Happy New Year!

2012: A Year in Review

Muji Bwanji! 

First off, I would like to apologize for the incredibly long time between blog posts, i'm not the best with the whole updating posts thing...but hey I guess that's what new year's resolutions are for!

I am writing to you from what has now become a new home to me in Lusaka over the past 3.5 months. My departure in August 2012 was filled with excitement, mystery, and a bit of nervousness as to what lie ahead for this next year with Grassroot Soccer. The first few weeks after landing back on that beautiful African soil flew by as they were filled with orientations, meetings, getting to know my roommates and fellow interns, lots of new information, getting accustomed to my surroundings and office culture, and lots of kisses on the cheek(the typical Zambian greeting)! Not to mention learning to drive on the left side of the road while inadvertently turning on the windshield wipers instead of a turn signal(their on opposite sides as well)...From the moment I arrived in Lusaka the Grassroot team has been nothing but welcoming and kind with their time and knowledge of all things GRS. They have laughed at me as I have tried, and many times failed, to speak Nyanja the local language. I love to describe our office as one big, wonderful dysfunctional family.

Coming into my internship I planned on working heavily in the programs section of GRS Zambia, but as with many nonprofits and life in general, things don't always go exactly as planned. As an intern though I came in also expecting to do any and everything that is thrown my way to the best of my ability. One thing I have noticed and love about the GRS culture is that almost everyone is willing to do whatever they have to to get things done, because at the end of the day it comes back down to the mission this organization was founded on and not about each of us as individuals.So, throughout the past few months I have been splitting my time between helping our programs staff with planning and implementation of our GRS programs throughout Lusaka and assisting with Monitoring & Evaluation  of our programs. On the more programmatic side, I have been participating and assisting in Coach Development sessions that occur each week, helping plan and run Voluntary Counseling and Testing tournaments, assist with graduations for participants, and take part in planning of our 2013 intervention schedule at schools throughout Lusaka. Being able to work experience both the programmatic and more research data focused side of the organization has provided with already with a great amount of knowledge and skills that I know will be great assets in the future. I am also very excited about the opportunity to be a part of our research study on a new curriculum that was just created and piloted last year called Skillz Plus. Skillz Plus works with HIV positive youth, along with having all the coaches HIV positive themselves, to provide support and guidance on living a healthy and productive life regardless of their positive status, and also aims to keep them adhering to their ART medicine. 

A few major highlights from the past few months include: travelling to Malawi to help assist in an intensive week long Training of Coaches(our training's that allow coaches to become familiar with our GRS curriculum and be ready to implement in their communities) with Peace Corps Volunteers and a counterpart from their communities, helping plan and attend VCT tournaments throughout Lusaka, playing in a tournament with other NGO's, American Embassy staff, and the Zambian Police squad for a World AIDS day event, going to GRS headquarters in Cape Town to have a reunion with the 21 other interns and meet with the CEO/HQ staff to learn from our intern experiences so far, getting to know our AMAZING 112 local Zambian coaches who deliver the GRS curriculum in Lusaka, watching the Chipolopolo(Zambian national team and reigning Africa Cup of Nations champions) defeat Uganda in a packed stadium, travelling around Lesotho, Mozambique, and Swaziland for Christmas/New Year's, and lastly learning that I have so much yet to learn. 

Although I have learned so much already in the past few months and have had many highs, there have also been lull's. Some days I feel like there is simply not enough time in the day to get everything done, while other days I am almost begging for more tasks to come my way. Some days I feel like I was perfectly made for this role and that my many years of education are finally paying off, while other days I am terrified by the fact that I have no idea how to complete the tasks put in front of me. Some days I am absolutely in love with Zambian culture, the people, and "African time", while other days I let the frustrations build and it seems like nothing is getting done on time or correctly. Through all the high's and lows in the past few months I take great confidence in the fact that each and every step of the way is just another opportunity for growth and learning, both in the realm of work and on a personal level.

