Day 31 - Ruyterwacht Circle Opening

February 21st! Day 31! Martin and I have made it through our first official month here in Cape Town. 1 down, 2 to go. 

Today was the official opening of the Ruyterwacht Circle, which was being celebrated with a tournament for anyone that wants to come down.

Since July last year, Joe, and many other members of the Ruyterwacht community have been cleaning up and redeveloping the circle in the heart of Ruyterwacht, which used to a nice pond, but had been the scene of gangs, crime and drug related activities. In order to turn kids heads away from that lifestyle and towards a better, more productive lifestyle, Joe and the Ruyterwacht community decided to turn it into a mini football pitch, where kids would be free to use it whenever they like, to have a kickabout, and have fun.

Safe to say, compared to what it used to look like, it looks incredible now. It's all completely different. Joe and co did a fantastic job on the circle.

After getting to the learning centre, and setting everything up, we got underway with the tournament. We split it into a juniors and seniors competition. With the juniors, under 14's, going over to Martin on a separate pitch we made up, and the seniors, over 14's, stayed on the centre pitch with me.

So began the tournament. The plan was to have a winner stays on tournament, with the 4 teams with the most wins going into a semi final, then ultimately a final. But on my pitch, on of the coaches "helping" me out, called Densel, decided he wanted to change the format, and changed it to something completely different, confusing everyone, including me and Joe. After a lot of lengthy discussions, the winner stays on rule was back in place. Thankfully it all went well from then on, and some really good football was played. It got more and more popular aswell. We started off with 6 teams overall, and ended up with 15 different teams, 6 juniors and 9 seniors.

At around 12:30 we stopped for a break, before the start of the semi finals and finals. In the break, members of Joes church, along with his friend Joey, gave a talk about how he used to live a life of drugs, and how he turned his life around. Then a few others from their church gave their testaments, before Joey performed a rap song, which was like a cover of 'Turn Down For What', and was actually pretty good. They then finished off with a sketch from the drama group, which showed the type of lives led when kids get involved in drugs and gangs and crime. It was all really interesting and amazing to see.

Before too long, it was time to get down to business. The juniors and seniors semi finals and finals. Both were played on the centre pitch where the seniors had been playing all morning, and the level of football was actually really good, it was great to see. Finally, it all came down to it. The senior final. Yonicks team, the All Stars, had made it, and were up against a team call the Emirates, who had based their name off me and Martin, which was a nice touch. It was a quality game. Emirates were 2-0 up, but soon enough, All Stars had clawed their way back into the tie, and equalised to make it 2-2. It was looking as if the game was heading to penalties. But just before time, Emirates scored a quality winner to make it 3-2. Martin and I were given the privilege to use the mic and commentate on the game, and we went nuts it was brilliant!

It was then time to give out the prizes, R150 for the junior winners, the Schoolboys. R250 for the senior winners, Emirates, and a pair of Puma boots for the man of the match, the Emirates keeper, who had pulled off a few amazing saves to help Emirates win it. All in all it was a good tournament, and everyone should be really proud that it went so successfully. Credit goes to Joe, and his family too for organising it all and making it such a success.

After clearing everything up we all went back to Joes for dinner. Joey new a place that did really good chicken, and he was spot on. Chicken, chips and salad, and it was all amazing. Really good stuff. But Martin and I didn't stay too long after, as we were both exhausted. So after dinner we left, and got home in time to watch the second half of the Man City - Newcastle game, where City won 5-0, after a quality performance. To top off a good day, we beat Palace, and United lost to Swansea, so we're up to 3rd, with Southampton to play Liverpool, and Spurs playing West Ham! Happy days!

Harry

Day 30 - Waterfront 5's 3.0

Day 30 here in Cape Town, and it was a pretty quiet day, it has to be said. Our only scheduled activity for the day was our last ever session down at Waterfront 5's at 3. Other than that, nothing. Which I found a relaxing thought.

Enjoyed a nice lie in, until 9, when I got a knocking on my door from Martin telling me the cleaner was here to clean our rooms. Turns out I'd missed Martin knock about an our and a half earlier with teas that the receptionist was kind enough to make for us. So as I got to it, my tea was freezing cold. Shame.

As we had the whole morning off, we went for a morning run. 2 laps of the local park then a run to the supermarket, which was around the same distance as a third lap. I was surprised in myself that I wasn't even tired. Will have to try 4 laps tomorrow. Martin and I are almost completely used to South African weather now, and anything below 20degrees feels freezing cold. I'm going to be terrible when I come back to England!

