It is Very Real

The other night when I was getting ready for bed, I was telling Thembi that I am really looking forward to hearing some of the coach’s stories. I think it will help Albert and I to get a better understanding of how much HIV/AIDS affects the communities here and personalize the work we are doing. I am hoping to capture some of the stories on video as well, so that I may share them with everyone at home. I was reading a few other intern’s blogs and it seems like they have been getting a little more of a personal experience from the coaches and Albert and I haven’t exactly reached that point with our coaches yet. We are hoping soon; hopefully they will see our initiative and open up to us. Thembi said that sometimes the coaches will say that HIV hasn’t affected them, but she thinks they are just hiding something or do not really want to talk about it. It is interesting to me that we are working for an organization that prides itself on starting conversations about HIV/AIDS and we cannot even get some of our coaches to open up and talk about their personal experiences with it. She also said that her life has been affected in so many ways that she cannot imagine that there are people who have not been affected at all. Unfortunately she has not told me her full story yet, but hopefully she will tell me sometime soon.

I do have some stories that I can share with you that have been written down for our brochures. These are not necessarily the coach’s personal stories, but stories that have come from working as a Skillz coach. Right now I will share one and another time I will share the other with you. The first one is from the Kimberley coach, Joyce.

“Hi, my name is Tsheiso ‘Joyce’ Masekela. I am a Grassroot Soccer Skillz coach. I would like to tell the story of a 13-year-old girl and how she was affected by HIV. Her mother was affected by HIV and was bedridden. She had to take care of her sick mother, siblings, and act as a mother. She was too quiet in class and did not want to participate in school or in the Skillz curriculum. However, before practice 6 she shared the story of her mother with me. She chose to share it with me because she related to my coach’s story about my HIV positive aunt. After that, she was changed. She started participating, talking freely, and teaching other students. I personally experienced the power of the coach’s story in influencing participants and the support I was able to offer as a Skillz coach.”

Coaches are chosen from the community in which they serve, which makes them role models that can relate to the hardships and the issues the kids face. If Albert and I worked with the kids we wouldn’t have any idea the world they come from and our experiences and problems would not be the same as theirs. I have to say there are several times throughout the day where I find myself very jealous of the coach’s jobs and their opportunity to have a direct affect in these children’s lives. I have seen these children look at them like they are gods and I hope they realize how special that is and how amazing the work they are doing is. I also need to say that while we do come from very different worlds there are some things that exist across cultures, ages, races, and genders that I think anyone can relate to. For me I feel like in some way I can relate to that 13-year-old girl from Joyce’s story. While I have not been directly affected by HIV or AIDS, there have been times in my life where I have had to take on responsibilities that I was not ready to assume and I remember the difficulties of getting through each day in that situation. I think in everyone’s lives there are always circumstances in which you feel you are alone in the world and until you open up and share your story you don’t realize how many people have been affected in the same way. That is really the beautiful part of the coach’s story and probably a key reason it exists in this curriculum. We aren’t dealing with an easy topic to talk to kids about; this is something that is very real and very scary and something that is not always taken seriously.