It happened!

I'm not sure I ever doubted it would happen, but I'm just so happy to report that the Ubuntu Football Academy boys began their new school year as members of Sun Valley Primary School and the Silvermine Academy.  What a fantastic achievement for them, their families, and our organization!  The 12 new ones (SV- Wandile, Eric, Lutho, Sim, and Keanu; SMA- Sinethemba, Carl, Juan, Tauriq, Chadley, Josh, and Ryan) joined Jesse, Luke, and Alex there.

Some of the Primary School Boys

You could tell it was a mix of nervousness and excitement for the boys the 1st day.  Wednesday morning was the start of a beautiful summer day as we joined the boys at the school.  I haven't yet had the experience of dropping off a child for the 1st day of school, but I experienced that to an exponential degree on Wednesday.  I was so proud of and excited for the boys, while also being amazed that God had brought us that far.  Seriously, can you even believe it?  It's the type of miracle that only God could accomplish.

The 7 Silvermine Academy Young Men

The 1st 2 days seemed to have gone well.  From what they share they seem to like their teachers and are starting to make friends with other students.  We're hopeful that they will continue to adjust and become part of the greater community.  And we're confident this experience is going to accelerate their growth as they become great men and leaders.
If you're interested, we'd love your help in continuing to pay the fees for the boys.  You can give online or mail checks to our address in Raleigh.

The Long, Anxious Walk to the Rest of Their Lives

Cheers,
Casey  

New Student Social

The Ubuntu boys that are attending Silvermine Academy had a New Student Social tonight.  They got to meet some other students, check to see where all their classrooms are, and get to know some of the teachers.  Tomorrow is the big day!  I'm so excited for them as I know this is going to accelerate their development as men and leaders.  They seemed to have really embraced the opportunity and will have each other to walk through it with.  They will certainly be a crew to reckon with!  There will be 7 in Silvermine Academy (3 Grade 9s, 4 Grade 8s) and 5 new ones in Sun Valley Primary (Grade 7).  But those are in addition to our 3 that were already there.  So, starting tomorrow we will have 15 of the boys in the same school!  At least I'll know where to find them.  

Please pray with us that their first day will be a success.  That they will be comfortable enough in their new surroundings, connect with their teachers, and befriend their classmates.  It's such a major step that God has brought them to and He's prepared to bring it all the way to fruition.

Cheers, Casey

The Grade 9s showing me their schedule.

ALWAYS charming the older ladies.

All the boys and parents.

Camp Time

What's up everybody?
Hope everyone has had a nice Christmas and great start to the New Year. Any New Year's resolutions? Time to start hitting the gym again?

Here at Ubuntu we're starting the new year of in a big way. Last year we took the Ubuntu Academy boys to a pre-season camp that we hosted ourselves. It was great, but this year we're traveling to Worcester to attend High Africa Adventure Camp and letting the professionals do their thing. They'll take care of catering, lodging, team building activities and the overall structure to the weekend. As a coaching staff, we'll be providing the actual pre-season soccer training which will really set the bar for our standards for 2012. That means high intensity and focused training sessions.

One of the greatest parts about going to High Africa Adventure Camp too is that with them in charge of most of the details, it allows me, as well as Casey, Michael and Treswill to really invest in the boys over the weekend. I know all of us are looking forward to being away from our normal settings and just get to spend some quality time with the Ubuntu Academy boys. This is also a huge weekend to make an impact on the boys spiritually. Casey, Treswill and I met earlier today to go over the group and small group sessions we'll have this weekend. Our heart for this time away is to focus on true relationship and not religion. We're also going to be looking at prayer which I think will be good. The reason being is that there's such a culture of just going to a church in these communities that many of these 13 year old boys can be just drowned out with religion and turned away from a genuine faith. The goal is to show them that prayer can be simple and real and a part of an alive relationship with a God who loves them. We're each in charge of a devotion throughout our time at the camp (Thursday-Saturday) which I'm pretty excited about. As much trash talking and joking around with the boys that we do, it will be a nice change of pace to share some serious truth and have some deep conversations throughout the week. I hope we can passionately show the Academy boys who we love this week, that we're who we are because of our relationship with the Lord.

So needless to say, I ask that you'll be lifting up our time together with the boys this week. This is an incredible opportunity for some serious team bonding, for the gospel to be shared and to for these guys to continue to grow in maturity and wisdom as young men.

Austin

Video: Academy Fundraiser

What an amazing night!  You gotta watch and enjoy the celebration.  And then you MUST share it with others!

Cheers, Casey


Ubuntu Football Academy from VECTOR COLLECTIVE on Vimeo.

Beach Soccer Anybody?

So all of the schools just got out for the Holidays. Unlike schools back home, the school year in South Africa ends in December and the new one starts in January. Ubuntu also gives the boys a month break from Academy practice which gives them lots of free time. So I figured, what better to do than to pick up 5 of the Ubuntu boys from Ocean View and take them to play soccer on the beach. No official start time, no rules, no fitness, no drills, JUST soccer on the beach. We all piled into the car and drove to Longbeach which is right down the road. It was super windy which made our time even funnier. We set up two shoes for the goals, used a soccer ball from the trunk and had ourselves a good ole time. It's just fun to be hanging out with the Ubuntu boys I've gotten to know over the soccer season, outside of that Ubuntu Academy context. I get to see more of their personalities which I love. They cut up all the time and are just a fun group to hang out with.