Picked up some fruit juice from the supermarket, then headed home to get washed and dressed for the session. We had plenty of time to kill before we had to leave so we just dossed about in the apartment and downstairs, which was pretty chilled.

At around 2:30, we left, and managed to get down to the Waterfront by 3. The kids started turning up and we got straight in to start the session. We were going to do a passing and moving session with the players in the circle, and they're passing balls to eachother, then following their pass. But these kids were a nightmare! I know they were Afrikaans and didn't speak much English, but they didn't seem to even try to do what we asked. They ended up kicking balls at eachother, messing around, and not doing anything we actually asked them to do. It was horrible. In my opinion they were the joint worst bunch of kids we've coached out here, along with the De Waveren lot from Wednesday. To make matters worse, Aaron didn't even get us a delicious Gatsby for afterwards! The whole day was a disaster. Hungry and annoyed, we left Waterfront, glad to not have to go back there again.

Thankfully, the food back at Berghof was quite nice. Chicken pasty with crisps. Beautiful. 

As I said there wasn't much to say today. We have the opening of the Ruyterwacht Circle tomorrow though, where a tournament is taking place, which should be fun. So hopefully tomorrow's blog will be a little bit better than today's!

Harry

Day 29 - Staff Outing

Today we were scheduled to have a full 9-7 day coaching. But Communicare had their annual staff team building day scheduled for today, so we were allowed the day off to join them on their day out.

Instead of coaching, scheduled was a trip on the City Sightseeing Red Tour Bus, which Martin and I had put on our list of things to do while we were out here, so it was nice to do that with the rest of the Communicare Social Housing staff. They managed to hire out a whole bus too so it was all of us together on one bus, without any extra tourists which was quite nice.

As we were being driven around Cape Town, we had this tour guide called William, or Willy as he told us to call him, who was telling us loads of interesting facts about the things we were passing and about Cape Town in general which was pretty cool. He was also pretty funny, and got most of the top deck chanting and singing 5 minutes into the trip.

Our first stop was at a place called 'Fish on the Rocks'. This was basically I little fish and chip shop set right next to Hout Bay Beach, which overlooked all the mountains surrounding Cape Town, as well as a huge stretch of ocean, that seemed to never end. The views were amazing. As we were taking photos a seal popped up near us and started swimming about and sitting on the rocks right in front of us, so obviously that was the main attraction for the time we were there. The seal seemed to have a pretty deep cut on its belly though, which looked really painful. Joe says it was probably caused by the huge amount of large, sharp rocks surrounding the shore where we were.

After buying myself some chips, because I was starving, we were told that food was being provided by this fish and chip shop. Sure enough, 5 minutes after i finished my chips, they brought out 3 massive trays full of fish and chips. Luckily for me I have a decent appetite, so I managed to eat a plateful of fish and chips, aswell as the chips I had beforehand! Was decent food, too!

After hopping on the bus, we travelled on further. This time, ending up at Camps Bay Beach. Where we spent about 20 minutes taking photos of the group and the views, while chatting and getting to know the people that were on the trip with us. Soon enough, we were back on the bus.

After that, at around 1ish, the trip was over. As we all clambered off the bus, Danielle, the one who organised the whole trip, guided us to our next place on the outing. Green Point Park. Green Point Park was a big, amazing park situated on the west coast of Cape Town. It was so amazing and peaceful it was so nice to be there. We all sat down on some benches next to a big green, and decided we fancied a kick about before lunch came, so Martin ran and got the ball from our car, and off we went. We had a little 4v4 match before being called over to have our lunch. Pizza! Happy days. There was loads of it, too. On a bench of about 7 of us we had 6 large pizzas, aswell as 3 portions of chicken wings to eat through. I was still full from the fish and chips earlier so I didn't eat much.

As soon as we were done we were back to having a kickabout. Even the ladies got involved! Although when they did it turned more into Aussie Rules, where people we kicking, throwing, rolling, doing all sorts with the ball, it was quality to watch. I mentioned to Lourens that all they needed for a team building day was a ball and 4 cones. Everyone was having loads of fun it was quality to watch.

Before too long everyone started leaving, and Martin and I took Danielle to the Communicare Support Office so she could finish up with work, then headed home. I'm not sure about Martin but I'm exhausted, and will make every use of the little lie in we have tomorrow, before our rooms are cleaned, then heading to Waterfront for our final session with Waterfront 5's.

Harry

Photos From Day 25 - Aquarium

Photos From Day 18 - Camps Bay Beach

Photos From Day 24 - Lions Head Mountain

Day 28 - Sunflower crèche & De Waveren Primary School

Day 28, 4 weeks into our trip over here in South Africa, and 8 weeks to go. We're already a third into our trip and time is flying by.
 
