Soccer in SA

There are two major passions that I have watched God develop and use in my life in unique ways I would have never have imagined.  One passion is the love for science and the other - the love for soccer. 

In Chariots of Fire (which I have never actually seen all the way through, but have heard the story plenty of times…), the main character makes the statement “I feel God’s pleasure when I run”.  Well, I can easily say I feel God’s pleasure when I play soccer.  (I also often feel God’s pleasure when I run, but this is more temperature and location dependent.)  When I play I can’t stop smiling.  The game is beautiful.  A perfect shot, a perfect pass, a perfect save – it should be appreciated like fine art. 

Luckily, everywhere I have lived, I have been able to meet up with new people and build relationships over the common passion of futbol.  Here’s what this has looked like in Cape Town both for me, personally, and with my kids at Bridges.

Last year I started playing with a 5-a-side women’s team out in Cape Town.  I would drive out every Wednesday night.  The level of play was pretty low, but it was so nice to kick the ball around and be on a team again.  That team fell apart and blended in with a new 5-a-side team and league that plays every Thursday night at a the Hellenic Club next to Greenpoint Stadium (built for the World Cup in 2010 - such a beautiful stadium!).  We’re different from the other teams in our league in that we are from all over the globe – South Africa, Columbia, Sweden, and the US.  It is such a nice group of girls and we work so well together as a team.  I love playing with them and seeing how both friendships and on-field team dynamics have been building and solidifying.  I have loaded up the Bridges van with groups of students who wanted to cheer on our team and it has been magic!  It’s so fun to play for my students and to be supported by singing and dancing and be fueled by their enthusiasm!  My students are so encouraging and full of joy and they love passing it on to others.  My team loves it and keeps asking for them to come back.  I’ve also enjoyed that that is part of my life I can share with my students and involve them in.  It also helps the girls to see a high level of women’s soccer that they can strive for, and shows the boys that girls can actually play!  I’m going to keep rotating through groups of cheerleaders and bringing them out as often as I can.

Also last year, we started up the first real soccer program at Bridges.  We only had 11 boys at the school from grades 8-12, and not all of them were keen to play soccer, so we picked up a few girls as well.  Thandazwa played in every match with the boys and Mimitha joined in toward the end of the season.  We also filled in the team with two of the house parents and myself… Some days it was fun to coach the team and other days it was really frustrating.  I could tell some of the older boys were hesitant to be coached by a girl, thinking I would be too easy on them during training and basically make them play ‘like girls’.  This battle to win their respect as a coach was frustrating, but in the end, they still wanted me to play on the field with them, so I guess that meant something.  One of my favorite games last year was playing against Bridge House, the rich prep-school about 5 min down the road from Bridges Academy.  There was a very clear color line between the two teams (them being white rich kids, our team being black poor kids from the townships).  Our team looked very rag-tag – mismatched uniforms, a huge range of age and size, and that we were made up of both boys and girls.  They did not take us very seriously at first, but later changed their mind as we whooped them!  We also had a huge crowd of Bridges students cheering us on with drums and everything.  It was beautiful. 

A coach from a local club team noticed that our team had some girls playing for us and asked if any of them would be interested in playing for them.  They followed up this year and signed 7 girls on to their squad!  Mimitha, Thandazwa, Nelisiwe, Nangamso, Asanda, Bongeka and Asive have been going to practice in Paarl two times a week and games on the weekends.  Thandazwa is a star.  She is naturally talented, but has improved so much after having consistent coaching and playing with other girls.  She is so tough and is developing some amazing skills.  The other girls are new to soccer and are also improving tremendously!  They come back from practices talking about how much fun they are having.  It’s such a great opportunity for them to interact with other girls their age and to be involved in a serious sport.  I have been the most impressed by Nelisiwe.  She is not the sportiest of our students but has LOVED playing.  She talks about her friends on the other team and is developing into a defender not to be messed with… The development of women’s soccer in Africa is very close to my heart and I love to see my girls getting involved in it and loving it!  I have been able to see a few of their games and have really treasured driving them home afterwards and re-capping the games with them, encouraging them on things they are doing well and giving them ideas on how to improve.  It’s actually nice to NOT be the coach in this situation but to see it as something we can share together as players. 

We are just starting up the season of Bridges Academy soccer and have a few matches scheduled against Bridge House soon.  We had a practice Wednesday afternoon that I absolutely loved.  The boys all worked so hard and took the practice seriously, but enjoyed it as well.  Their passing and communication was great and they pushed hard through the whole practice.  One of our best players is Lunga – one of our new Grade 7 students this year.  He has so much energy and ball control and can read the game incredibly well.  I didn’t feel any of the lack of respect I felt last year for being a girl coach and can’t wait to work more with this group of boys.  I was so encouraged and am hopeful for what we can do as a team this year.

