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On May 26, 2012, Sasha, Dylan and I finished our final day of dribbling for Kicking Across Carolina, a huge feat (feet?) in and of itself, but as we said, just the beginning of our journey as an organization. However, within a few days we all went our separate ways, Sasha to Brazil, Dylan to Camp Seagull, and I to Cairo. While KAC was a huge project, I still had 10 weeks of summer left, and I was determined to get as much out of them as possible. The good news is I was able to travel back to my home country and see my extended family. The bad news is that I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

When I arrived in Egypt, the atmosphere was tense to say the least. The presidential run-off election was just starting, and I had managed to secure a job as a foreign media analyst for the campaign of Dr. Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party. My job consisted mostly of reading American and British news articles and analyzing their criticisms of Dr. Morsi and the FJP as a whole. This was Egypt’s first truly free election in the country’s history, and I was resolute in doing all that I could to contribute to the success of the democratic process. So for 10 weeks, I showed my support in every way I could.

I read dozens of news articles every day, analyzing the world’s view of Dr. Morsi and reporting back to my superiors. I sat in on press conferences with journalists from all over the world, taking down their questions as well as our answers in an effort to improve our responses. I joined marches in Tahrir Square protesting the ongoing meddling of the Egyptian military in the political process and advocating a transparent and safe election. I was fortunate enough to be present in Egypt at a time when every passing day shaped the future of the country.

On Sunday, June 24^th, I was in Cairo when the results of the run-off election were announced, and thankfully, Dr. Mohamed Morsi was declared the next president of Egypt. While this announcement was met with lots of fanfare and merriment, this was only the beginning of the reconstruction of the Egyptian political system. Dr. Morsi had made all kinds of promises ranging from the economic improvement of the nation to the reduction of pollution in big cities like Cairo. Now he had to prove that he could fulfill those promises, and I counted myself as one of the people willing to help him do that in any way I could. I took a job at the Clinton Foundation in Cairo, translating documents from English to Arabic, and continuing to report on the global image of the new president.

Now, more than 2 months later, Egypt is still facing a slew of problems, as Dr. Morsi and his administration try to rebuild a political system that was corrupted for decades. However, it can be said without a doubt that the people of Egypt are moving in the right direction, slowly but surely. Democracy is not something that happens overnight; it doesn’t take place with the election of an individual or the implementation of a new policy. It is a slow, steady, and often frustrating process. But it is a process that many have fought and died for, and a cause worth fighting and dying for. The first three weeks of my summer taught me the love and respect that people have for others and their differing views. The rest of my summer taught me that if people truly want a change, there is nothing that can stand in their way. I hope that together, these lessons can help me and the rest of the Kicking Across Carolina team in our future ventures, whatever they may be. Regardless of where our travels take us, I will always look back and fondly remember the time we spent dribbling and getting to know each other, and I will always remember the historic summer I spent in Egypt.

One Love.

Ahmad Saad

Kicking Across Rio

As you may know, almost as soon as we finished kicking across the state, the three of us went our separate ways: Dylan off to counsel at Camp Seagull in Arapahoe, NC, Ahmad off to work on the political campaign in Egypt, and I went to work with the Instituto Dois Irmaos in the favela of Rocinha, located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rocinha is the largest slum in South America (for those of you up to date with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Two, it’s the setting for the map called “Favela”) and the ninth largest in the world, with a population that varies between 70,000 and 400,000 depending on what source you use.

(Rocinha)

I worked for the Instituto Dois Irmaos (Two Brothers Institute) (http://2irmaos.org/home_eng.html)  while in Rocinha, a non-profit dedicated to providing educational opportunities to the favela through international service and community exchange, and I served as English teacher and basketball instructor. I taught English to mainly elementary and middle school kids at the Instituto, and then in between classes I would head to the local basketball court and give lessons, lessons that always, inevitably, ended up with the ball on the ground being kicked.

I had a number of incredible experiences while in Rio—I took Muay Thai lessons, learned how to surf (kind of), and went hang gliding, to name a few—but what I shall remember most about Rio will undoubtedly be the futebol, aka soccer.

