Cross-Pollination

I was elected to the Westbrook Soccer League's (WSL) Board of Directors last month, so I created the Pine-Scented Pitch, a blog about the goings-on of the WSL and of soccer in general. I've so far resisted any urges to promote the soccer-specific site on this site, but I just posted an interview on the PSP that might be of interest to even the non-soccer reader.

Rosie Perkins, a 2005 graduate from Westbrook High School, is currently working in South Africa with Grassroot Soccer, an organization that uses soccer to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS among South Africans. Perkins was gracious enough to take the time to share her some of here experiences working in Port Elizabeth since last August, so I recommend you check it out. Here's a taste: Oh, and I'd be shirking my duties as a WSL mouthpiece if I neglected to encourage you to become a Facebook fan of the WSL. In the meantime, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

One very important thing I want people to know is the people living in the
townships live with less money and fewer material goods, but they are still
living full and busy lives just like the rest of the world. There has been
immense suffering in this country, but the people I’ve met here love where they
live and wouldn’t trade it for anything else. There is still a huge barrier
between whites and blacks--as well as coloreds--and I think that too has shocked
me. Many whites we’ve met who've grown up in Port Elizabeth have never been to
the townships. Some don’t even know the names of the townships in Port
Elizabeth.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Department of Self-Promotion (December 23, 2009)