I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for me throughout the next 8 months and I want to say thank you so much again for your donation as I would not be able to have this life-changing experience and pursue my passions without your help. 

All the best, tizoanana(see you soon),

Casey

Intern Reunion in Cape Town over Thanksgiving

Edge of Victoria Falls, Livingstone, Zambia

Chipolopolo vs. Uganda: 1-0 victory!

Mzungu FC All-Stars vs. Siavonga

Rainy season in Zambia!

Holiday travels in Mozambique

Waterfall yoga in Lesotho

Goal celebration at GRS VCT tournament

GRS coaches doing their thing!

ENOUGH.

HIV is 100% preventable. Enough is ENOUGH. A religion, a passion, an answer. This how we will do it: using the beautiful game.

ENOUGH. 

Skillz Street VCT Tournament: Girl Power.

                                                      GRS Skillz Street VCT Tournament

Voluntary Counseling and Testing Tournaments (VCT) are put on through GRS about 4-5 times a year. These tournaments are always done in one of the compounds in Lusaka, with the main goal of bringing the entire community out to participate in a day of soccer games, music and HIV testing. We have 3 of our testing partners attend the tournament, and all of our registered teams are encouraged to go through the pre-test counseling, get tested, find out their status, and receive post-test counseling along with referral to a clinic if they are to be found positive. We do the tournaments in the compounds as well to encourage and provide free testing, male circumcision(I will provide more detail on the very exciting new data surrounding the impact of this for stopping the spread of HIV), and HIV education for anyone who desires it. GRS makes sure that anyone who is tested is not left alone or without guidance after finding out their status, we make sure that they are referred to a clinic, go to their appointment and begin treatment, the work does not stop the moment someone is found to be positive.

Onto the tournament itself...
Being our first VCT tournament we did not have clear expectations going in but were ready and excited for the day! This particular one was a Skillz Street tournament, which is our all girl curriculum/tournaments. It was awesome to see so many people out at the grounds from the community supporting girls playing, because it is much less common for girls to play soccer here. Basically every compound (tend to be the poorer areas of town, that typically are much like their own borough or community) has a grounds or soccer pitch somewhere within their community.
The adventure began before the sun was up at 6am as the 3 of us interns ran back and forth loading up our car with the miscellaneous tournament supplies and cases upon cases of water, and then we were off! We did rather well navigating our way to the compound, but began to struggle a bit with the actual finding of the grounds. This difficulty was accelerated by the "fun" conditions that many of the roads are in within compounds. And when I say "fun" or "road" what I mean is a never ending supply of ditches/holes with a bit of dirt thrown in there to spice it up, and lined with Auntie's selling veggies, snacks and tons of random stuff. Not to mention people, everywhere. The roads really were not made for cars (or freakin semi-trucks, try passing one of those on a ONE LANE road), but the awesome part is the challenge that is placed before you as a Mzungu driver in these conditions. Basically you have to go in there with the mindset of being defensive and incredibly aggressive driver at the same time. By defensive I mean trying not to hit pedestrians/animals/other cars, and by aggressive I mean driving exactly like the mini-busses (tro-tro's) aka any & everything can be a road. Makes you appreciate the sweet smell of a freshly paved road, but nonetheless love the uncertainty of every wrong turn.

Mzungu dancing...always entertaining.

 Any who, after asking at least 5 different people, making a few 8 point turns, and lots of Zikomo's(thank you's) we were finally at the grounds. My role at the tournament was to get the 10 or so teams signed-in and supplied with water. Well this happend eventually, as I ran around the grounds asking and searching for the teams and then hurrying them along because they were on average about an hour late.The girls were all very excited to be playing in the tournament and I could see the competitive nature in the eyes of each team captain I talked to, which I could quickly relate to being an incredibly competitive person myself. The teams played their first few rounds, and the games were moving along surprisingly well. Then came time for my second responsibility, the food.
Food for appx. 250 people is never a simple task, and this proved to be no different. Myself and a few other GRS staff headed off to the very popular ZamChicken (they are everywhere, like the McDonald's of Zamiba) to pick up our order that we had placed earlier in the week to be ready at 12:00pm....it is now 2:45 PM, we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the lunch, as we watch the ZamChicken staff pack meal after meal. After all the lunches were ready we loaded up the car with enough chicken and chips to make the Chick-fil-a cows very proud, ohh how we(we'll not me...) did "Eat Mor Chikin."