Today we had a pretty easy day, with a crèche in the morning, followed by a primary school session in the afternoon.
 
We started off with a visit to the Learning Centre from the Sunflower crèche lot, who we'd coached last week, and were looking forward to them coming again, as the enthusiasm was brilliant, even if they didn't understand us much!
We did the same session that we did with Goodwood yesterday, but we added a relay type game in between the beginning game, and the circle ball rolling game at the end. We had to drag the session out a bit as we had them for an hour, but it went really well in my opinion, which was nice.
 
After that we had a few hours to kill before De Waveren, so we chilled out for a bit at the Learning Centre. A couple of people needed help, and a CV needed to be typed up so we did that to kill time, but other than Joe taking us out to drop some stuff off at Sunflower crèche, and paying a quick visit to check out the De Waveren facilities, we didn't do much else. Which I appreciated cause I was exhausted! Especially after such a long day yesterday!
 
We then went to De Waveren, where we were told we'd have around 25 kids to coach, and around 8 balls, which we were happy with as we could do a decent session with those numbers. We got there and we started the session with 64 kids wanting to be coached! As the session progressed the numbers eventually rose to 80 kids! It was nuts! We had to think on our feet, and if our time at Arsenal has taught us anything its how to cope when numbers and equipment aren't what you expected they'd be! We managed to start a possession based exercise which we use as our back up session, which can be used with any number of kids & balls. However, we'd explain the exercise to each group, and watch them do it, but as soon as we turned our back they'd be doing something else! It was a nightmare. We eventually cut the session a couple of minutes short to have a word with them. Which was weird as we hadn't had to do that with any group since coming out here. Oh well. We were assured we'd have less kids next week by the head coach. We'll take it with a pinch of salt, though.
 
Tonights plan is to chill out, and watch the Real Madrid-Schalke Champions League game, which should be good. We have a staff outing tomorrow too, which means we don't have to plan any sessions until Friday, where we're only at Waterfront 5's for the last time, which we'll be sad to leave.
 
Harry

Day 27 - Goodwood Crèche, Ruyterwacht Circle & Atlantic Soccer Club

Today we really saw the heat kick in, with the temperature reaching 34degrees by 10am! It was way too hot.

We started the day off with our final booked session at Goodwood Park Crèche, and as it was so hot, Lourens asked us to try and avoid the kids running about too much, and make our sessions a bit shorter so the kids didn't overheat. So we decided to do a game to start with that got them moving, but in different ways. We set out cones I a big square, and got the kids moving in the middle of it. When Martin blew his whistle they then had to find, and stand by a cone. They seemed to love it, so we let it drag out for a while, before finishing the session off with getting the kids sat down in a circle, rolling a ball to eachother, like we did last week. We managed to do that with all 4 groups, which made it easier. But after getting involved with the kids in the game, I was exhausted by the end of it. The heat completely took it out of me.

After lunch we quickly headed back to Berghof so I could grab my boots for Atlantic Football Club later on, and went to the Learning Centre to chill out for a bit before our after school session at the Ruyterwacht Circle. That was a fairly chilled out session, too. We had around 10 kids, who all wanted to play a match. As it was so hot we gave in and let them play, and we got involved too, which was a big mistake as we were so hot afterwards.

From that, we picked up Yonick, and took him to Atlantic, where we were meant to coach the under 16's and 17's, but a few of Yonicks under 18's team turned up too, so they joined in. We did a similar session to our Table View one on Thursday, and got them into possession based exercises, which they did really well in actually. Although it was completely silent the whole time. None of them talked to eachother! Even when we told them to call names, the most they'd do is mumble. It was crazy. I've never coached a team so quiet.

After a hot, tiring day we made our way home, where we plan on chilling out, watching the Chelsea-PSG game on the TV. I know you should always support clubs from your country, but I can't stand Chelsea one bit, so hoping for a PSG win!

Harry

Day 26 - Learning Centre 3.0

Today was our final Monday we have where we are scheduled to work. As a result of the Communicare Action Soccer League being delayed for a couple of weeks, we've had Saturdays off, and work Mondays. As it all starts this Saturday, though, we now have every Monday off. Not too bad.

It was a pretty boring day, to be honest, so there wont be much to this post. As part of our time here at Communicare, when we are at the Learning Centre, Lourens, Joe, Azille and co want us to help them out giving a hand to the people that come in to use the computers. However, most of the people that come in, don't need help at all, so we end up chilling out for most of the day on the computers, which isn't too bad. We only had to help one lady who had a bit of trouble with some files that she wanted to save on her memory stick. Other than that, zilch.

