Claire's relaxing start to the week turned pleasantly hectic at the end

This past week has been pretty easy; Christel House was on Spring break meaning I had the week off, too. It was nice to be able to sleep in and catch up on homework and laundry, which was much needed.

Abongile & Claire in their special new shirts

 Today was the last day of the Easter weekend soccer tournament at Mandela Park hosted by the Khayelitsha Firefighters. There were 23 teams total and a whole lot of fans who came out to watch. Although it was a very long and tiring weekend, I enjoyed every second of it and I am so excited that it was a success and to say that we were a part of their first annual tournament. To make it even more exciting, we made t-shirts and tank tops for our fellow co-educators and for the coaches and admin of the Fire Fighters. Friday was the first day and most definitely the busiest with all the registration having to happen. Karen and Laura came with us, which was really nice. We met Oscar, the behind the scenes guy, and he is so amazing! The start time was 8am, but knowing people and having a sense of African time, people didn’t start showing up until at least 9:30. I had the job of collecting the money at the gate. I think a lot of people were pretty shocked when they saw three white girls collecting money, as some of them asked what the entry fee was even going towards. As Oscar said, we didn’t let anyone coerce us into not making them pay even as much as people were resisting. That consumed most of our day until about 3 when we took a minibus taxi home. Side note: I love taking mini bus taxis!! I find them so fun (and inexpensive), and I am definitely going to miss taking them when I get home. Saturday we got there around noon, and brought with us supplies to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the senior team. They were definitely all so appreciative, as were the junior firefighters who were there to support the team as well. The firefighters played a game Saturday afternoon and ended up winning and now they are in the quarterfinals! Today (Sunday) was more of a relaxing day, we took a lot of pictures (which people love) and made sandwiches again. I really enjoyed helping out, I am going to miss Mandela Park.

On another note, today is also Easter. I think me and a couple of my co-educators have noticed that it doesn’t feel like Easter, where as at home my mom would be decorating and we would be having a family party. Not too many people seemed to be impacted by the holiday, which I have also noticed that I think it is bigger at home. Although it is weird to not be celebrating this year, I will be home in a few short weeks with my family. At this point I am not too thrilled about my trip back into the United States but I think it is something that I need to work on in the coming time. All good things must come to an end, as some say, but this end came way too quickly.