April 12th, 2009

I left Johannesburg on Thursday, April 2nd and traveled to Knysna. While in Knysna, Taryn, who is FUWL’s representative in South Africa and I spent time getting organized and planning for our fundraiser to be held in Knysna on April 21st.

On Sunday, April 5th, Taryn and I traveled to Cape Town to spend some time with the South African Homeless Street Soccer Association. Originally, we were planning soccer trials to be held in Knysna for the selection of the Homeless World Cup team that will be traveling to Milan, Italy this September, but logistically, it makes more sense to have the trials in Cape Town because that is where SAHSS is based and all their resources are in Cape Town. It was decided that Knysna will bring their players to Cape Town from April 23rd – 27th.

While in Cape Town we toured with representatives from the League showing us different organizations that deal with homeless and “at risk” youth. I also got the opportunity to attend my first professional Cricket match in a suberb of Cape Town called Newlands. South Africa played Australia and I am pleased to inform you that South Africa won. I now have appreciation for the sport and am a big fan.

Demetrius Wren, FUWL’s videographer and Christina Ghubril joined me in Cape Town. They will be in South Africa with me for 4 weeks gathering video footage to complete documentary film on homelessness and street soccer in South Africa. They will also film some of our projects here so that we can share them with everyone.

On Saturday, April 11th, I returned to Knysna. I shared Easter with Taryn and her family and will be in Knysna until April 23rd, when I return to Cape Town for the soccer trials. I will update you on some of our projects as I visit with them over the next several days.