The Jericho Rock Project

 On a Saturday in mid-June, we went out to the Jericho Rock and for a beer at the Bafana Bafana Tavern at the base of the Rock at Jericho. I was having a chat with J.J., the village chief and he was telling me how the young kids at the primary school are desperately short of sports equipment to keep them busy after school. So big was the problem with not having things to keep the kids busy, that some kids had been arrested the day before for getting up to mischief instead.

I have started collecting donations, starting with my own of R250.00. You can add R10 or R10 000, whatever you feel like.

During the last week of July, I will take what has been collected and I intend buying a set of portable soccer goals, soccer balls, cricket kit, baseball kit, netball kit, and rugby balls.

On Saturday 9 August (Woman’s Day), I’d like you, whether you contributed or not, to join me at the Bafana Bafana Tavern at Jericho for a braai, drinks, some dirt biking and the handing over of the sports equipment to the school.Families are welcome. Trials bike riders are welcome. The Rock itself is only about 1km from the Tavern. There is plenty local riding ground to have some fun.The bank account details are:Nedbank
Branch: Killarney Mall 191605
Account name:S Lauter
Account no: 1916062660

You don’t have to put your name down if you want to remain anonymous but please put ROCK in the reference so that I know that the amount it is for this cause.

For more info, you can mail me at steve.lauter@iafrica.com. I have posted this on 25/07/2008, only 3 weeks before the handover of the sports equipment and I have collected almost R7000.00 so far!!!

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It’s Sunday, 10th August 2008. The “Project” was delivered yesterday. WOW!!!! Before I tell you all the story let me first throw out a massive thank you to all the dirt bike community who raised R14 500.00 which was delivered in the form of the desired sports equipment and a R5 000.00 cheque made out to the primary school.

By Monday morning, 4th August we had collected R9 500.00 and I was looking forward to going for some retail therapy on behalf of the kids at Jericho. So off I went to Sportsman’s Warehouse in Fourways with a nice big shopping list.

For their soccer requirement I bought 7 soccer sets, each including a bag, a ball, a pair of shin guards, cones, a water bottle, and a pump. I bought a really up-quality match ball. I bought a pair of dismantleable netted goals.

For their rugby requirement I bought 10 rugby sets, each including a bag, a ball, a water bottle, a pump, training cones, and a kicking tee.

For their netball requirement I bought 2 freestanding netball posts complete with netted hoops, 2 practice balls, and a match ball.

For their cricket requirement I bought 3 cricket sets, each including 2 bats, 2 sets of stumps and bails, 2 sets of batsmen’s pads, 2 sets of batsmen’s gloves, 1 set of wicket keeper pads and gloves, 4 balls for hard and soft play, 10 marker cones, and a score book.

They had asked for baseball but unfortunately the cost of baseball equipment was too rich for our budget, but….

I bought a netted basketball hoop and 2 basketballs. I bought 4 tennis racquets and 4 packs of tennis balls. And finally, lest we forget the folks that have to hep these kids, I bought 3 referee/coach whistles.

Another big thank you to Sportsman’s Warehouse in Fourways for also assisting by stretching our rands a little.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 5th August, I was standing at O R Tambo airport getting ready to fly to Durban when I received a phone call from one of the guys who has already made a sizeable donation in his own right. He told me that his company loved the initiative, would like to get involved, and would like to donate R5 000.00. Wow!!! Unfortunately the shopping was done so a cheque was made out to the primary school for that amount. Awesome.

Yesterday morning a bunch of dirt bikers, some with their families, all met at Hartbeespoort Dam from where we left in convoy to Jericho, some 55km away in the general direction of Brits and beyond. On arrival, our cars were herded onto the school’s sports field by a huge group of children in school uniform literally singing us in. Even the most grizzly, gnarly bikers had lumps in their throats.

We unloaded all the equipment onto one of the netball fields in front of a couple of gazebos where all the local dignataries were gathered. Next to them were parents and teachers of all the kids, and place for all of us to take our seats. We were greeted by one of the teachers who acted as MC for the day and who called the local reverend for a brief scripture reading and prayer. I must admit the whole evangelistic “Gimme a halleluyah” kind of thing was quite cool. We were then introduced to the local tribal authority official who delivered his welcome and then to the one of the most important men there, the tribal chief. This guy carries serious weight and commands respect from those around him in a way that I was quite unused to. Then it was my turn. I got the opportunity to present the equipment by sports type to the captain and coach of each discipline. It was amazing to see how cricket and rugby captains were made on the spot! There were pleas by almost all the speech makers for folk who knew the sports to try and find time to come through to Jericho more often to help teach and coach in those two sports which they as, a community, are aching to play. Unfortunately, there is only so much some of us can do. I finally had the opportunity to introduce Lassy and Hannes, who were making the cash donation, to the dignataries. This went down very well.

Final speeches of gratitude were then made by JJ and a final, very moving one by JJ’s own son, also a pupil at the school. Man, I got a huge kick out of the “Viva Tombstone Viva” bit!

The children went to get kitted up for various sports events that were going to continue into the afternoon but it was requested that a very brief dirt bike demo was asked for by the main manne. Hmmmm….ok. Tom and I unloaded our bikes, did a couple of short wheelies on the soccer field, and gave a couple of the small kids a slow ride around the field. We loaded our bikes and took a small tour around the school. 

And then we all headed for the Bafana Bafana tavern. Round two was about to begin.

At the tavern we all headed immediately to the bar to wash out dry throats with quarts of Zamalek (black label beer) icy cold as only African shebeens know who to keep them. After the first three or four gulps had got us back to a feeling of general humanity again, we unloaded our bikes, lit the fires in the braais that had been provided next to long covered tables and chairs that had also been prepared for us and went for our first ride. This was to the Rock. A few of us rode up and down this huge mound of stone and then headed back to the Tavern. One of us rode half way up and fell down the rest…. ouch Brad. (P.S. Brad 3 - The Rock 2. I think that’s the score at the moment).

The fires were just right and, after grabbing another beer, we started braaing. The families that joined us sans bikes were already getting into the swing of things. The afternoon was fantastic. Those that wanted to ride more did so - the Jericho River Bed is another big attraction. Others, like yours truly, decided to spend the afternoon eating, drinking and talking with the locals. How often do us whities get to experience something like this?

As it happens, JJ’s brother Koos, yes his name is Koos, lives across the road from the Tavern. It was the most wonderful thing for a whole bunch of us to be invited into his modest lounge to join him and JJ to watch the rugby.

Bar one unfortunate incident late in the afternoon, although I did get all my credit cards and license back and there wasn’t much cash left anyway, and I suppose this is Africa, it was one hellava day!!! Dirt biking is a fantastic sport, the social aspect of it is a huge passion of mine given the people and experiences and acquaintances and friends I get out of it. This one rated right up there with the best ever.

Click on the polaroid to view the whole album.