Intense PK shootout

Great turnout for the finals!

When we got back to the grounds we quickly organized and tried to dole out all the lunches to the teams, staff, ref's, testing partners etc. Due to the lunch being so late, the tournament was also halted because understandalby the kids didn't want to play on empty stomachs. Everyone scarfed down their food, and then we proceeded to get the games going again. After a few intense pk shootouts to decide tie's, we had our final two teams. The girls battled it out and we crowned our elated Skillz Street tournament Champion.
GET IT GIRL(s).

   By 6:00pm we were all exhausted, hungry and     caked in a wonderfully appealing layer of dirt. Beyond this, the tournament was a success in my book as we had a good amount of people tested and shed more light on the GRS name and the importance of stopping the spread of HIV in this community.

Next up, our first braai at the GRS abode, a recap of the Chipolopolo (Zambian National Team) game this Saturday and my bday!





Peace out girl scouts,
Casey

A person is a person is a person

Today I had the wonderful privilege of tagging along with one of our program coordinators to observe one of our new test/pilot programs that is currently being tested in 2 different compounds in Lusaka. The new programs takes a few of our trained GRS coaches and has them go directly into the compounds to work with not only the kids in that community, but also some of the older men/women & the younger generation. I am not exactly sure all the specifics of this new program and will elaborate as I learn more from our staff, but the really cool part about this multi-session curriculum is that although our coaches have practices/lessons set out in the curriculum to deliver HIV & life-skills education, much of the curriculum(especially with the older group) is decided by the participants. The coaches facilitate the discussion topic and provide answer, games, information, etc. on this topic, but it also largely an open forum for those involved to share their opinions and learn from other community members, both old & young.

Being able to sit in for a bit on the older group and the kids provided two very different but amazing insights. In the older group the topic was largely on Gender Based Violence and the role that men & women should play in the family/household. Apparently (as it was nearly all in nyanja the local language and being translated a bit for me by a GRS staff) it got very heated at times, but served as the beginning for some very important discussions and education. However, I spent the majority of my time sitting in with the kids session. Our GRS coach did a wonderful job of keeping the kids involved while using interactive games to deliver the curriculum.

The biggest thing I took away from today, even though I already firmly believed this but always good to be reminded, is that a kid is a kid, a person is a person, no matter where you are. The men and women were having heated discussions about the role that men should have in taking care of the children and providing for the family, along with questioning why the younger generation were wearing the different style of clothing. And the kids, oh how I love the kids. The small boy I was sitting next to was your classic trouble maker. He was poking the girl next to him, distracting others during the session and continued to stare at me/make funny faces. While some sat attentively listening to every word, others made smart comments that all the kids laughed at as the coaches were taking attendance.

We all share a common humanity, we all desire many of the same things. Good education for our kids, a happy and healthy life, friends and family, faith, doing good for others, etc. These are not African qualities, or American or Asian, or European, they are human qualities and desires. We all struggle, we all need each other, and no matter how cliche it sounds we are all connected. I know it is not always or hardly ever this simple, but in the end it comes back to our shared humanity.

I will again refer to the beautiful insight and words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu as he noted, "A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons."

The Zam Fam

So Jeselle, Angus and I have really been settling into our home here in Lusaka, working on making it homey and all that good stuff. Jeselle is pretty much an interior designer and has matching rugs, curtains, candles  etc., while Angus and I are living more on college budgets but working with what we got...

