Literary Expeditions: A Day in the Life...HCT Tournament

Saturday, September 29th, 2012

One of Grassroot Soccer's biggest missions is to get as many people tested for HIV as possible. However, going about this mission can be very tricky. There is still a lot stigma around the disease and it is hard to get people excited to get tested for something that if they are positive could change their lives forever.

We have found that the best way to get people tested is to make it as much fun as possible! So, we put on large soccer tournaments and partner with nurses and other organizations to help test our participants. A couple of weeks ago we had an HCT (HIV Counseling and Testing) Tournament in Motherwell, a township in Port Elizabeth. For the tournament we invited 8 soccer teams and 8 Netball teams to play. I have never seen Netball played, I only know that it was the one sport that my mom really enjoyed growing up in England. We had been planning the tournament for a couple of weeks and there were a lot of logistics that came into preparing for the tournament.

My two primary responsibilities were putting together a schedule for the tournament and helping out the nurses with testing. Making a schedule was rather difficult and took a lot of meticulous planning. I had to make sure that every team played three games, participated in 3 GRS activities, were tested, and had lunch without any overlap between the teams. Hectic! It made me really appreciate all the tournaments that I have been a part of. On the day of the tournament I was super stressed to make sure that everything started on time and that the schedule was followed correctly. Luckily, I knew that it would be very unlikely that everything would run completely, because hey I'm in Africa!
Here is a little timeline to give you a feel for the craziness of my day.

5:45 Receive a call from Siya (Site Coordinator) making sure Kait, Barrett, and I were ready for the tournament, decided not to answer, but I was ready!
7:30 Arrive in Motherwell, meeting some of the coaches already there
8:30 DJ arrives ready to go and starts blaring House music (we wanted a DJ to attract the community to come out and want to get tested, plus everything is more fun with a DJ!)
8:45 Go with one of the coaches to a local petrol station to try and find a pump to blow up the soccer and netballs. We had bought a pump the previous day, but it didn't have a needle (even though the package said a needle was included) We couldn't find a needle anywhere so we finally had to go to the local spar (grocery store) and buy a new pump
9:00 Opening Circle is supposed to start...however it does not
9:30 First Games are supposed to begin, however we still haven't started the opening circle, meanwhile Siya is at the local Police Station and has left the keys to the car...inside the car and therefore needs Kait to come and fetch him with a different car.
9:45 We start the Opening Circle, however several teams are still not present.
10:10 Teams are given schedules that I have created, however games still have not started because there is no whistle for Netball and no goal posts for soccer. I try to explain to our coaches that they should improvise, because we need to start, however to no avail.
10:20 Goals arrive...Soccer begins, Siya gets the keys out of the car...arrives at the tournament. I am able to convince the netball referees to yell or make a loud sound when there is a foul, a nice substitute for a whistle. Also testing begins with the nurses, however they do not have any paperwork, so I quickly find resources for them
12:30 Games are going smoothly, however we are still short of netball teams. Siya and I take two separate cars to pick up a team about 10 minutes away.
1:00 Arrive back at the tournament, Food has arrived for the participants and staff...however we are short of food and 4 staff members have to go back out to get food.
1:00-2:30 I get to relax and watch some soccer games and help out the nurses with testing
2:30 I get tested!! Although fairly certain of my status, it was still nerve wracking getting tested. You get your finger pricked, drop blood into a testing kit and then have to wait outside for 10 minutes before they come back to you with your results. It was humbling understanding the perspective all the kids go through. I am happy to say that I am negative, but I am truly glad for the experience.
3:00 Second batch of food arrives...Hungry Lion (fastfood chain) never tasted better!
5:30 Finish up the last soccer and netball games
6:00 Closing Circle, lots of song and dance and giving away prizes for the winners

Although, the day was extremely stressful I am proud to say that we had 160 people from the community tested for HIV! We usually only have about 60 that get tested, so although everything that could go wrong did, our main objective was achieved and then some!!

Here are a few pictures from the Tournament: