Arrival, planning, collecting pledges on the street and celebrating a birthday:
April 30 until May 2:
In previous journeys, The Ball has been accompanied by various “ball-carriers”. Christian and Phil and Richard in 2002 & 2006. Andrew was joined by Christian, Phil, as well as Richard and Sven over various stages in 2010. In 2014 Andrew led the team again and was joined by Sven, Fernando, João, Kai and Rosy. In 2018, Benni was helped out by Sven, Franzi, Andrew, Benny, Anna, Ulrike, Ghozi, Svenchen, Martin, Joaquin, Christian, Phil and Richard. This time around Jenny, Benni, Benny, Robert, Karli, Joaquin, Sven, Scott, Richard and Sophia have all been ball-carriers. And so it was time to welcome a newcomer to the mix.
Iris joined SOF as a volunteer in December 2022 for a sustainability project in the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan. Her Arabic and football skills came in very handy indeed. Since January she has been a project manager for The Ball at SOF, especially tasked with social media content creation and implementation and journey planning. Today, she arrived in Singapore. Together with Andrew she will be a main ball-carrier all the way to New Zealand and Australia. Welcome Iris!
Singapore has also been a chance for Sophia to hand over the reins to Iris. A huge thanks to Sophia for all that she has done as a volunteer on the road with The Ball. The tasks that the ball team needs to do are diverse: social media outputs, reporting, budgeting, workshop planning, journey logistics coordination, blog writing, leading workshops, networking with partners, conducting interviews, transcription of pledges and statements and so on. The Ball is more than a full-time commitment. And as our team is so small each of us ends up doing many of these activities. Sophia, who is on the SOF Board of Directors, goes back to Germany to take her last classes to finish her Masters Degree and then to become a teacher. Thanks Sophia for the great showing of Spirit and good luck!
Singapore has been a chance to not only do a ball-carrier handover but also to multi-task: doing laundry while doing project planning and writing the blog for example. Every place, every space is a home away from home office. There was of course time for collecting pledges from a lady in a food court or to randomly bump into a small Filipino ladies group, who had just won a mixed-sport tournament on the beach. They work as housekeepers and on their off-days they volunteer to teach children and older students their cooking and baking skills. No matter where we go or whoever we meet, we are continually impressed by the people we meet and the little things people are doing to help others.
What The Ball team hasn’t been doing is going out and partying. From previous experience, The Ball has gotten itself into trouble when out and about. Remembering back to losing it in 2010 upon entering South Africa or it being kicked off of the rooftop of Kings College in London in July last year. Luckily on both occasions The Ball was found again. However, The Ball had its first real night out in Southeast Asia in Singapore for Iris’ birthday. It went to the modern roof-top bar of the Marina Bay Sands overlooking Singapore. What an incredible Ball’s-eye-view!