(Yeahhhhhh brooooo)

As expected, Brazilians are really really good, and given the fact that they play everywhere, all the time, I got to see this almost every day. I became a regular at Roupa Sujo, or the “dirty clothes” court located in Rocinha, the artificial fields in Flamengo, and the Sunday pick-up at a field in the Botanical Gardens. After I found a church in Rio, I met most of the other guys my age through their Friday night soccer matches. In Brazil, soccer is king (and queen, and knight, and jester, and stable boy) and I got to experience that to the fullest. But more than just being a fun activity, soccer in Brazil gave me a chance to make friends—it gave me a chance to break down barriers. I arrived as a 6’6, blonde, blue-eyed, American who spoke only a little Portuguese. I wouldn’t have even been able to explain that last sentence to a Brazilian, because they’re on the metric system and would have no idea what 6’6 was. How was I going to make friends?

Through soccer. Just as the organizations we support use soccer to break down religious barriers, I used soccer to break down cultural and language barriers. I didn’t really speak Portuguese, but I could speak futebol. Just as Muslims and Jews don’t pass to Muslims and Jews on the soccer field—they pass to teammates—I found that I wasn’t passing to Brazilians or Portuguese speakers—I was passing to teammates—and pretty soon I was passing to friends. It happened so easily, as the game that we both loved worked so spectacularly to bring us together. I was from thousands of miles away, didn’t really speak the language, and for sure didn’t look like anyone else, but we shared a common love of soccer and through that I made friends.

(My Sunday night pick-up friends)

As such, as we head into a new school year with new ideas and new goals for KAC, I can’t say I’m anything but ridiculously excited. I got to experience how soccer brings people together up close and personal, and I can assure you it is a powerful tool. If there’s anything that can bring peace to a region or create bonds among strangers, it has to be soccer. It helped me form friendships at UNC, and it helped me form friendships thousands of miles away from home. I’m so excited to try and help it form friendships in a region torn by conflict, because I know it is possible.

Part of my job this summer at the summer camp i worked at was taking homesick campers and getting them plugged into camp and the activities we offered. Simple and redundant as it sounds, what made these kids homesick was missing something they love. Something they cherished.

A technique I used to help these campers see camp from a different perspective was telling them this quote – “you don’t know what you have till its gone.” For some, this made sense. In a week they were going to be home and not be able to experience the wonderfulness of camp. At home they can’t go sailing on a whim or shoot an arrow at the range when they feel like it.

While Sasha, Ahmad, and I dribbled a soccer ball across North Carolina my schedule consisted of waking up, dribbling, eating, dribbling, eating, blogging, eating, and finally sleep. As twenty-one days of that schedule passed, my mind barely wondered about post-dribbling life.

We finished in late May and a week later I was training to become a camp counselor at Camp Sea Gull (Click here for my experiences with Camp Sea Gull). My horrible watch tan only worsened as I learned how to deal with bullying, crying, and homesickness. By the end of staff training I already missed something that I cherished. I missed kicking, the comfort of my friends, and Justin Bieber (my ball). I guess you say I was “Kicking Across Carolina-sick.”

So when I finally saw Sasha and Ahmad this past weekend I was ecstatic – a kid in a candy store. We shared stories of our summers. Sasha of Brazil, beaches, and bums. Ahmad of Egypt, elections, and eats. Me of Sea Gull, sailing, and songs.

Along with reflexing, we also looked to the future. During our summers we unfortunately dropped our school lives. Now that we are back at Chapel Hill, our school lives are slowing getting back up in full force. This means so is Kicking Across Carolina.

Consider this post the first in a new life of Kicking Across Carolina.  A new breath of fresh air. A lot will be the same about Kicking Across Carolina but there is some new exciting stuff on the way.

PS. We still have shirts left. If you would like to buy one and are in the Chapel Hill area please just shoot us an e-mail and we will work to get that too you right away.

Kicking across Carolina final blog

Today was the final leg in our epic journey across the state, and we did our best to wrap up our trip in style. There was a banner, cupcakes, and even heightened police presence (but in hindsight, that may have been on account of the Memorial Day beach traffic…). Today was the culmination of three weeks of sore feet and sleep deprivation, and it started in the small town of Newport, NC.

