There’s a Norwegian girl named Ina who is here in MF with a program called S.C.O.R.E., which is a South African NGO doing community development through sports, specifically soccer. I think sometimes it’s a little hard for her to make any headway because people can be so disorganized. She’s been stuck trying to “make it happen” at the same school that we had the most trouble. The principal and his head deputy are quite useless and Ina was getting as frustrated as we were, so a few weekends ago we decided to take matters into our own hands! Fikiswa and I organized a ‘Play Day’ with several OVC in a village near Mount Frere and we headed out early Saturday morning with Ina’s soccer, foot, tennis, and hand balls (I brought art supplies, but never ended up taking them out of the truck).
It got a bit repetitive playing catch for 3 hours straight, but the kids loved it.
Andy got a soccer game going, and made a lot of friends every time he headbutted the soccer ball. A couple of the kids were really good, including one boy who totally schooled everyone else w/ no shoes on! 
Most of the girls played handball, and the younger kids stuck to playing catch.
Even the village health workers got into it! They were wrapped in blankets because it was a cold day, but they hiked their blankets up and tossed the ball around like pros.
Toward the end, a couple of drunks showed up (that happens almost every time we go on a location visit) and stole one of Ina’s soccer balls, which was a bit of a buzz kill. Didn’t they have anything better to do than hang around the school playground on a Saturday morning? Apparently not, considering they were smashed by 11AM. Unfortunately we see that a lot.
After a few hours everyone was exhausted. We all had a few spins on the roundabout,
and then we finished the day with a song that Ina taught us. Repeat after me (sung to the tune of ‘frere jaque’):
Ina leading the group in the Fruit Salad song.
“Wa-ter-me-lon” (wave your arms in a 1/2 circle)
“Pine-ap-ple” (pat your hands around the shape of a giant pineapple)
“Ba-na-na Ba-nana” (kick your feet in front of you)
“Fruit Sa-lad, Fruit Sa-lad” (hands on hips, shake your hips)
Not only did everyone LOVE the warm-up / cool-down dance, but there was one village health worker, Nomsa, who thought it was so funny that now she does the “Wa-ter-mel-on” dance every time I see her! She doesn’t speak much English, so that has become our form of communication. It’s hilarious.
Viva Sports Day!!!!!!
