Ruben bloggar frå turar, innland og utland: Rugby career carries on!

Sunday 7/7-13

It’s Sunday and we only got one boat trip today because of the weather, and it’s not until 1PM, which means we could stay up for a while last night to party and then sleep in this morning.
I’m not going to tell about the nightlife though, even I’m sure it would be interesting to hear what we are up to in the evenings/early mornings. What I am going to tell you about is my rugby experience yesterday!
The day started early, I got up at 8AM so I would be ready to get picked up at 9AM, but we are still on “Africa time” which means no one showed up until 9:48AM. Well, I’ve gotten used to it.
I didn’t know a single persona of those 40ish black Africans who I went with. But I never felt unsafe, even though my friends here might have been a bit worried for me. When the players talked/introduced me, they referred me as one of the volunteers at Wilfreds (founder and owner og Marine Dynamics) company. Wilfred Chivell is a highly respected man in the area, and everyone knows him. Marine Dynamics was the Black Leaves’ (my rugby team) main sponsor one year.
So that people knew Wilfred and that he was my “boss” made me feel very relaxed and I was sure no one would try to do something stupid.
When we drove off towards Robertson, which is about 150-200 km away I just sat and smiled in the front seat thinking how amazing this experience is. The weather was brilliant, the surroundings were beautiful. The other players were talking in Afrikaans, so I didn't understand much, but what I did notice was the radio playing one love song after another. I didn't make a comment on it, but thought it was strange, since we were 5 big blokes sitting in a crammed car. First after half an hour I realized it was not the radio, it was a cassette.

For those of you who don't know how a cassette looks like

When we arrived Robinson we had to chill for a couple hours, since it turned out the 3^rd team wasn't playing. I talked to a few of the team mates, but felt a bit uncomfortable at times. First one guy ask me how much I was earning at Marine Dynamics, and when I told him that I have to pay to work he got surprised. Also, when I said I was moving on Monday, and next month I will be living in Zambia working for a charity program, he asked me if it was the money making me want to move to Zambia. I told him I won’t get anything, but I will be staying with a local family, so they will take care of me, but I do have to pay for my living for a year. He then asked me if I earned a lot of money to be able to do this thing for a year. I managed to get out of the conversation before he would ask me more stuff about money. (for the record, I'm living on credit at the moment).

The next guy I talked to asked where I was from, and when I said Norway he said that we had such a great government which takes care of us, and I agreed upon it and said we are very lucky. He then tells me that it’s hard for the African people, since it’s pretty much impossible to get a Visa to move to somewhere else. And then he says: “But now, when I know you, maybe you can write your government a letter saying you’re going to take care of me and I could move to Norway!” eeeeh….yeah…sure…. Thankfully, I got out of that awkward moment as well.

Don't know if African people would handle Norway very well. They wear jeans, jackets and hats when it's 20 degrees!

Just a couple of minutes later the team leader ask me for my address, e-mail and phone number, explaining that they might take pictures of me playing for them, and then they got an address to send it to. I was doubting for a second or two, and thought about giving him an incorrect details, but I though “What’s the worst that can happen? Some African coming to my parents door in Fresvik one day? I want to see my parents face when that happen!” So I gave him my address and e-mail, but not my mobile number.

The game hadn’t started yet, but I’d met so many new people and got so many impressions and thoughts around them, this was so cool.

We got changed and started the warm up. Today I was playing winger (first game I played rugby, I was an inside centre, seconds game an outside centre, and now, my third game in my lifetime, as a winger) which was fine with me, I wouldn’t worry about passing the ball, just run straight up by the sideline. When we started the crowd started to arrive the stadium. It had one side with a big stand, and I reckon it had a capacity of 2000. When our game was over it was nearly full, so it slowly grew during our game. My team (Black Leaves) started alright, and I got to run the ball, get tackled and tackle. It was a lot of fun, but it was a lot harder than when I played in England, just because they all spoke in Afrikaans.

Wish I learned a bit more Afrikaans while I was here

The other team easily spotted me since I was the only white player on the pitch, and my coach overhear them saying that they wanted to kick me the ball, so they could take out my knees (I got long legs and easy target). So he got worried and took me off after 20 minutes. It wasn’t pretty out there, one player got carried off the pitch with a neck support. In the end of the game we lost 10-3, but we did give them a good fight, and was only one try-score away from a draw.
The first team played after us and we saw them play, now the stand was full, and people were singing and cheering. It was a great atmosphere. The players were really good, and I was told this was the best league in the country, so I feel honoured to have played for their 2^nd team.
After the game we drove back to Gansbaai where the other volunteers were waiting for me before we went to a bar.

In the end of the day, after only playing 20 out of 80 minutes I feel great. It was so much fun and I got to meet some great people. Not everyone was asking me about money, visa and contact details. Some was just talking about soccer, rugby and women and other “normal” stuff. I wish I started to play rugby here earlier, but it’s very hard to find out about them. They don’t even have a website or a facebook site, (when I Googled “Black Leaves Rugby Gansbaai” I only found some articles about a guy running on the pitch on one of their games, stabbing a player with a broken glass bottle).

One experience richer!

Tomorrow I’m leaving Gansbaai, maybe forever, but a very wise girl told me this:

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened