Well, so far Ghana has been quite entertaining… the trip started off really well, a good flight and a good hotel, which is surprising for a few of us that have traveled into other parts of Africa. We really are thankful that the facilities are good, although Shelley and me are on the smokers floor in the hotel so our room reeks of smoke!

Both the ladies and men have made it into the finals unbeaten. Although we know that a final is a “totally different ball game” as Linds puts it, we are very excited to play and bring home the gold. We will be playing Ghana in the final and the lads will be playing “the filthy Gypos”. Both finals take place on Saturday.

We have two rest days ahead, so tomorrow the plan is to get some interaction between the teams in the form of an amazing race challenge. The teams comprise of 4 people (2 guys and 2 girls) and the race is scheduled to start at 9:30am tomorrow morning. We need to have a team name and actually dress up. Should be fun….running around Accra and taking taxis to odd destinations.  The race ends at our hotel for lunch, followed by  the awards ceremony. As you can imagine, some of the girls are exceptionally excited about getting to spend some quality time with the boys…lol

The games have been interesting as well…
* The Ghanaians play decent hockey and have the whole crowd supporting them so you cannot hear a word on the field.
* The Nigerians get in the way and just break down play…and if their sticks don’t work they use their bodies.
* The Egyptians just hit and run…and log at any given opportunity, so games end up taking so much longer than they usually do to accommodate for all the injury time.
* And the South Africans struggle to hear a thing on the field, as there is a band that fills the stands on the bench side and sings and beats their drums non stop from start to end of the game. We end up walking off of the field rather husky - particularly Jen.

Yesterday was Kim’s birthday and we had dinner at a lovely restaurant, called Monsoon. Today was Shelley’s birthday and for it she scored a goal, whoop whoop. It is hard to believe that this is winter, it is so hot here. The pool sessions have been a blessing and tomorrow i think after our little adventure we will def need a dip in the pool.

So now that you have a vague idea of the trip so far, I hope that you enjoy the pics and get to see how Accra is treating us.

Have a lovely day
xoxo

This past week I have been in sunny, beautiful Durbs with the Spar South African Women’s hockey team, and it has been great fun.

While it has been hard work, being a national camp, it has been quite entertaining. Some of our younger players are so young at heart and have so much energy it is actually quite refreshing to be around them.

As usual though, some of my favourite moments have been the times that we have free. In this time I was found enjoying my book, Angels and Demons- I want to read the book before seeing the movie- and also chatting about fashion.

Can shopping be considered a sport? If so, I think I am a very busy sports woman! At this stage though, window shopping will have to take preference as physically I am fatigued from the tough games.

We have played Argentina and India already and our next game against Australia is a “must win” if we want to play in the finals on Saturday. The Argentinians are very skillful and fantastic hockey players but I am always interested in their latest fashionable hockey gear, like their kit fits them so lovely, they just look so fem in it, and then obviously I always notice the Nike shoes that most of them wear. I am so proud to have the same shoes, although I love their pink and blue shoes, mine are a stunning black pair with interesting detail on it.

Can’t wait to get my feet into a pair of those…

Picture the scene: Wednesday 4 February 2009, a scorcher of a day in Stellenbosch, the Spar South African women’s hockey team are preparing for their first international game of the year, as a felt fire starts on the top of one of the mountains in Stellenbosch. As the time draws closer to the start of the game, so the fire draws closer to the Sports Science Institute- close to the hockey field.

Waiting around for the decision by the technical directors whether it was safe to play or not felt like an eternity. We knew that we could not play as the smoke was too bad, but we waited anyway. The decision was made to postpone the game, as the fire was coming closer to the fields. The SA girls ran to save the horses at the foot of the mountain while the Germans ran to the mini-buses to vacate the facility. If only the hockey series was based on bravery, we, the SA girls would have definitely won the challenge. However, the challenge was based on the three 70 minute hockey games that we were yet to play.

I hate losing in my books, the series was not great, and however there are always a lot of positives that come out of losing. The one thing that I learnt is that when training you are able to push yourself as hard as you can go, because when it comes to the test (for me, these are the games) you don’t want to look back and wonder if you could have given more into the preparation. Training is not always fun, but you have to keep remembering your goals and aims and the purpose of the training.

After playing half a season of hockey in the Netherlands I was really looking forward to returning home for the festive season - happy to leave behind the snow and so glad to see the sun.  While I was in Holland I would dream about the days that I would spend going for morning runs on the beachfront in Durban and taking advantage of the swimming weather, knowing that a new training program would soon appear in my inbox.

The dream seemed so good, but reality struck the first morning when I had to drag myself out of bed. All I wanted to do was to lie in and enjoy the luxuries of being on holiday. Fortunately, having a running partner made it easier as I knew that I could not let him down. Also knowing that the heat would only get worse the later I left it made me more determined to get the morning runs out of the way for the day.

Dreaming is always easy, but doing it sometimes becomes problematic as we find it effortless to make excuses to avoid the hard work. However, once we actually just do it that feeling of accomplishment makes the holiday so much sweeter.

I am glad that the toughest part of my training schedule is over. It was not tough physically but rather mentally. Knowing that my family was sleeping in, while I sneaked out of the house in the morning to run made it tough, but I did it. I am also grateful that I had a training partner to keep me motivated throughout the festive season. Now I am ready for 2009 and ready to just do it!

These past few years I have struggled to accept that when people see me they see “Marsha, the hockey player” and not “Marsha, the person”. But I got thinking about what defines me and it all makes sense…

So who am I?

I am extremely passionate about sport, especially hockey. As a youngster I was always surrounded by sport; my mum coached hockey and my brother is still very passionate about soccer. Yes, I do love girly things, fashion and make-up, but that does not mean that I can’t love sport.

Sport keeps me fit and healthy and I feel less guilty when I have a real chocolate craving. It has helped me meet so many people, both guys and girls, and it has given me the opportunity to travel. (And in the corporate world it’s a great ice-breaker!) My sporting career has taught me how to deal with conflicts in a team, time management and how to focus and get or stay motivated.

Although I have achieved most of the goals that I set as I a youngster, I find myself continuously setting new goals, for instance, I want to attend another Hockey World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

Yes, there is more to me than just hockey or sport; however, it does help to define me as a person. Instead of getting very frustrated about being known as “Marsha, the hockey player”, I am proud to say: “that’s me… the hockey player”. I have accepted that there is more to me, and that it will take time for other people to know that too.