A couple requests to throw out – We had a bunch of soccer cleats donated from groups that have come from the states in the past and I was able to hand them out to almost everyone on the team, but there are still a couple boys who couldn’t find cleats to fit (most cleats were for kids and we have high school boys).  If you know of anyone who has used cleats they want to get rid of - especially men’s size 8.5-10.5, let me know.  Also – it would be nice to have a whole team set of matching soccer socks – preferably white or blue, and shin-guards (I don’t think we have ANY of these, and they are much cheaper than doctor’s bills for broken shins).  If anyone would be able to donate any of these, please also let me know. 

THANKS!!!

The Unexpected - January - LA to Cape Town

It is now the end of term 1 which means that I’ve been able to slowly extend my brain power to more than just planning lessons. It’s given me a chance to reflect a bit more about the last couple months. It has been a great year so far but I have been pretty consistently overwhelmed trying to keep up with planning for the 7 different courses (that's a lot)I have been teaching. I’ve had quite a few moments of wanting to break down crying because there is too much work to get done and not enough hours in the day to do it. Somehow though, it has gotten done and no epic disasters have taken place. I had to smile thinking about how tough these 3 months have been, but how God has embedded little blessings in between to remind me that the hard work is not in vain. I need these constant reminders at unexpected times to show me that this isn’t just a job – but something I’ve been specifically called to – and that God is supporting me and giving me strength along the way to do what most of the time seems overwhelming and impossible.

One of the most obvious examples of these reminders was on my flight back to Cape Town from LA in January. I was flying with Emirates and had an 8 hour layover in Dubai from 7 at night till 3 in the morning (not exactly prime sight-seeing time). I was psyching myself up for jumping off of a 14 hour flight and exploring the city at night for as little money as possible. Right before I got on the flight in LA, I was getting last-minute ideas of what to do and see in Dubai from my friend Boxa in Cairo via text messages. He said he was going to try to get me connected with some of his friends in Dubai but I didn’t see how that would happen because I would be completely disconnected for about 30 hrs as soon as the flight took off (I still have a ghetto not-so-smart phone). As soon as I put my phone away, a girl who was sitting across from me waiting for the flight said, “You look really familiar…”. It was my friend Michelle Barnett’s good friend Kelsey. We eventually figured out the Michelle connection and that we went on a building project to Mexico together through Rockharbor about 4 years ago! Kelsey works for a non-profit in Uganda called the Kwagala Project that helps combat sexual violence and human trafficking (check it out! - http://www.KwagalaProject.org). We quickly made plans to explore Dubai together and got on the plane to find our seats at opposite ends of the plane. I was feeling so relieved to know that I would have a partner in crime to explore the city with (you can be a bit more adventurous in pairs than alone) and was feeling a lot less anxious knowing that God was taking care of me on my travels.

When we got to Dubai, I turned on my ghetto phone and was surprised to see that it actually worked in Dubai! I had a message from Boxa connecting me with his friend Maged who agreed to meet up with Kelsey and me to show us around the city. My expectations for my time in Dubai were already far exceeded by having an adventure buddy, but when Maged rocked up in a convertible BMW I had to laugh. He drove us around the city stopping at all of the must-see places and showed us a fabulous night out on the town! I had never met Maged before but we had tons of mutual friends from Cairo and he was so wonderful to unquestioningly spend about 5 hours taking care of two strangers en route to Africa. He dropped us back off and I got to the airport right on time. I was feeling very well taken care of and full of peace in heading back to Cape Town – knowing that God was with me and providing for me in ways I would have never come up with. I was in such a content happy place that the 8 hour flight from Dubai to Cape Town did not seem nearly as daunting as it had before.

Oh, but the story is not over… I step up to the ticket counter to check in and the attendant said, “Ms. Cowell, we have upgraded you to business class”. I almost started laughing. I couldn’t stop smiling – like this whole thing was a little secret between me and God. There was now officially no question that God had my attention – He was taking care of me and was paving the way for my next round at Bridges. I felt like he was saying, “You’re doing the right thing. Keep going”. I’m certainly not suggesting that God’s blessings are always in the form of business class flights or convertible BMW private tours around Dubai with surprise new/old friends – but I think because this was the last thing I was expecting it was that much more powerful.

