Ukhanyo & Marine Clinics

The whole experience with the clinics taught me a lot. One thing it taught me is that you can never know what to expect!

At Ukhanyo, which is in Masiphumelele, a black township, we started the clinic with about 9 kids, quickly grew to 13, and then 15. We were having a great time and kids were getting lots of individual attention. All of a sudden, about an hour into the clinic, 40 or so kids showed up. Now what are we supposed to do!?!? Thankfully the coach at the school took the really young ones to another area to play and we integrated the older ones into what we were doing.

We were blessed to have the help of China with this clinic. China is a guy that plays on the Newcastle team that I sometimes play with. He is just finishing 10th grade and his help was crucial because the younger kids in Masi struggle with their English. He was able to translate the instructions for the drills and for our teaching time.

I also got some time to connect with the coach there at Ukhanyo. He teaches the P.E. classes and tries to coach teams for the school. He definitely needs help, though. Hopefully we can provide him with some great coaching mentors.

At Marine the next day there were no students on campus. The younger ones were on a field trip and the older ones just didn't show up. We had a smaller crowd of about 15 kids, but it was a good time to connect there at Marine. I imagine that when we repeat the clinics in January, during the first week of school, we'll have a much bigger crowd.

All in all, it was a good week. We introduced ourselves to about 100 kids through the course of the week. These kids will probably make up a portion of our first Ubuntu-coached teams next year.

Kleinberg Clinic

After the 1st clinic was cancelled on Monday at Simon's Town because only 9 boys in Grade 4-7 showed up for school, we had our first clinic today at Kleinberg Primary in Oceanview. It was a great start. We had good energy with what we were doing and we learned some things on how we could make it better. We started with almost 30 kids, but some must have thought it was too hot, so we only finished with 20. Those 20 were energetic and excited. This first clinic at each of the schools is focused on the individual and their own self-confidence. So, we focused on individual skills like dribbling and juggling. Our 'lesson' was on us believing in ourselves because we are a child of God. But that if we put our confidence in external things like soccer, grades, our families, etc, then we will eventually be left disappointed. We need to put our confidence and trust in God. We looked at this verse:

But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

We had a juggling competition where the winner won an Ubuntu Sports Outreach t-shirt. And, at the end of the clinic, the kids got a South African 'freezy pop.'

We are blessed to have the open door into this school. Pray for our influence and opportunity there as the principal and many of the teachers are Muslim. Tomorrow we will be at Ukhanyo Primary in Masiphumelele, one of the black townships.

Juggling Competition Finalists

It begins here...

This week we are starting the official 'work' of Ubuntu Sports Outreach. We're having a clinic each day in our 4 startup schools: Simon's Town, Kleinberg Primary, Ukhanyo Primary, and Marine Primary. We expected to do the clinics after school, but the schools have asked us to do them during school, b/c kids stopped showing up the last couple of weeks b/c they did exams a few weeks ago. (Don't ask me why it's done that way.) We're really excited about the opportunity to 'introduce' ourselves to the communities, schools, and kids. Please be praying for our influence there, our relationships with the schools, and that kids would be excited to be with us. You can follow up on all that happens here on the blog! Casey