From Streets To Ice

The year is almost at it's end and the process of starting up a Non-profit is a grueling one but with all that's going on, the street skater boys have really impressed. Almost religiously the lads have gone to practice every Sunday and it can be said with confidence that they are now worthy of being called ice hockey players. Mogamad(12), Zihaad(13) and Irshaad(14) have excelled tremendously this past year and in 2014 all three of them will be up to receive their Western Province colours. Mogamad, the youngest, scored a hat-trick at the last PeeWee game of the season.Mogamad has been invited to play the opening game for the All Stars on 2 December 2013. I could not be more proud of him as his enthusiasm for the game and skating makes him a true hockey player. Next year will bring us many challenges and I am looking forward to seeing the boys release their full potential

The Journey So Far

To all our readers I would just like to thank you for the support. The process of starting a Non-profit is no easy job but by far the most rewarding job, I can tell you that. My journey has been quite tough and I do not see it easing up any time soon. It is hard sometimes because a waiters salary is so inconsistent and it is mentally draining, trying to juggle bills and making this project a success at the same time. I have come to an realisation though, and that is that time is on my side. When I started this project I was in such a rush to get things moving and in the end just was disappointed half way down the road because I was either let down by certain people or upset because " the system" is just messed up. Now I am in a different space and have excepted that things do take time and forcing it will only make yourself stress to much. Eston has been working round the clock to finish his final exams and he still continues to amaze me with what he can create with film. Our video releases have stalled for now until Eston has finished his finals. Then he will be taking sometime off to see the parents. By the end of July Eston will be back and we, as a team, will be pumping out new video footage at least once a week. We unfortunately have no more gear to film our journey which is a bit of a bummer. Until now we have been fortunate for Eston has had permission from his University to film our project with their gear, however, his studies have come to an end and I am at a cross road. James from Uthondo has been giving me some advice and hopefully by the time Eston has returned from his rest, I will have raised funds for our gear to get our story back on track.

Sunday Awesomeness

It was just another regular Sunday for me, which meant picking up the boys at 7:50am. As I drove towards the meeting point I could see little Gamad bouncing up and down like a rubber ball, obviously excited to get to the ice rink. I just love the drive on Sunday mornings because there is absolutely no traffic and what makes it awesome is that Sachi and Gamad have such a funny sense of humour that we keep ourselves entertained with a lot of nonsense talk. Their skills have improved so much these past few months and I finally purchased street hockey gear for both of them, so that they can practice in the week as well and it totally shows. Both of them are much more confident with the puck and stick, the skating is just so natural to them. When they came off the ice, Jason took them to the equipment room and kitted both of them out with all the gear that they need which includes, skates, ice hockey sticks, helmets, upper and lower body padding which amounts to about R6 000($600) Then he gave us a couple of Forms that will register them for the Western province Ice hockey Association, which would put the average player back R3 500($350) a year. As you might have gathered by now my boys are not average and I am so privileged and proud of them to be recognised as serious contenders for the league. Registration will take a couple of weeks but soon they will be playing competitively, which is what we aim to do with so many more kids at The Imilli Project. On the drive back to town, they could not stop bubbling about the gear and their first match and how one day they going to play for South Africa. A dream that just became a little bit more real on this awesome Sunday.