http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/a_day_for_two_flags.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/a_day_for_two_flags.html Molly Brune Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:14:16 -0400 At the clinic today we played a game called "Find the Ball." We split into two teams and lined up facing each other. Then we squished together as much as possible, and we would pass a tennis ball to each other behind our backs. The other team would guess who had the ball behind her back (hence the name). The girl who ends up with the ball has HIV in this game of Find the Ball. (Alice Keeney for the Washington Post) After each team went once, we switched out the plain tennis ball for one that had "HIV/AIDS" written on it. When we played the next round, we pretended that the girl holding the ball "had" the virus. It was almost impossible to tell from the front who was holding the ball, which was supposed to signify that you can't tell who has HIV/AIDS just by looking at it. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/find_the_ball.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/find_the_ball.html Allie Lake Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:10:25 -0400 Yesterday, Ian warned us that today would be a very long day. Maybe that's why I'm sitting here surprised that the day is already over. Today, after Grassroot Soccer we all went for a walk through the township looking for girls to come to the clinic we were hosting later in the afternoon. Chicka, one of the Grassroot coaches, had us juggle a ball as we walked down the middle of the street. People started coming out of their houses to watch and Siya helped us ask girls if they wanted to come play soccer later. We split up so that a few people could walk on the other side of the street. After crossing to the other side with Jo, Molly, and Siya, a group of six-year-old boys started chasing after us. They ran down the sidewalk some in dress shoes, some in sandals, and others simply barefoot. Even http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/one_versus_12.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/one_versus_12.html Clare Greenberg Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:30:42 -0400 The girls teach heading and other skills. Off the field, they continue to take AIDS classes with girls in South Africa. (Alice Keeney for The Washington Post) http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/photo_gallery_on_the_field.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/photo_gallery_on_the_field.html Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:14:00 -0400 On Monday evening we went shopping and to dinner on the boardwalk in Summerstrand, an upscale beachfront suburb of Port Elizabeth. I had mixed feelings about this; the boardwalk consisted of a string of affluent shops and restaurants, and I felt like we should be somewhere less like the U.S. -- where there wasn't a KFC, for example. People along the boardwalk were dressed like you would expect them to be in the States, which added to the weirdness. Just like in Cape Town, I sometimes found it hard to believe that I was really in Africa. I also felt like such a tourist going there to shop. Among the cafes and clothing stores, however, were several booth-type shops with more traditional looking items. One of the stalls had merchandise with authentication tags saying that the wares were handmade in a township.That booth offered some really interesting stuff made from http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/gifts_for_home.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/gifts_for_home.html Allie Lake Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:30:00 -0400 Once we arrived at Ndzondelelo High School in Port Elizabeth today, we were led to the soccer field to meet some new girls on what was the first of five days we will spend with Grassroot Soccer girls and coaches. I always brace myself when meeting new people here. I wonder will they like us? Do they think we won't like them? Maybe they worry we won't understand what they have to say. But these thoughts melted as the girls smiled at us and started shaking our hands. --> The girls from D.C. Blast work on a cultural exchange during their first Grassroot Soccer session at Ndzondelelo High School. (Alice Keeney for the Washington Post) Titi, one of the coaches, asked us to form a circle and play some warm-up games called energizers. As we were playing games such as "Do Like I Do", and "Bona Bona Bona, Eo" I http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/post_2.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/post_2.html Clare Greenberg Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:00:55 -0400 To help prepare barbecue for a township in Richmond, our coach Ian said we were going to butter the rolls. We had no idea he meant 1,000 rolls -- and only eight buttering knives. D.C. Blast team members butter buns for a barbecue in Richmond. (Alice Keeney for the Washington Post) Molly: Because I didn't have a butter knife, I began putting sausages in buns and adding catsup and chutney. Five or six of the girls my age who had taught me to dance the night before came over and asked how they could help. Pretty soon we had a whole line of sausage-making going and I realized that this trip isn't just us coming to help the poor, starving people of Richmond. These girls also have a need to help their community. While preparing the food the Richmond girls and I would look at each other and smile and http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/small_pleasures.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/small_pleasures.html Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:58:37 -0400 If you asked anybody on our soccer team what she remembers most from Sunday's church service in Richmond, she would say the music. Of the 11 girls on this trip, only four are practicing Christians. Clare is half Buddhist and half Jewish; the rest of the girls are not religious. This excursion was planned as a cultural experience and it certainly was that. --> The D.C. Blast stops in Richmond, Africa, for a church service on Sunday. The church, a predominantly black Anglican church, has a relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. (Alice Keeney for the Washington Post) The only instruments the people at church had were essentially blocks that resembled cushions. They were used like drums and two of the women clapped a heavy beat or rhythm with them. Unlike my church, where we have a piano to help us sing and many people still are unable to http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/praising_god_in_song_and_blank_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/praising_god_in_song_and_blank_1.html Molly Brune Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:00:00 -0400 After our first township tour in Richmond yesterday, our guide announced to the children around us that there would be a disco in town around 7 p.m. The little boys ran up to us shouting, "Are you coming, are you coming? Will you dance with me?" Of course we couldn't wait to make friends and learn about the music and dances of South Africa. However, some of us were nervous about our abilities. I, for one, am not a dancer. I rarely dance in public without a lot of encouragement. I convinced myself that as long as I stayed in the middle of the room, no one would notice how badly I moved. (This proved false later in the night.) Other players, such as Kenia, had been ready to dance since we stepped off the bus earlier that day. Kenia Rubio, right, learns some new dance moves at a "disco" http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/dance_lessons.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/07/dance_lessons.html Joanna Meyer-Glitzenstein Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:22:05 -0400 Doing good, for some American teenagers, means handing out sandwiches at a homeless shelter in order to fulfill a graduation requirement. For the D.C.-area soccer girls you've been reading about, it's beginning to mean a whole lot more. The 11 members of the D.C. Blast, a Washington-area high school soccer team, have begun teaching the sport they love to girls in South Africa, some of whom have never held a soccer ball much less kicked one. The Blasters (my description, not theirs), touched by the smiles and hugs they've received in return, are beginning to understand what Nelson Mandela meant when he said sport has "the power to unite people in a way that little else can." The story emerging from the muddy fields of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth prompted several readers to contact The Post: Some told their own stories about soccer power; others wondered whether the girls http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/06/post_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldsunited/2007/06/post_1.html Sat, 30 Jun 2007 21:53:49 -0400