As there is going to be a little tournament on the Ruyterwacht circle on Saturday, for an official opening of it, Joe had some nets in the storage cupboard that he wanted to see if they would fit on the goals, so Martin and I grabbed a bag each, and walked over to the circle with Joe. There was a big cleanup happening at the same time, and to be honest, the circle looked amazing. It was nice and clean, and looked really good. We went over, tried a net on each goal. Both fitted, happy days. Before we left, some guy came over, and wanted us to check out the Bee Hives that been spotted in 3 of the trees surrounding the circle. Bit hesitant, we both went. The first couple of trees you had to look closely to see the hive, but on the third tree, you couldn't go near it, it was huge! Bees were flying around everywhere it was crazy. Apparently Lutvia is going to come and sort it out soon. Wouldn't be surprised if she sorted it out herself, bare handed. She's terrifying. Martin's admitted many times that she scares him. I'm a little bit more brave though, as shes tought me a bit of Afrikaans.

A little while later, Joe came in  to the computer room where we had just had lunch, and asked us if we wanted to go with him to the Drommedaris complex. Apparently he had let some woman take control of the main building in the complex or something, and wanted to see if she'd left it in decent condition. As we had nothing else to do we were more than happy to come along.
Not much to say other than it was nice and clean!

After that, we headed to the Brooklyn office, where Joe had to pick something up. We also saw Conan there! We were welcomed with bad news, though, as we found out that Conan is leaving Communicare on the 27th February. We were gutted. He promised us that we'd still see him and that which is nice. He even slotted in a potential invite to his and his wife's birthday do in the middle of March, which should be good.

After getting back to the Learning Centre we were free to go home. Tired and hot, we headed straight back, in preparation for the FA Cup draw, and the Man Utd - Preston game, which Preston were unlucky to lose in my opinion. None of United's goals should have counted. First one was offside, second was a push on the defender, third was a disgusting dive from the England captain. Shameful. Typical Man Utd though. Sets up a decent quarter final with us, which from the looks of it we should be winning it. But we never seem to turn up at Old Trafford which worries me a bit.

Harry

Day 25 - Aquarium

Another Sunday, another end to the week. Also it's match day! Arsenal vs Middlesborough in the FA Cup.

As the game didn't kick off until 6pm our time, Martin and I agreed we'd do something touristy today in order to tick another experience off of our long list of things we want to do while we're out here. Today was either going to be Hout Bay beach or Aquarium.

After having a nice lie in, and waking up at around 11, we were both feeling the effects of yesterday's trip up Lions Head mountain, especially in our legs, so neither of us felt like going taking a trip to the beach, which we had no idea how to get too. So a trip to the Aquarium was chosen. After having breakfast and getting showered we set off. As the Aquarium was down by the Waterfront we decided to walk it, as it was a nice day and it wasn't a long walk.

When we got there, we had a look at prices, then set off to have a look around the shopping centre and grabbing a drink. We stopped at a place called La Playa, and ordered milkshakes. Martin got an Oreo one, I got a Nutella one. Phwoar. They were beautiful. Massive glasses, and tasty milkshakes. It was brilliant. We had a bit more of a look around town, before heading to the Aquarium to get tickets. It was only R125, which works out at around £7 for a day ticket, which was pretty good.

The Aquarium was brilliant. I loved it. They had all kinds of different fish, sharks, Rays, and even penguins! My favourite! They stank but they were so cool to see up close. Some fish were really weird looking though, and freaked me out a bit. We saw a few sharks in this big tank along with sting rays, a huge turtle, and other massive fish, and it made me want to go shark cage diving even more. They looked so cool up close it was quality.

After we finished looking round the Aquarium, we set off to the Ferrymans pub to watch the game. Last time we went we lost 2-1 to Spurs, and Martins superstitious side kicked in and he was a bit sceptical of going there again. As it was the only place we knew we could see the game at I made him go. We decided to grab some dinner there too as it was getting late, Martin got a burger, and I opted for a huge rack of ribs. 1.2kg worth of ribs to be exact. They were massive! After failing to finish off my ribs at Da Vinci's a while ago, Martin was making jokes at me about not being able to finish these. Game on. Around 45 minutes later I had successfully scoffed down 1.2kg of ribs, along with a side order of chips. Beautiful. On to watch the game.

We actually played really well, and won 2-0, to get into the quarter finals! Ground got a brace, and I was gutted he didn't bag a hat trick. Also proved to Martin that the Ferrymans wasn't a cursed place to watch the football after all!

Got an early start tomorrow so I'll end the post here. Joe wants us at the Learning Centre for 9am! So we're both aiming to get an early night.

Harry