The world cup is over and it's been a wonderful couple of months here in South Africa. Nobody quite knew how the cup would permeate into our day to day lives, we all hoped we'd 'feel it' in some way or another, but none of us expected what came. It was a true celebration not just of football, but of life down here on the African continent, and for 4 weeks the whole country was together and anything was possible.

For the Foundation it was wonderful. We went to the inaugural game at the Green Point stadium. 50 of us in total: 45 kids and 5 chaperones. We'd watched the first half of the Bafana game all together, witnessed Masi fall over itself when Tsabalala scored, then piled into the mini-buses for the trip into town. If you missed it, you can see the video of that day here, it will live long in all of our memories and i still get goose bumps typing this.

The cup also bought other opportunities. We took the girls to see the opening of Marieke Prinsloo's installation of 18 statues depicting the story of a girl learning to fly. We ran down sea point promenade as Marieke, the artist, told the story. After we headed over to Primi Piati where we were sponsored a lunch courtesy of Marieke's sister, Hanli. The girl's ordered Cappucino's and pizza and giggled all the way through. It was a fun afternoon.

We also met up with Dan King from the News of the World who popped in to see the projects in action, and with him was Nigel Pickover from the Evening Standard who donated a new Ipswich Town kit which the boys now wear proudly at training. Further to this, we then had a visit from Dicken Broadhust who had cycled all the way from England to watch the cup. Dicken had also raised over £7,000 for charity and kindly arrived to donate 75 footballs to us which will keep us busy! It was a wonderful gift from Dicken and the balls will be used well. This coming Saturday we are to host our first youth tournament in Masi between the various differing local teams. The event will run over four weekends and we will be handing out a trophy and prizes of footballs to the participants. Further to this, Thomas will also be holding talks around lifeskills for the young children as they grown older. This is vital. We try our best to make Masi a happy and a safe place for the kids, but spend a bit of time there and you soon realise it's a very hard place to come of age and the kids need all the help they can. Local role models are vital to their successful upbringing, which is where we come in.

THe projects are all good. Football and Netball continue to grow and we are about to ex[and the surfing through a new partnership with Palama Matsi water riders down at Muizenberg. This will keep us very busy indeed. Further to the above, we are also in negotiations with the Salvation Army to use their hall on Kolobe St three times a week to help the young kids with their homework and offer some private tuition. We have students from Fish Hoek High School and our own volunteers all helping out and it's an occasion for learning and cultural exchange of huge benefit to the local community. This has us all very excited.

The next half of the year we hope to really push forward. We have big plans and are looking now for funding to help us achieve them. We are to bring Skateboarding to Masi with the construction of three half pipes. We are going to level the playing field and give the kids a decent pitch to play on. We're running friday mixed tournaments now which draw big crowds and break down the traditional gender barriers of the townships, much to the approval of the local parents.

We are expecting our next batch of volunteers out soon. After such a wonderful world cup the country is buzzing and it's definitely the place to be, so if you want to come and get involved, check out the website (soon to be revamped), and come stay with us for a while.

Until next time, thanks for reading.



Tim

Tim and the crew from the Ticket to Ride Foundation went to the first game of the World Cup at Green Point stadium last friday night. It was an historic night for South Africa and a wonderful occasion for the kids.

Together with Tim and the Crew, and vital in getting 45 children in and out of the busiest night in Cape Town's history, was Foundation volunteer John, in with the Foundation for the month. What a wonderful way to end his stay with us here.

John has been a great addition to the Foundation, he heads home on Tuesday. It's been a great last couple of weeks with the build up to the cup, and he's been right in the thick of things as well as scroing some classic waves. We had empty perfection at Eland's Bay just three days ago. 300m lefts with not a soul in sight. A classic week.

To see the blog of the day view the Ticket to Ride Foundation's blogspot page at http://ttridefoundation.blogspot.com/.

Coming soon to the site will be the video diary of the day. It's taking some editing at the moment and the country is going wild!

South Africa is the place to be!

Tim

The Under 7 and Under 9 boys teams, and the junior girls netball team now are the proud owners of two new kits. We did the hand outs yesterday and today and the reception was rapturous.

The boys took off around Masi on a victory lap, singing and dancing the whole way. "Junventussssy oh, oh oh', we're called Cape Town Juventus in the local football circles. The girls headed straight to the pitch and sparked up a training session, which myself and John, our volunteer, joined in immediately.

The kits were made possible by generous donations from individuals at home and abroad. 100% of all the moneys donated went to purchasing the kits you see.

If you'd like to help us then you can donate online at our Just Giving Page

The sentinel is one of the Cape’s most recognisable landmarks. A large, looming chunk of rock that sits at the mouth of Hout Bay, off which monster waves will break in the winter at the infamous Dungeons. Today there is almost no swell, the sea is glassy flat and we’re sitting in Steve’s little duck off Duiker island, home to several thousand seals, in the lea of the Sentinel, right on the boil where dungeons will spill at some point in the next few months.

We’re with Steve and Hanli. Steve is a spear fisherman who regularly descends to depths of over 25 meters armed only with a spear gun and the oxygen in his lungs. Hanli is the South African female free dive record holder, and expert tea maker. Today they’ve decided to take us diving with the Seals of Duiker Island. It’s a weekend after all, and it’s Cape Town, where anything is possible.

So we meet in the harbour at 10am. Steve in his camouflage free dive suit, Hanli with her bespoke carbon fibre fins, and us, in dilapidated surfing suits and an ad-hoc selection of boots and gloves to protect against the colder waters of the Atlantic.

We get a brief safety briefing and an introduction to the harbour crew, an ageing crew of dockyard seals, and then we’re off into the glassy seas of the Cape Atlantic. It’s a bumpy fifteen-minute trip out through the kelp until we arrive at the boiling waters just off Duiker. When dungeons is breaking, this is the graveyard inside, where fallen surfers wash ashore, but today there’s only a whisper of swell on the reef at the back, and the seals are out in force, playing in the waves.

Hanli gives us a brief introduction to the art of free diving: How to equalise, a couple descent techniques and a quick run down of what to expect, then we prepare and launch over the side. Within a few moments we’re surrounded by seals; cumbersome until they slide into the water where they cartwheel around us. We have a go at a few dives, submersing for short periods at a time, grabbing onto the kelp heads on the sea floor and watching the seals swim by overhead. The pups are inquisitive and swim close by, eyeing us intently as they buzz pass. The adolescents bare their teeth, marking their territory to us foreigners.

After a while the cold sets in, so we pile back into the boat for coffee and rusks and take off north, to Maori bay to check out some old wrecks. Pulling in close to the hulking heli-pad of a wrecked tanker, isolated under the huge mountains that form the backdrop, we all feel very small and it’s eery as the swells wash through the empty hull, you can feel the power of the ocean.

Heading home we spot something in the bay. We pull in closer and it’s a huge adult sunfish, drifting on the surface. We approach with care, weary of scaring it off, and we catch a glimpse before it disappears into the deep. Steve and Hanli mask up and follow, disappearing below for three minutes of so, leaving us alone on the surface; after a while we almost forget about them. From the bottom, some 30 meters down, Hanli emerges with a fist full of sand. No oxygen.
The sunfish disappears and we make out way to shore, for fish and chips on the rocks before departing along Chapman’s peak, in search of a few waves to round off the day. A good day, a Sunday, in the Cape; a little reward after a week in Masi with the kids.