Soccer tournament fun

Not every girl can boast of having real Zulu warrior bodyguards, but I can! ;-)

(I think at last count there are about 14 of them ready to protect me! You never know when you'll need them - there'll be plenty of opportunity for you to meet them on the UK tour in July 07 if you are curious)

But today I only took 2 with me (spot them in the photos above) to the KwaXimba Soccer Tournament, where I was to present the trophies and give a little speech to the players on behalf of GGA. I was glad of Mdu and Sizwe's help to direct me to the soccer fields deep in Isithumba, one of the villages in the massive community of KwaXimba that I hadn't been to yet.

It was great, I felt like royalty. I had to do the whole Zulu hand-shake thing with all the players before the finals of the U13 and U15 matches began. Then I got to be a spectator and practice my Zulu on a group of small people who had gathered around me, probably wondering why I was wearing sandals in the rain (it wasn't raining when we left GGA).

After 2 exciting matches, the U13 finishing with penalties and the U15 with a clear victory from the black team 'the newcomers', I also got to give a motivational speech and present the trophies to the winning team captains. With my limited knowledge of football, and even more limited knowledge of Zulu (although maybe that should be the other way round), I encouraged the guys that they could be as good as some of those players I've seen in England, if the talent that I'd seen today was anything to go by! And that they needed to keep on playing as football is a positive thing to do with their time. It didn't seem to matter what I said, I seemed to be quite popular in any case.

The guys who organise the soccer tournaments in conjunction with GGA Sporting Academy gave a little speech in Zulu, but I could make out it was addressing some of the issues these valley guys face, such as the whole HIV/AIDS pandemic and surrounding topics. The Soccer programme has been a huge success and is going from strength to strength, it's exciting to be a part of it.

(Oh and I had to buy my 'boys' some food on the way home as they were hungry, hence the chicken in my car scenario in the photos above. Yet, there were no greasy fingerprints on the upholstery in my car afterwards, I was impressed!)

I didn't know I was going to this event until mid-morning today, but it turned out to be a really fun afternoon!