We dribbled a few miles and conducted an interview with News 14 Carolina, one of our most important interviews yet! Needless to say, we were excited to finish these last few miles, and we flew through the remainder of our trip at a blazing speed of three miles per hour. We were treated to a free lunch at Smithfield’s Chicken & BBQ, courtesy of David Moore, which we quickly realized was not conducive to someone who still had several miles to walk… However, we appreciate the free meal very much, and didn’t mind walking on a full stomach.

As we neared our destination, we were joined by some ardent supporters who walked with us for the last mile or so. After careful counting and calculation (courtesy of myself and Sasha with no help from Dylan whatsoever) we finished the day with 108 moments of recognition/waves/honks/near accidents because of us etc. breaking all of our previous records.

We finished our dribble at the public access beach off of eleventh street in Morehead City, and needless to say, it was an amazing feeling to cross the finish line and jump into the ocean. As we celebrated with our families and friends we were hit with a slew of varying emotions. There was obviously happiness  and relief at having finished our physical task, but I still felt unsatisfied. We set out on this trip to spread awareness for a cause we found worthy, and thankfully we were received by a largely supportive audience. However we now find ourselves faced with the question  of “what next?”. How can we continue to spread our message in the weeks, months, and years to come? How can we illustrate to people that even though we have finished our journey across the state, we’ve only just started our campaign for peaceful coexistence? Will we dribble across the region or across the nation or even around the globe, or will we simply become like a championship-winning team and “Go to Disneyworld”? These are the questions running through our minds now, and while we might not have answers for them now, I feel confident in saying that Kicking Across Carolina is only getting started.

I want to take this time to thank anyone and everyone who has helped and supported us thus far. From the Jones Family pampering us at the onset of our trip to Eurosport for outfitting us and helping us spread our message, to the nameless strangers who honked at us and encouraged us along the way, to Papa and the Simel family who have been our cheerleaders/chauffeurs/photographers/life-savers/worrying parents. Last and certainly not least, we want to thank you, whoever is reading this, for following our journey and continuously supporting us. Without you, our trek would be unknown and much less motivated. You have kept our feet moving for the past three weeks, and for that you have our undying thanks. Since Kicking Across Carolina is most definitely not “over”, this is Ahmad Saad not saying goodbye, but rather see you soon.

Total distance traveled today: 14.2 miles

Total time spent traveling: 6 hr 45 mins

Total distance traveled: 450.06 miles

Today we set out from the Burger King in James City, North Carolina, with our friend Thaier Askar and got off to a pretty strong start down Highway 70. We switched to Old Cherry Point road after a short bit, and continued to keep up a steady pace during what turned out to be a rather uneventful morning. We did have two rather interesting encounters with dogs, as a large white one decided it wanted to eat me (don’t worry, I escaped), and then a bit later we watched in pure horror as a large brown one got hit by a car (don’t worry, it was okay). We also took a quick stop by Family Tire and Auto Service, and fell in love with their amazing customer service and quality affordable tires. Stop by today! (Yes, they did donate, and yes we are shamelessly plugging the company.)We stopped for lunch at Mario’s Pizza in Havelock, and then just kept chugging on Highway 70. We did a quick interview with Channel 12 (not sure when that will be on), we stopped to talk with the Carteret County News Times, and we chatted for a bit with a man with a camera who I’m pretty sure worked for a newspaper, though we forgot to ask which one. We would like to thank all of them, especially the man with a camera (because we feel bad that we forgot to ask who you worked for).

One aspect of today that I have to mention is the incredible support we received. We’ve gotten into the habit of counting the number of times people wave/honk/fist pump at us, and today shattered our previous record with a grand total of 103. Two entire school buses recognized us (though one might not count because my little brother was on it), and we were just overwhelmed today with the amount of support. Several people offered to bring us water, and one slightly crazy woman (cough Mrs. Wheatley cough) brought us Choco Tacos. Kicking Across Carolina has and always will accept Choco Tacos.

We managed exactly 22.13 miles today, to bring our total up to 435.86.  We’ve got around 15 miles left, and as such we should be finishing tomorrow! I think the whole team is experiencing a lot of mixed emotions right now, such as sadness that it’s almost over, excitement that we’ve almost done it, a sweeping relief that we might not ever have to walk 25 miles a day ever again, and I don’t think I would do them all justice by writing about them in the blog, so check the video tomorrow for more on that. Also, make sure to check out our lovely itinerary provided by Ahmad for more details on tomorrow! 

