Day 70

We've had a really nice day today. We took our last ever crèche session in Cape Town which didn't go as well as expected, the kids seemed over excited, they were doing Easter stuff before we got there so I'm guessing the thought of chocolate eggs was probably the cause. After our movement games and then some soccer where the kids passed us the ball we said our good byes gave high 5s and that was us done. We quickly said hello to the 2 and 3 years olds, had some photos with the staff and left. 

We headed into town to Mikes sports shop, Harry had been given some money that his girlfriends family had raised and we were going to use it to get the Ruyterwacht girls their own kit. Girls football has picked over here and it'll be nice to see them have their own kit. We managed to get 10 tops with logo, numbers and team name for less than £100. Bargain we thought. Unfortunately with all the printing it'll take about 3 weeks to get sorted, but hopefully Joe will take some photos and send them over.

On our car journey back to the learning centre we discussed our time in Cape Town and the conversation turned to language. Forget the Afrikaans for the moment. For anyone visiting Cape Town and specifically for people talking football to a Capetonian here are a few English words and there translation: 

Robots = Traffic Lights

Circle = Roundabout 

Togs = Football boots

Takkies = Trainers

Sloths = Flip flops

Chips = Crisps

Soccer = Football

There's probably more but they are the 1s I can think of, the first time I was driving Lourens told me to turn at the robot, I missed my turning and drove on long looking for an actual robot. We then discussed how people switch between English and Afrikaan and how it's difficult to pick up the language when they use both languages in the same sentence sometimes. I think there's about 12 different variations as well in South Africa depending on where you come from. Thankfully the majority speak at least some English.

After stopping off at the learning centre we headed to Wesbank, if you have read my blog before this is the place with the cows and the 1 ball. Great bunch of boys that unfortunately have been dealt a bad hand. They are in 1 of the less fortunate areas and many play football in old clothes and no boots/trainers. Today we weren't here for a session but instead we were there to hand out boots and kit donated by people back in England through Harry's mum. She had done a great job and we had so many pairs of boots, tops, shin pads, socks and shorts to give out. It was so nice seeing these boys faces when we gave out the stuff, so much excitement and they were so greatful. When deciding where the stuff went me, Harry and Joe were unanimous in decision, we decided that Wesbank would be the most needy and most deserving and seeing these boys faces we definitely made the right choice.

We took loads of photos I'll put a few on here, they also sang us songs which we got videos of. We left and as we drove away every boy had a big smile on his face. It's nice to help these boys out, but it's a shame that this is just 1 team of 1 club. If people just saw what we saw today I'm sure so many people back home would donate even more stuff. I know we have charities back home that send money over here and a lot of people are wary of sending money as they don't know where it goes, and there is corruption out here and money isn't used in the right way but if this sort of thing was pushed I think it would make a lot of boys over here happy. The passion for football is definitely here, if you give these boys boots and kit they then want to play football more which should lead to them having more chance of staying out of trouble.

After Wesbank we headed to Ruyterwacht to train with the boys, not a great session just a kick about with some of the boys. But again a really nice group of boys and we enjoy doing it,

Nearly finished all our coaching, where has the time gone?