Pictures of all those who bring light to my day 

We have also characterized our different roles in the house, with Jeselle being more of the mama, as she is an absolutely AMAZING cook (seriously I cannot wait to become a wayyy better cook this year). Angus is taking up his roles as logistics guy and man of the house, as he was already tested with the task of killing the spider below and passed with flying colors. I have openly labeled myself as the "grandma" and most responsible/caretaker mama of the house b/c I am typically in bed the earliest and up bright and early to go for a run. We are balancing each other out very well and having many laughs along the way!

So the other night we were sitting around talking and eating dinner when we came up with a brilliant idea. As many of you know, we are all unpaid interns and have worked very hard to raise money to support ourselves throughout the year (and I am incredibly grateful for everyone's generous support!), so we devised a way to raise some funds of our own here in Zambia.... We decided that we open up a stand on our street and name it "Mzungu Crafts & Food" (still working on the title, gotta keep Mzungu, but open to any suggestions). Mzungu is what many Zambians call foreigners or white people here, as there are different words used for this throughout Africa and much of the world. The specific food & crafts are still in the works but watch out Zambia here come's some delicious food and crazy crafts!

So this guy decided to join the fam (temporaily...)

Another housekeeping note, along with those roaches I mentioned before we have also been meeting some of Africa's wild animals. Typically you think of think of the big game animals right? Lions, crocs, hippos, elephants, rhinos, etc. Well we haven't seen any of those guys yet, however we have encountered roaches, mice and a freakin huge spider! The mouse made its first sneaky apperance as I found half of my loaf of bread missing, then it proceeded to terrify Katie (one of last year's interns who just moved to Malawi), and finally we found it in the mouth of our dog Kamba as she preceded to interrupt our roommate Skype call to some of our fellow interns in South Africa. Everyday is yet another adventure but loving every minute.

Angus and I have also explored the soccer scene in Lusaka, playing futsal a few nights a week on really nice turf fields in town. Some of the Zambians that play also played on the Zambian National Futsal team that finished 7th at the last world cup, not bad Chipolopolo! We have also joined an 11v11 team with our boss called Mzungu Football Club in one of the local Zambian leagues, we'll see how that goes...

On a work note, this week I am really getting started on more of the job roles/tasks that I will be doing this year. It is definitely a lot of work and a bit overwhelming to try to grasp it all at once, but I am incredibly excited to be learning a lot and getting tons of experience. I will be largely responsibly for inputting data on all of our interventions run in Zambia, getting statistics from the data and keeping all of our Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) data up to date. Along with M&E I will be working very closely with our Program Director and all of the Grassroot Soccer coaches in the field to make sure all of our interventions are running smoothly, and continuing with our coaches development.
This weekend we also have our first Voluntary Counseling and Testing Tournaments in one of the compounds in Lusaka. These only happen a few times a year and run all day Saturday, where we hold a tournament of local teams with food, music, dancing, and most importantly testing, with the goal to get as many people out from the community as possible tested to know their HIV status. We will have our testing partner on site at the tournament and provide counselling, testing, referral and treatment for free to anyone who desires it.

One of our amazing coaches GRS leading the kids in an intervention game at a recent Challenge Day in Linda compound, Lusaka (will explain more on Challenge vs. VCT Tournaments next blog) 

Zikomo (thank you),

Caseface

Lusaka Livin'

Brief overview of life in Lusaka so far...

outside our gate

So the two other interns and I have been in Lusaka for just under a week so far, although it has already felt like much longer, but loving it so far! We have all pretty much fully recovered from our jet lag and crazy flights, delays and temporarily lost luggage. My two roommates include Angus and Jeselle, who are the 2 other interns working with GRS in Lusaka for the year.

