Feeling the heat in Gansbaai

The second column from Jen of SAFC Foundation's Gansbaai Sports Project in South Africa where it's reaching 40 degrees!

Monday 8th March
Today we had two netball sessions to deliver, one at Stanford School and one at the Gansbaai Sports Centre to children from Blompark. We arrived at Stanford School at 1.30pm and it was very hot, the coaching session lasted for an hour but because it was so warm the children needed regular drink breaks, and we had to be careful that they weren't too active because of the heat. The group spoke very good English so it was much easier to deliver the session, but because they had only been introduced to netball a couple of weeks ago, when it came to playing a match we had to work on teaching them their positions and the rules of the game.

Sicelo was also at the school coaching football, and when he had finished the session he explained that because it was so hot (we later found out it was 39 degrees) that it would be best to cancel the session with Blompark. We went to the Sports Centre so if any children turned up we could tell them that the session was cancelled. The girls were disappointed but because we have another session with them on Thursday we will make sure they enjoy it.

Tuesday 9th March
Today we were delivering sessions with the Masakhane children again; on Tuesdays the younger ones do football or hockey so I took a football session with a group of 8/9 year olds. They were all very competitive and some of them very skilful, the team I worked with won 3-1 - we all celebrated every goal they scored by doing a dance together.

The group was also visited by the Whale Crier of Hermanus, filming a promotional video leading up to the World Cup. All the children again loved being filmed and having their photos taken. We then delivered netball to the older girls from Masakhane, the numbers are increasing with every session, we now have about 40 girls attending the session and yesterday we did some footwork and passing drills followed by a mini tournament.

The session went really well and because the girls enjoyed it, when we finished they wanted to teach me a dance they did to a song by Beyonce. We all had a really good laugh because they were all fantastic dancers, and I think I need a little more practice.....

If you want to know more about what I'm doing in South Africa or SAFC Foundation in general, drop me a line at
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SAFC Foundation would like to thank Cestria Community Housing for helping make this possible.