Productivity!

The past week had one of the most eventful 3-day stretches of days I've had while volunteering at Mamelodi. From more basketball to being on TV to hiking up the nearby ridge (in 90 degree heat, of course), the past few days have been undeniably hectic out at Viva.

On Monday, we finally got the basketball hoop up. Now, this had been a long time coming since Abie and I began working on it a few weeks ago. The first step was to build the hoop itself, which was a lot harder than building one back home. After buying a rim from the store, we searched high and low for a suitable backboard, to no avail. Just when we had decided that the only way was to nail multiple boards together, I discovered an old sign for a nearby shop. Made out of plywood and steel, it posed a formidable challenge to anyone trying to attach a rim, but we weren't about to throw back the only potential board we'd found. After finding something powerful enough to cut through the steel, we successfully attached the rim. This was three weeks ago. Since then, I have struggled to find a place and means to get it 10 feet off the ground. After experimenting with flagpoles and sides of buildings, I got tired of waiting and headed to Mamelodi on Monday with one goal: to forego formalities and get that hoop up.

Of course, this was easier thought than done. The first sign that we might have trouble was when there was no power drill at Viva. This was quickly remedied, however, by Abie's excellent diplomacy in asking a guy down the street for a drill. Problem number two arose when we discovered that there was no electricity at Viva that day. Fortunately, there WAS a hand drill on the premises that we could use. Armed with a hammer, two bolts and a nail Abie found on the ground, we attacked the backboard ferociously. After putting the bolts and nail in place, we just had to figure out how we were going to get it higher. With a heavy steel backboard and only one ladder, it was going to be a bit of a struggle to get the hoop nailed 10 feet up a telephone pole, so we carried a table over and I stood on it, holding the backboard as Abie hammered in the bolts. It wasn't the most picturesque hoop I've seen, but it did the trick--people have been shooting and dribbling around constantly since we got it installed.


I thought that getting the hoop up was going to the the only highlight of the week, but was proven wrong 24 hours later, when upon my arrival at Viva I was greeted by a group of people from ETV, one of South Africa's largest news programs. They were doing a feature on Viva's work in Mamelodi, and were on site doing interviews and getting footage for most of the time I was there. After a couple hours of playing basketball and hanging out with the local kids, I was summoned to do an interview with them. It was going to take place by the playground, where all the preschooolers were being gathered for a shot of them on the structure. While the news lady was discussing the feature with Viva workers, one of the kids ran up to me, grabbed my ball, and started running away until I picked him up and got the ball back. We repeated this several times until other kids decided to join in, swarming me in their attempts to get the basketball. I tuned out the news people, because the kids were a lot more fun. After they lost interest in the basketball, I was quickly caught in the middle of 20 four year olds crowding around my knees asking me to lift them up high. After trying in vain to persuade them that they should go on the structure and get on TV, I obliged, quickly becoming immersed in the kids' energy and smiles. After a few minutes of that, I discovered that my chance to be interviewed was gone--but maybe I can talk on TV when the news people come back to Viva! And they still got plenty of shots of me playing basketball with the teenagers, so maybe I'll still get on TV after all.

Wednesday wasn't about to be outdone by its predecessors, though. Abie and I decided to hike up to the top of the ridge behind Viva, because I had been pestering him to go up with me for a few weeks. We had to bring huge umbrellas to shade us, but the wind prevented us from using them as much as would have been nice. Instead, we got a lot of people asking if they could buy the umbrellas from us or wanting to trade their ratty ones for ours. Once atop the ridge, I took a few pictures of Mamelodi before we hiked/ran down the ridge before the rain came (we beat it by about 10 minutes, and it was a good thing too as the rain quickly turned to hail). On the way back from the ridge, Abie kept stopping and saying hi to people. It seems like he knows EVERYONE in Mamelodi! The people are really nice to me, saying hi/how are you often, but one occurrence stuck out to me and was pretty fun. We passed a house with about eight 20-30 year old guys rolling dice outside. After talking to Abie a bit, one of them asked me what I was advertising. It stuck me as strange, but I guess a white guy in Mamelodi was pretty strange for them, marketing or not! When I told him nothing, I was just hanging out with my friend, he seemed kind of surprised, but laughed and invited me to roll dice with them. After I declined, he said "Come back Sunday!" and jokingly told me a story about another guy who got really lucky. I was pretty shocked at how quickly they had become comfortable with me, but managed to laugh along with them and say goodbye without looking too amazed. Tomorrow we're going to go back to the ridge and climb rocks, so hopefully I'll see those guys again and maybe take some time to hang out with them.

Since then, my time at Mamelodi has been spent mainly playing basketball with anyone who wants to, usually 6 or 7 other people at a time. It's incredible how quickly they've improved. I left my ball with them when I was gone on Thursday, and when I came in on Friday kids were dribbling around without too much trouble at all! Who knows how good they'll be when I arrive tomorrow!?