It’s funny looking back at this 3 months later and realizing that I did need that reminder and still do. I need to remember that I may be doing enough work for 2 or 3 people, but I’m doing this for a reason bigger than myself. Even when things seem impossible, God still wants me to know that He’s with me and that He will provide me with what I need to get through the things He has called me to. And He has!!! Over and over I’ve made it through every “impossible” situation that has arisen. I look forward to many more unexpected blessings to come – maybe not as posh as what I saw in Dubai, but always at the perfect timing and in the perfect form. I only hope that I’m not so focused on the tasks ahead that I can recognize them when they come!

The Short Run to Freedom

I think one of the things I have learned the most since moving to South Africa is how disgustingly prideful I am. I feel like I am constantly having to suck up my pride, which is certainly nothing to be proud of because it makes me realize how big of a beast my pride is... Thankfully this is something that I'm learning and growing in. Here is my most recent pride-sacrifice --> blessing I have experienced...

This morning there was the annual Freedom Run at the Drakenstein Prison (about 3 mi from Bridges Academy). This is the last prison where Nelson Mandela stayed before being released in 1990. There is a statue in front of the prison of Nelson Mandela in the same pose he had when walking out of the prison. (If you are looking for a nice long read, check out '"The Long Walk to Freedom" - Nelson Mandela's autobiography)

Because he was in prison for a total of 27 years, the longest race of the Freedom run is 27km. It counts down, not in km but in years so the 10k marker would say "17 years", counting down to the 27km finish or 0 years (FREEDOM!!!). There is also a 10k run and a 5k walk/fun run. 19 of the Bridges Academy students, one house parent, and our school principal had signed up to do the 5k run. I have been running with a running club in Stellenbosch for almost a year now and Saturdays are our long runs (15 to 42 km). This week I was planning to do the 27km race, but was too late and missed the registration date. I begged someone on the phone to do the 27, but he said, "you can still do the 5k!" and I laughed a little and said thanks and hung up. (I have turned into a running SNOB...ew.)

Then I started thinking about it and went ahead and signed up to do the 5k with my kids. While driving from home to the school, I had to drive past the 27km run and pass one of the guys I usually run with. We had to distribute shoes to some of our students who didn't have "tekkies" (running shoes) for the race (once we got there - saw that about 25% of the kids participating did not have shoes...).

We all warmed up for the race together - I led them in a little jog and stretch, but the kids added their own flair to it with a bit-o clapping and singing that I certainly would have not come up with. While we were waiting for the race to start, they started playing games all together - in 1 group in Xhosa - involving singing and dancing and a bunch of other kids came up and just watched. Then our kids invited them in to join and I wanted to hug all of my kids. I really get so proud of them sometimes. They are so good with younger kids, so inviting, loving... They explained the games to the other kids and made sure that they all felt included. I couldn't stop smiling

Then the race started. I took off with Bongeka and Zandile (one of our new grade 8 kids). Zandile stayed with me for atleast the first km, then decided to start walking. Soon after, I saw Ayanda walking and told him to run with me. He ran with me the whole rest of the race!!! I was running fast for me (that's not saying a lot, but I do run pretty often and Ayanda probably only runs when we do stuff like this). We ran through the farms and barracks at the prison and looped back around. At the last km, he said "Yoh!" and started walking, but I convinced him that 1 km isn't too bad and he ran through the end. We then cheered on everyone else that came through. (I kept running to the guy with the microphone telling him specific things to say to our kids like "Hey, Bridges Academy girls - if you don't run through the finish line, the bus is leaving without you!" or "Bridges Academy - no walking! Either run or dance it out!" It was pretty great...)

There was live music (cheesy Afrikaans pop)and some little stands around after the race. Our kids found one that were giving away free prizes for playing a game. Our kids (like most kids/human beings) love free stuff, so they grabbed me because they needed to have an adult with them. So the "game" ended up being to look through a bank brochure and be able to find the answer to the question "How much do you have to pay to use another ATM" and win a pen, pad of paper, and a lanyard to hold keys. Real fun... The kids were a bit disappointed. Then the guy (realizing that his advertizing attempts were sadly lost on our demographic) said "Yeah, so tell your parents about our bank so that they sign up with us". Jokes on him, they don't have parents! So in the car on the way back I heard the kids talking about that line and laughing. I told my kids that I thought of telling the guy, "That's me, sir", but I didn't to save on a long explanation. They said I should have said it.

Once again, I am reminded how freaking much I love these kids and how blessed I am to be doing what I'm doing. Running a 27k would have been great for my ego, but running a 5k was great for my soul.