Orientation began on Wednesday, August 8th in Etna, New Hampshire at the most amazing bed and breakfast: Pierce's Inn. This place was incredible, an old ski lodge turned Inn with crazy good food (and an infinite supply of it), enough beds for 25+ people, a pool, a fire pit, and owned by the nicest family in the world. But of course, as only GRS would, we didn't get to spend time there until day three of our orientation. We spent the first two nights at a place called Harris cabin, deep in the woods, with no electricity or running water... We had to carry all food and supplies down a trail to the cabin which took about fifteen minutes of struggle, quite a workout considering my post-soccer endurance is poor. Eventually we made it to the cabin and learned that all twenty-two of us interns would be bunking together in one large room. Now imagine twenty-two, 22-30 year olds, spending two nights in one room, with the nearest shower about 15 miles away. Needless to say by night two people had branched off and started sleeping outside! Of course, I forgot my sleeping bag back at the Inn... But luckily I was quick to learn that the other interns are the most generous group of people I've ever had the pleasure of being around, and I was given a cashmere blanket by my new friend Katie. It may as well have been made from unicorn hair... Time at the cabin was spent between hiking, playing games (similar to games GRS coach's play with the African youth), swimming in a pond that clearly has not support life for years, eating, and plenty of deep, deep discussions on what each intern wished to accomplish, both personally and in regards to the HIV epidemic... I have to stop here and mention our intern coordinators Leah, Elise, Austin, and Hooter. These four have so much energy and love for what they do that each intern couldn't help but feel excited and inspired 24/7, which is extremely exhausting! I wish I could go in depth on each one of them and how much they mean to me and the other interns after only four days, but that would require an entire blog on its own. Without these four I know that the entire 2012-2013 intern class would not have become the family we are, in such a short amount of time. After two nights of roughing it in the woods, everyone was desperate for a shower and new sleeping quarters.
We returned to Pierce's Inn for the remaining two days. While at Pierce's Inn our days were spent learning anything and everything about HIV, GRS, and its role in the fight against the epidemic. As interesting as these lectures were, it was hard for all of us to always remain attentive and awake; besides, we are all still college kids at heart. But of course the intern coordinators had ways to keep us awake: whenever someone would feel the need to wake up, we would all stop what we were doing and do an "energizer". Now as corny as an energizer sounds, the actual act is addicting. An energizer could be any sort of physical movement (clapping, stomping, running, jumping) supplemented with a chant or song (usually a native African melody). By the time we were in Logan international airport, we would all bust out random energizers like a "kilo", which is 6 rhythmic claps followed by a loud "WOOO!" while pointing to the sky. I even feel like doing one right now, alone...
Nights at Pierce's Inn were spent eating huge buffets of incredible food and drinking beer and wine with various GRS affiliates, staff members, partners, former interns, and even the CEO and founder of GRS, Tommy Clark. This wasn't the first time we all met Tommy, he actually brought his family to Harris Cabin to have dinner with us on night one. Now he and his family were having dinner with us, again, two nights later. I think if I had to sum up the incredible sense of family within GRS it would be by saying this: how many interns have two dinners in three nights with their organization/company's CEO/founder? I can't think of any. Most interns are lucky if they meet a branch president in passing. We got to know his family and share stories not once, but twice before our internship even officially started. Tommy is an unbelievable person with an extraodinary vision; I strongly encourage everyone to read more about him here: http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/who-we-are/global-board-of-directors/ . His is the fourth bio from the top.
Come Sunday it was sadly time for us interns to leave Pierce's Inn for Logan International Airport in Boston, MA. Nearly all of us were booked on the same first flight from Boston to London, and we took full advantage of it sitting in groups on the plane, performing kilo's, watching movies, being a nuisance, etc. We arrived in London early Monday morning and had a 10 hour lay-over to look forward to. But luckily the Olympics had just ended so the terminals were packed with different teams such as Brazil, Argentina, Poland, South Africa, etc. Very exciting to see all the athletes in person. Also, a group of us wanted to venture into the city, which would be my first time ever in London. For those of you that haven't been there, it's very different from a U.S. city: it's built horizontally, spreading out forever, whereas cities like New York seem to rise infinitely vertically. We spent a few hours walking around and had a chance to see Buckingham Palace which was a very pleasant surprise.