Day 22 Itinerary

On our final day of Kicking Across Carolina, the trio will be dribbling from Newport to the coast, specifically Morehead City. We are hoping to finish around 2pm at the public access beach on 11^th Street in Morehead City. Once there, we’re hoping to take some photos and videos commemorating the end of our journey. However, we will be going the “extra mile” and crossing the bridge to Atlantic Beach where we will be punting our soccer balls into the ocean…and then quickly retrieving them.

To begin our day, we will be headed eastward on Highway 70, starting near Lakeside Drive and working our way east. We will then be veering off onto Chatham Street and heading through the town of Newport, reaching Highway 70 once again after we pass through. From there we will be dribbling along Arendall Street/Highway 70 East all the way into our final destination, Morehead City.

Once we enter the city limits, we will turn around and head back to Asheville…just kidding, that would be insanity. We will instead opt to turn right onto 23^rd Street and quickly turn left on Evans Street, continuing on Evans until we reach 11^th Street where we will stop at the aforementioned public access beach. Once there, we will proceed to take super cute pix (pictures), and bring our three-week epic journey to a close. Afterwards, there is talk of crossing the Atlantic Beach Bridge into the city of, you guessed it, Atlantic Beach, where we will proceed to chill out, max, and relax. Hopefully this detailed description of our plans helps those of you interested in joining us in our festivities, and we certainly look forward to seeing our supporters out at the beach. Until then!

Day 20

It started just like any other day. Wake up, 7 o’clock, get dressed, eat breakfast, hit the road, start dribbling by 8 o’clock, and wake yourself up as you walk. But today was no ordinary day. Today was the day that Kicking Across Carolina would enter New Bern, the lovely hometown of Dylan and Sasha. I had heard tales of this mystical place before, but this was my first real experience with New Bernians, and I must say, they did not disappoint.

We started the day dribbling down Old Highway 70, walking about 11 miles before our first engagement of the day. With the help of Dylan and Sasha’s old soccer instructor, Coach Reid, we were scheduled to speak at HJ MacDonald Middle School, the institution that brought us such legends as the aforementioned duo. We were surprised to find a member of the New Bern Sun Journal staff waiting for us to get the inside scoop on our feelings thus far into the trip, and Ms. Sue Book did us a great service by writing a wonderful piece on us which can be found here.

Coach Reid was truly amazing, gathering the entire student body, nearly 900 people, in the gymnasium with the sole purpose of hearing us speak about our project. This was by far our largest audience, and with several hundred preteens and teenagers expecting so much of us, it’s safe to say we were nervous. However through a combination of Justin Beiber and shirtless Sasha, we were able to win over the hearts of young New Bernians, and the presentation was an overwhelming success. As if that wasn’t enough, Coach Reid went out of his way to make me an honorary member of the Warcub Nation, giving me a full soccer jersey and bestowing upon me the rank of Warcub, which I will forever wear proudly.

After presenting at HJ, we continued our dribble through downtown New Bern, picking up friends and family along the way. It was great to actually see what Dylan and Sasha (or Dylasha as I’ve come to call this cute couple) had been talking about and hyping for the past two weeks, and it was even more amazing to meet the people they had mentioned and find that they were just as loving and supportive as Dylasha made them out to be.

We finished our trek near the Union Point Park, a scenic location where the Neuse River meets the Trent River, and we stopped for a few minutes to spend some time with a group of supporters who met us there. Eating a snow cone from Coopers, watching my newfound friends interact, I realized that New Bern is truly a beautiful place filled with people that epitomize the generosity and friendliness that I’ve come to associate with North Carolina as a whole. Although I haven’t spent much time here before, it certainly is a place that I look forward to returning to in the future. There isn’t enough room on this page (or the next few) to name all of the wonderful people we would like to thank, but I want all of our supporters to know how much you all mean to us and how much we appreciate everything you have done and continue to do in order to help us. Upon starting this venture, we knew we would have good days and bad days; today was most certainly a good day. And to think, it started just like any other day.

