Day 26

Day 26.

I woke up a relatively happy man today as it goes. Chelsea had done us a favour in terms of the result last night, beating Manchester City 1-0! Chelsea are the more likely team to drop points in the future and Manchester City were looking unstoppable until last night!

There was a bit of confusion this morning of where we had to be and at what time. I blame Jeff! I was adamant that we had to be in Ruyterwacht at 9:00 but before we had to collect our monthly train tickets from the support office. Howeverrrrr.. Jeff thought that when I got off the phone I said "Support Office at 9:00". Like i said, I was adamant that I was right but somehow Jeff managed to persuade me that he was right seeing as I had been wrong in the past!! I told Jeff last night that I would wake up at 7:00 to get changed and have a shower before ringing Joe to confirm the mornings arrangements. I knew there was a high chance that Joe would be sleeping but I thought I might aswell try my luck and leave a voicemail (if he didn't answer) to call me back. You guessed it.. he was sleeping and we went with Jeff's idea of being at the support office for 9:00. Danielle kindly gave us our monthly train tickets when we arrived and she even sorted us out a lift to Ruyterwacht which was really nice of her. I don't think she was keen on us getting the train, Lourens and Joe have secretly told me how protective she is over us! I'm certainly not complaining! Jeff and I really appreciate her efforts and can't wait to have a BBQ (Braai) with her family in the near future.

Anyway! On to todays events.. we started off with our third session at Goodwood Park Creche! The kids are all lovely and are so excited to see us whenever we pop our heads in their classroom! We are instantly welcomed with a gasp and a loud scream of "AAARSSSEEENALLLL" Our third session that Jeff and I had planned was a bit more of a step up but we were sure they could do it. We had planned to combine our last two previous sessions and bring it all together in today's session. It involved dribbling in zig zags,which isn't the easiest of dribbling techniques, then adding shooting/kicking targets later on. We had four progressions. First of all they started with the ball in their hands above their head running around each cone in zig zags, just so that they could get a feel for what we wanted them to do before dribbling. We made sure we demonstrated each exercise two or three times to make it nice and easy for them to remember. Secondly, they did the same thing but with the ball at their feet. Zig Zag dribbling around each cone before coming back and passing it to the next person! Thirdly, we reverted it back to using their hands but now they have a target to aim at after dribbling! So once again.. they would run around each cone in zig zags before getting to a gate where they had to stop and then roll the ball to knock off the other ball off which was placed on a cone! Lastly it was time for the ultimate test! Could they dribble in zig zags, stop at the gate, aim and kick the ball off the cone? Of course they could! Goodwood park creche never fail to smash our expectations! I Love coaching there.

Our second appointment of the day was at Reach for a dream. Reach For A Dream Foundation, has brought hope, joy and healing to countless South African children. These children between the ages of 3 and 18 years have used their dreams to fight life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and leukaemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, renal failure and various blood disorders. Reach For A Dream seeks to alleviate the strain that a life-threatening illness places on these children and their families by providing the children with the opportunity to realise their dream. Reach For A Dream enriches children's lives by making dreams come true and as a result, distracting them from the needles, medication and hospital environment. These young children are under extreme pressure to deal with these medical issues and are in desperate need of our encouragement. We met 4 fantastic boys who were huge soccer fans and one boy called Ibrahim was like the wikipedia of football.. he knew everything! The four boys were called (excuse the spelling) Ibrahim,Nathan,Wakeel and Takinda. We showed them a few tricks and had a nice talk and kick about with them which i'm sure they enjoyed, I know I did! Wakeel was a funny character, so eager to play football and show me how it's done! For a boy who was in grade 2.. he could definitely hit a ball! He had an absolute bullet of a shot. At the end we gave each boy an Arsenal shirt which they loved! (Even though they supported teams such as Orlando Pirates,Barcelona and Manchester United.) What a rewarding afternoon. I know we're not professional footballers but coming to see these children really does make a difference to their afternoon and you can see that by the big smile on their face! I wish them all the very best and i'm hugely grateful of what reach for a dream are doing for these amazing children!

Jeff and I are rather 'cream crackered' (Knackered) and tonight will involve just lounging about and speaking on Skype to various people! Wifi seems good tonight, woop woop!

I was over the moon when Lourens told me my blog was a huge hit in communicare offices.. so thank you all for reading it and I will try to keep you guys updated as much as possible. My blog has 2,000 views now so i'm definitely not going to stop writing now! Not a chance.

I will upload some photo's tonight seeing as I haven't for a while.

All the best.

Luke