Today was our last day of work out here in Cape Town! It's been extremely busy, and we've worked with so many different clubs, schools, creches and townships. Joe did the maths and adding up and worked out that we've coached and seen over 2000 kids. That was a few weeks ago, that figures probably reached around 2,500 kids now. Crazy! We've been really happy to be so busy, but it's nice that we're finally finished, and can look forward to a quality weekend, before we fly back home.
We had an early start today, as we had a long trip to Somerset West, where we were meeting the De Beers coaches, and putting on a little soccer clinic for 2 groups of their players, to give them some ideas for when they coach. 2 hours, 2 groups, an hour with each group, completely different sessions with both. I live for this stuff. Happy days.
Our first session was with the Under 8's, 9's and 10's. As they were quite a young bunch, we decided to do a couple of games of tag, followed by Domes and Dishes. They seemed to love it, and it went really well. They got really into it, and when we split them into teams, they got even more competitive, which made it even more fun. So that was nice to see. For the final 15 minutes, we got them into a match. At the end of every session its nice to get them into a match, so they can practice the skills they've developed from the session in a real match scenario. As we had 2 groups, Martin and I agreed that we'd do matches with them both, and the aggregate score winner will win the overall bet between us both as it was currently 5-5.
First game with the younger group ended 0-0. Good football, but no goals, so it was all on the second game with the older lot.
The second group we had were the older lot, under 11's, 12's and 13's. Instead of doing Domes and Dishes, we did Skills Corridor. Very similar to what we did with All Stars. Although I enjoyed doing Skills Corridor with this group a lot more, as they seemed a lot more focused, and did everything first time and did it well. We even got to the point where Martin and I were trying to hit their ball as they went across, and they'd lose their ball if we hit it. It was quite fun!
We then had the deciding match. I had 10 players, Martin had 9. Martin did have the better strikeforce though. We were both short of defenders. With me having to put 3 midfielders in defence and 1 midfielder in goal, and Martin having 2 keepers, 1 in goal 1 outfield, and 3 midfielders in defence, too. It was a really good game, with both teams having chances to score. Martins team were far more clinical though, and won 2-0. Which means I lost 6-5 overall. Gutted. Absolutely gutted.
After we wrapped everything up, we met Charles (one of the coaches) who took us to a local brewery. This brewery had a clever idea, where you can either buy 1 big pint of 1 beer, or have a pallet of 4 smaller beers, of 4 different types. Martin and I both did the latter, and selected our 4 options. Can't even remember what they were called but they were nice. We at some chicken nuggets and chips and had a bit of a chat before saying our goodbyes and parting.
We headed back to the Learning Centre to meet Joe and Azille, and headed to the Childrens Hospital of Cape Town, in Rondebosch. After talking to Vinolia last Sunday, and her mentioning that there was a burns ward, I pestered Joe to get us to visit them. Being a burns victim myself, it would've meant a lot to see the kids there, and try and put a smile on their faces. We got their and met with the lady that would take us round. We brought chocolates and sweets for the kids too, and every kid we saw seemed to cheer up a bit with the sweets.
It was tough. To see all these kids, most younger than 5, wrapped up in bandages as a result of serious burns hit me hard. After having countless operations, I was always the one in the bed seeing people walk around seeing the patients, but to be on the opposite side of it was quite difficult. One of the kids was the exact same age as I was when I got burnt, and had his whole right side of his body affected from scalding, similar to me. So it was quite nice to have a little chat with his dad, and hopefully I cheered him up a bit. A few of the children we saw had really serious burns, too, covering most of their body, including their face. It made me feel so lucky that it was just my arms that were affected, and felt horrible that they had to suffer while I was the one to only have arms affected.
Sadly, because the lady we were with had to get to meetings, we didnt stay long. Seeing the work that the hospital were doing was amazing. So it was nice to see them.
After that, we were done for the day, and we headed home. Got a busy weekend coming up, so keep posted on this blog, as it's not over yet!
Harry
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