We took a train back to Heathrow and boarded our plane, scheduled to take off at 5:30 PM, by 5:00 PM. I guess we cut it close. But by 6:30 PM the captain of the British Airlines flight finally let us know that we weren't moving because there were "technical difficulties" within the plane. Turns out the engineers couldn't fix a pipe linked to the plumbing of the front two toilets. Awesome. By 7:30 PM the pilot let us know that the pipe was unfixalbe (I felt bad for the engineers who spent two hours fumbling with pipes holding traveler's feces) and we would be boarding another plane at 8:30 PM, scheduled to leave at 9:00 PM. Of course this didn't happen. We didn't board the new plane until 10:00 PM and finally departed at 10:30 PM. Now the flight from London to Johannesburg is 11 hours and my connecting flight from Joburg to Maseru was at 9:45 AM local time, which is another hour ahead of London time. Needless to say I missed my connecting flight and so did every other intern flying to Joburg. Upon arrival, the three of us still flying internationally went to the British Airlines kiosk in the international exchange corridor asking for help. They told us they were incapable of helping and we'd have to call the British Airlines office within Joburg airport to sort everything out. Welp, that did nothing. The phone was busy almost the entire time, and once we finally reached an agent, after about an hour, which caused me to miss the only other flight to Maseru that day, she was only able to help two of us before being overwhelmed. I must say I did feel bad for her. We could hear the entire BA Airlines office going crazy (apparently we weren't the only ones unhappy) through the phone, and clearly she wasn't the one who clogged the toilet on our original flight. Basically since my flight from Joburg to Maseru was through South African airlines and not British Airlines they claimed they would not be responsible for the missed flight and would not comp me for anything. Therefore I would have to spend another 3,000 Ran, which is about $375.00, for a new ticket to Maseru. Not happening. I decided I'd find a rental car and drive the four hours from Joburg to Maseru. Of course while I was rushing to the rental car terminal, I left my folder of ALL my documents necessary for entry into Lesotho, back in customs, which I would normally have to go through security again to get. No time for that, and by that time I'm convinced I would never see the folder again. Fortunately South African people are some of the sweetest and most helpful people I've met. I ran back to customs, explained my situation, and a lady was more than happy to escort me back to the desk where I had left it all. It was still there. Bullet dodged, embarrassment saved.
I went back to the car rental terminal, all while dragging around 100 lbs in luggage, mind you. Well no rental car companies were able help me out with a one-way car since I did not reserve one prior to my flight. Understandable, but frustrating. Back to square one. I took my argument to South African airlines, who could not have been more helpful. They promptly informed me that British airlines weren't going to budge (apparently this is an M.O.), but SA Airlines would only charge me the difference between my pre-paid ticket and the new ticket (about $40.00). Score. Now I'm in the hotel adjacent to the airport, waiting for a 6:40 AM flight to finally, hopefully, get to Maseru.
So what have I learned throughout all of this?
1. For everything British Airways does wrong, they do one, phenomenal thing right: free, unlimited wine, which comes in handy on an eleven hour flight..
2. South African's speak quietly and slowly. It does NOT mean they are disinterested, but rather they are attempting to soothe your frustration. And it works.
3. Being kind and polite will get you many places and things you otherwise could not on your own. SA airlines did me a solid, not only with the ticket, but also with letting me "sneak" back into customs to retrieve my necessary documents. When you are nice and courteous to people, more often than not they are the same to you. In the great words of Brian Fantana from Anchorman: "60% of the time, it works every time."
4. "Be where your feet are". This is a quote that another intern, Casey, told all of us to live by. It's cliche, but I like the way it portrays the age old message: don't stress over the past, it's done; don't worry about the future, it isn't here; be attentive to the present and find something worthwhile in every moment.
5. "The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong - that's when the adventure starts." This is a quote by a man named Yvon Chouinard, who is the founder of Patagonia clothing company, from a documentary called 180 Degrees South: Conquerers of the Useless. It's a brilliant movie, and I highly recommend it. Given my situation it seems self-explanatory why I included it. To be honest, the most disappointing part of these last few days of travel was not being able to rent a car...not being able to drive four hours from a city I've never been to, across a country I've never seen, and into a country I only just recently found out existed...
-Shane