Home sweet home: Our house here is Lusaka has everything we need, four bedrooms (an extra for any other staff/interns who may come through), kitchen, living room area and a back patio area. My bedroom is great, got my own bathroom, big ole' bed and plenty of room. Although we are only supposed to have 3 of us living here, we do have a few hundred or so extra roommates right now. Whom you might ask? Many of us around the world call them "roaches," although we have begun to call them Jesus (in the least sacrilegious way possible!), because no matter how many times you kill them I have complete faith, and they prove without fail, that they will rise again, and again...Also, we have an awesome dog named Kamba, although I feel bad for her right now b/c she currently has a cone on and stiches after getting into some barbed wire on our plot a few days before we got here :(

Resourcefulness at its finest

We don't need no gym in Lusaka

our girl Kamba

Like I said, office on the left & house on the right, VERY CLOSE

Our office is on the same plot of land as well, so literally only a few steps away from our patio. Just roll out of bed and go to work, no traffic...wooh wooh! Our plot boasts a beautiful little garden (maintained by our rockstar gardener Giftee, who has promised to improve my gardening skills!), an avocado, banana, mango, lemon, and monkey fruit(not exactly sure what that is yet...)!

Another thing I love here is that everyone is greeted with 2 kisses on the cheek and a handshake that can last the whole conversation. And I am starting to learn a few words in nyanja , hopefully I can get it down pretty good throughout my year.

The weather has been absolutely amazing so far. "Winter" is winding down here, so pretty much imagine a perfect fall day sunny, 75 degrees, nice breeze and you have a day in Lusaka! The only downside is how dry it is here, it can feel like a dust bowl some days, especially going for a run and having the cars whip up a pile of dirt in your face. Mornings and nights get a bit cool, but can't complain. It will begin to heat up and get really hot towards the end of September/early October and then rainy season begin sometime in November.

Driving...yeah so if you weren't aware they drive on the left side of the road here and traffic laws? Haha that's a good one. As a programs interns one of my jobs is to get to know the city pretty well, as I will be taking staff and coaches to the different compounds to deliver the interventions and help run our Voluntary Testing Tournaments. It has been a bit of an adjustment, but honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. It takes a mix of being a defensive & aggressive driver, while being constantly aware of mini-buses/pedestrians darting out at any time! And I am proud to say I only turned on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker one time so far...

We had our first staff meeting/introduction last week and had a delicious staff lunch of nshima and the relish(different bean & veggie sides) that you dip the nshima in. Nshima(pronounced "shima") is the staple meal and carb in Zambia, it is basically a soft starch ball made from maize that you eat with your hands and dip in the relishes, delicious! It is a lot like banku or fufu in West Africa, and doesn't fail to give you a food baby while also proceeding to make you completely unproductive for the rest of the day aka ITIS.
The staff here is full of some awesomely crazy people, so it will definitely be a lively work environment!

This week I am learning more about my exact role/job responsibilities I will be working on throughout my internship internship, and we will be going out into the field and working with the coaches a bit. Updates to come on that soon!

For now,
Caseface

GRS Orientation

4 days, lots of information and lots of awesome people.













After many months of anticipating my departure and start of my internship, the day finally arrived Wednesday August 8th. The 22 of us interns met at a small inn (shout out to Bruce at Pierce's Inn in Hanover!) After all of us finally arrived we drove/hiked to a cabin a few miles away from the inn for a few days of bonding in the woods without the unnecessary uses of technology or electricity. Once we got through the standard questions of "where are you from, where did you go to school, degree/major, etc." then the fun really began.

The orientation was beautifully coordinated and organized by 4 insanely amazing staff members who have literally give their heart, blood, sweat & tears to GRS over the years. Mad props to Leah, Elise, Hooter and Austin for getting all of us prepared and pumped for the start of our internships!!
Although I am still trying to recover from and process the information overload that was gifted to us during the 4.5 day orientation, I'll do my best to cover the highlights and break it down a bit.

GRS Mission: Grassroot Soccer uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV.

Vision: A world mobilized through soccer to create an AIDS free generation.

Strategy: To achieve our mission, we continuously imporve our innovative HIV prevention and life-skills curriculum, share our program and concept effectrively, and utilize the popularity of soccer to increase our impact.