After soccer on the beach we swung by Casey's house. Enjoyed ourselves some popsicles and then headed down the road to Compass Bakery to split some sweet treats. It was just a good afternoon. I think it's important to have this time just to cut up and enjoy life over the break, especially outside of the Academy soccer context. These are guys I'll work really closely with this coming year with the eventful Ubuntu Academy season ahead so it's great that I get to continue to build our relationships now while there's no official soccer going on.

Looking forward to getting up with more of the Ubuntu boys over this break,

Austin

School Shopping

Growing up, did everyone not enjoy going shopping for new school supplies and if you were lucky enough, new clothes for the school year? Maybe that was just me?..Regardless, this past week I took Chadley, one of the Ubuntu Academy boys, and his mother Desiree to Silvermine Academy to do their school clothes shopping. While Silvermine Academy is a private high school and requires the students to wear uniforms, all of the high schools and primary schools in South Africa (private or public) require the students to wear school uniforms. Quite a big difference than back home in the U.S.

What's neat about Silvermine Academy is that the Principal of the school, the backbone of all school operations, is incredibly passionate about putting students in environments that suit their learning ability best. They do tests with all the students to find their best style of learning and where they are weak learning wise so that they can target each students' best learning style. They're very far ahead of the rest of the game. The amazing part though, is that so many of the Ubuntu boys like Chadley who are going to Silvermine Academy next year, are coming from schools where the schooling conditions are very poor.  Chadley's mother told me that the school he was coming has roughly 50 students in each class. Yes, 1 teacher per 50 students. So to come from a schooling situation like that and to be put in a classroom with 15-20 bright students, led by a teacher who is passionate about educating their students, really is amazing. To think that until Ubuntu walked into Chadley's life, Chadley would have just attended Steenberg high school (an environment that's very hard to excel in). As Desiree and I talked in the car it was very obvious she was elated for her son to be coming to Silvermine Academy next year. Especially as a parent coming from a rougher area like Steenberg, to see your son have an opportunity like this, to truly further himself and be set a part from so many in Steenberg means so much. Kids from areas like Steenberg just don't have opportunities like this. So to see Ubuntu provide this kind of opportunity for these boys is something really special.

One of the things that excites me the most is that Chadley is going to be one of the boys who does really well at his new school. At least that's what I believe. Chadley just has this warmth and happiness about him that is contagious to others. I swear, he has this Hollywood smile too which cracks me up. Chadley was the Head-Boy (kind of like getting chosen to be class president, but by the staff) of his grade at his previous school (Floreat Primary) so hopefully that will give him some confidence going into the new year as well.

That Hollywood Smile

I had a great time taking Chadley and his mother to their new school though. I know it will only become more and more exciting as we get closer to the new year and a brand new, and very big, chapter of their life begins. What I'm really excited about though is that I'll be here for the start of it all!

Hoping this post finds you well,

Austin

Ubuntu Update- Good Vibes

Intern Extraordinaire, Austin Dietz, will be blogging about once-a-week to give you a unique perspective in what is happening around Ubuntu Sports Outreach and the Ubuntu Football Academy.  It will be a unique look into how he is seeing what is happening, but also what it looks and feels to be with us as an intern/volunteer.  Hope you enjoy!

Hey everyone,
I'm happy to report some good news. As you've heard, there have been 4 new additions to the Ubuntu family. Two of the four boys (Lutho and Sinethemba) had been working closely with the Academy boys all year so they're already quite connected with the group. The other two boys however, Eric and Wandile, didn't know any of the Ubuntu boys prior to their invitation to join the Academy. So then there was this big question. How were the current Ubuntu boys going to receive Eric and Wandile into the family? If they didn't care for them, it would undoubtedly make the years to come much tougher as a team.
Well, you can stop holding your breath! The good news is that the boys have been getting along GREAT. To be honest, I don't know how much better they could be getting along. They've already given Wandile (the one from Philippi) a nick name that the whole team calls him and they always inquire about Eric's whereabouts if he can't make it to practice. Both Eric and Wandile are very talented technically and because they can "skill" the other players with the ball, they're embraced even more by the Ubuntu boys. For whatever reason, South Africa is all about "skilling" the other guy with the ball. Sometimes, this is so much so, they don't even try to score actually goals but rather just "skill" the opponent multiple times. All this said though, it's been cool to see this group of Academy boys welcome Eric and Wandile into the Ubuntu Academy family.
This doesn't mean Eric and Wandile still don't have some warming up to do to the team though. Both boys are still a little shy, every now and then showing glimpses of their true selves. This is totally understandable though. Coming from a completely different team it can be a little intimidating to work your way into the new team. However, I'm confident within 2 months time they'll be making as many jokes as the rest of the guys and feel right at home.
Having a great time getting to know these two new Ubuntu boys more and more,
Austin