Girls Sports Camp Part 2.1

After a month-long break, the girls came back for part two of the day camp. We will continue with the event until November 8th (one week before I leave my site to go back to the US).  Some of the exercises you'll see below come from the Grassroot Soccer curriculum, which is a South African non-profit organization that aims to spread HIV/AIDS awareness through soccer and other fun activities.  

So far, the camp has been a great success. Many of the girls have reported what they've learned about regarding HIV/AIDS and have demonstrated their progress in basketball, volleyball, soccer, and handball.

Saturday, September 13th

Here's Minoria, a high school student, showing a girl from the elementary school how to stretch properly

The girls here are practicing hitting inside the small rectangle 

Captolina, a high school student (right), is helping a girl with her free-throw shot

Ofelia (left) is helping this 5th graders dribble

This group is practicing passing the ball

Two high school volleyball players helping with a basketball activity

In this activity, two girl race against each other.  They have to pass the ball to three people and then try to make a basket before their opponent does.

Now, it's time to play soccer!

My counterpart, Sumburane, is explaining the rules of the next activity called "Risk Field", which comes from the Grassroot Soccer curriculum

In this activity, the girls have to avoid hitting the bottles with the soccer ball.

There are three teams of ten.  There are five bottles that have a risk attached to it.  The risks of getting HIV include multiple (sex) partners, older (sex) partners, alcohol abuse, unprotected sex, and sex in exchange for good grades (which is common for high school students here)

What's the consequence of hitting a bottle? Three push-ups!

This game was extremely fun and it seemed that they were able to  understand the risks of getting HIV when my counterpart debriefed with them.

Saturday, September 20th

The following Saturday, we had a little Easter Egg Hunt.  Some of the student athletes helped hide eight eggs with a message about HIV/AIDS inside of it and a piece of candy.

On your mark, get set, go!

There they are searching for the eggs.

Here are the lucky winners!

Now they get to read each HIV/AIDS fact to the group

It's time for volleyball practice!

Lucia (right) showing this girl from the elementary school how to hit the volleyball.  This move is called machete in Portuguese.  Sorry, I forgot what it's called in English, lol.

This is a high school volleyball player demonstrating the toque pass.

A little fun playing with the volleyball net

This next activity also comes from the Grassroot Soccer curriculum

In this limbo game, the rope is held high and the risks of getting HIV are low.

These no/low risks include abstinence, having one partner, and using protection

Afterwards, the cord went down lower, which represented that there's a greater risk of touching the rope and contracting HIV, hypothetically.  The risks were the same ones discussed the previous Saturday; multiple partners, unprotected sex, etc.

I love this picture.  The girls look like dancers.

Lastly, the girls are practicing their handball skills.

Later, the Lady Divas showed the primary school girls what a basketball game looks like.

I will report on how the camp is going in about two weeks. Thanks for reading, everyone!

"Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.  It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers.  It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination." 

-Nelson Mandela

A Swazi Safari and Other Adventures

I know I just came back from my relaxing trip in Malawi, but I want to see as many African countries as I can while I'm still in Mozambique.  So my friend Tram (also an education volunteer in Mozambique) and I decided to explore the small but beautiful country, Swaziland.  Our adventure lasted from August 29th- September 1st.  

Take a look at some pictures of our fabulous trip:

Sibebe is the national beer.  It was good.

Mexican food? Well, not quite.  More like Cali-Mex and it was delicious!

Cheese Enchiladas

Dancing Marionettes

While we waited for our Safari adventure, we met some friends

Tram with the kids

They wanted you to see their cute faces

My new friends and me

Tram gearing up to see some animals

Tram and I entering the park

Meet our guide named Africa

Complimentary passion fruit juice and water before the ride

African Fish Eagle

Warthog.  We found Pumba!

Mother and son white rhinos.  Apparently, the black rhinos are almost extinct and white rhinos are endangered because of poaching. So sad.

Antelope

I love the way giraffe drink water

Hippos taking their afternoon nap

Our lunch that was included in our day tour

Dessert time!

I had two bites of the mousse and later had a headache.  It was delicious but too rich.

I love this photo of the mother and her son/daughter

Failed attempt at trying to take a picture of the rhino behind us

The king of Swaziland is on all of the bills

Sushi dinner and wine with Swaziland volunteers after the safari

And then a bonfire

Rise and Shine! Tram and I go for a walk

Can you see the huts?  This is a beautiful village near the backpacker's we were staying at called Legends

Can you see the little waterfall in the background?  Probably not.

The first time I've been in a mall in a long time.  It was a little bit overwhelming, I'm not gonna lie.

When was the last time I was in a Pharmacy like this?  This is too fancy!  They had medicine for acne. I'm done!

Wait, am I already in the U.S.?

We bought ingredients while we were at the grocery store to make avocado sandwiches.  That was the first time in two years that I ate multi grain bread. Yummy!

Here are young women getting ready to dance for the king in the annual Umhlanga or reed ceremony

The  unmarried and childless girls from all over the country shave their heads and dress in traditional attire

It's a full house at the stadium.  The ceremony was supposed to begin at 12pm and it was already 4pm and we couldn't stay for the event because we needed to catch a bus back to Mozambique.  The king still hadn't showed up by the time we left

We were sad that we couldn't witness the event.

Although we didn't get to see the reed ceremony, Tram and I were able to talk to some of the young women about their part in the event and about their culture.  I think that was just as valuable as seeing the event.

We really enjoyed our trip to Swaziland.  It would be great to return in the future.

Also, I added some more pictures to my Malawi blog.  If you're interested, click here to see them: http://mozampaz.blogspot.com/2014/08/maisuri-masala-and-mancala-in-malawi.html