The first night was filled with a delicious dinner where we had a better chance to talk and get to know each other, followed by an appearance by Dr. Tommy Clark (one of the founders and CEO of Grassroot Soccer) and his family. He eloquently told us the story of how GRS was founded and elaborabed a bit on the timeline and major accomplishment that GRS has had throughout its 10 year history. He conceived the idea after playing soccer professionally in Zimbabwe and losing many friends to the disease, allowing him to experience first hand the devastation of HIV and the insane popularity of soccer. So together with a group of friends who had similar expereince, he and co-founders Methembe Ndlovu, Ethan Zohn and Kirk Fredrich created Grassroot Soccer. To say that I am incredibly proud, humbled and excited to work for this organization for the next year would be a huge understatement. To date, GRS has graduated over 500,000 kids in the 5 different Skillz curriculum programs and their goal is to graduate 1 million kids by the 2014 World Cup in Brasil. Straight up amazing stuff.

I'll start with some of the facts and stats I learned about the HIV virus itself and the epidemic that is currently taking place in Southern Africa, which will help explain a bit more about why GRS main focus is there. There is currently no cure for the HIV virus, but it is 100% preventable. HIV can be contracted through a few means including: sex, sharing needles or using infected needles, blood-to-blood contact, breastfeeding, etc. In medical terms, HIV turns into AIDS when your T-cell count (the cells that make up your immune system) drop below 200(normal is around 1,200-1,400 for average healthy person) AND  you have an "opportunistic disease" (malaria, TB, yellow fever, etc.) Another encouraging fact that I didn't know is that you can go back and forth between technically having HIV and having AIDS, depending the above 2 factors, by taking treatment of ARV's or antiretroviral treatments. 67% of the world population with HIV or AIDS lives in Sub-Saharan Africa and 1 in 6 adults in South Africa are infected. You begin to realize that this disease effects everyone in this part of the world, whether they are infected, they know someone who is or who has passed away from AIDS or it is ravaging the community around them. In Zambia in particular, we have a large grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation that funds us to have a large focus on a process of 1)Getting youth tested to know their status 2)If they are found positive then GRS immeditately refers them to a local partner organization that we work with that provides counseling and treatment 3)Continued education and knowledge about HIV to youth to create BEHAVIOR CHANGE.

Also, I'm gonna steal a little bit of info from one of our fellow interns that summarizes well the reasons this epidemic is occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa:
Why is HIV so prevalent in Africa?

• Concurrent relationship(relationships with multiple partners at the same time, but not necessarly more partners than many western cultures)
• Transactional sex (sugar daddies and/or older partners)
• Stigma
• Multiple myths, gaps in knowledge
• Traditions around sexual maturity age
• Rape
• Lack of government involvement
• Age disparate sex (partners that are 5+ years older)
• Ability to actually create behavior change, because these kids are all very smart they just need the tools and knowledge to change their risky behavior

In terms of the programs that GRS currently runs, their curriculum include 5 different types targeted at different youth:

1) Skillz

2) Generation Skillz

3) Skillz Street

4) Skillz Holiday

5) Skillz Testing Tournaments 

--> You can go to the GRS website to learn a bit more about the curriculum's and about GRS as a whole! http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/what-we-do/skillz/

** And in Zambia they are about to roll out an amazing new intervention curriculum called Skillz Plus that works solely with youth who are HIV positive.

--> Partnerships: GRS does an amazing job of partnering with tons of organizations including, but not limited to:

• Nike
• Elton John AIDS foundation
• Barclays
• USAID
• UNHCR
• Comic Relief
• Peace Corps
• MLS
• EPL 
• Exxon Mobil
• Etc.

Beyond all the info about GRS we had some time as an intern class to get to know each other and learn more about the reasons everyone signed up for GRS and what their specific sites will be like which include: Zambia, Lesotho, and five sites throughout South Africa. I could go on and on about all the work that GRS is doing and the innovative, humble and impactful manner that they are achieving their goal of behavior change in youth to build communities and a new generation that will hopefully see HIV and AIDS as a virus/disease of the past.

This is plenty for now, next up I'll fill y'all in a little bit on my wonderful life so far in Zambia!!

Lots of love,

Caseface