Total Distance Traveled Today: 23.4 miles

Time Spent Traveling Today: 12 hours

Total Distance Traveled: 413.73 miles

Today we got a bit of a later start than usual (let’s just say that Dylan and I enjoyed sleeping in our own beds), and so we hit the road at about nine in Kinston, North Carolina. Even after our late start, we still managed to proceed at an incredibly slow pace, as all these dadgum people kept stopping to talk to us. Honestly, the support today was overwhelming. We had four people pull over and ask if we would like something to drink. We may have set a record in the number of car honks/shouts from out of the window. And we definitely set a record for the most interesting shout out. At around ten o’clock a man drove by, rolled down his window, and screamed “BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER!! Ayiyiyiyiyiyiyi!!!!!”, then turned around, drove by again and screamed “YAYA TOURE!!!”, and then he turned around again and this time screamed “XAVI HERNANDEZ!!!” before driving off. If you don’t follow soccer, those are three prominent international players, which opens up a whole slew of questions. Did he mistake us for them? Was he comparing our abilities to theirs? Both are likely possibilities.

At around 11 we met with Katie Banks from WNCT Channel 9 News and interviewed with her. Even though she’s a Duke graduate, she somehow still managed to do a lovely job, and you can find the story here. After that, we had a quick lunch with our friend Thaier Askar, and then realized that with the late start and all the wonderful stops we took this morning, we had pretty much gone nowhere.

So we kept up a pretty rigorous pace throughout the afternoon, and managed to reach the outskirts of Cove City before we had to stop at 5 p.m., putting todays total at 16.9 miles and 390.33 miles for the trip. We then hurried back to New Bern to speak at Garber Methodist Church, who were something like AWESOME. To be honest, I actually wrote about twelve different descriptions of Garber and then erased them all because they sounded too much like a Nicholas Sparks novel, so I’ll just put it simply: we loved Garber. They were kind, receptive, made us feel famous by letting us sign lots of shirts, and even made us the best banner ever.

We’ve got three days left of dribbling across the state of North Carolina, and I’m really sick of dribbling a darn soccer ball. However, one thing that I know I’ll never get sick of no matter how many states I kick across is the people that I see along the way. We met so many gracious people today, summed up perfectly by the pure awesomeness finale that we got at Garber, and it was pretty incredible. Three days left, and I’m still in shock that we’ve already started! As Dylan put it, it feels like we’ve been dribbling for about 40 years, but it also feels as if we’ve just started. We’ve met great people along the way, and with their support we’ve made it more than 380 miles, a pretty nifty accomplishment if I may say so myself. Today has really been a great summary of our trip as we started slow, picked up speed, and finished strong with a lovely crowd at Garber. Our only hope is that these remaining few days are as amazing and eye-opening as the past 19.

Tomorrow we will be taking US 70/Neuse Blvd into New Bern (Dylan and Sasha’s hometown) and we would really love for anyone and everyone interested to join us on our dribble. We will be taking the following route, so if at any point our readers are nearby and interested, they have a general idea of where we will be at what times.

We will start our dribble around 8am in Cove City on old US 70 headed east (obviously), until it turns into Neuse Blvd. We have the pleasure of speaking at H. J. MacDonald Middle School (Warcub Nation!!) tomorrow afternoon, and we will be eating lunch and presenting there from 1 o’clock until they get tired of us (so probably sometime around 1:15). Afterwards we will pick up where we left off and continue down old US 70/Neuse Blvd until it transforms into Broad Street. This will lead us into downtown New Bern where we hope to meet some of our supporters.

Once we reach Broad Street, we will proceed through downtown New Bern until reaching Queen Street where we will make a left and continue northwards until the intersection of Queen and Craven Street. We will make a right on Middle Street and head back down south, making our way back to good ol’ US 70. Our last complicated turn is once we reach East Front Street where we will head south, following US 70.  We are hoping to dribble through Union Point Park, perhaps partaking in a few rounds of soccer golf along the way, but with instances like these, only time will tell.

Finally, we will continue on US 70 past New Bern, crossing the Alfred Something Bridge (Sasha’s knowledge of local landmarks is truly profound). We will hopefully continue on this lovely unidentified bridge until reaching James City, where we hope to retire for the night.

Day 18

Today we awoke with One Direction’s “One Thing” stuck in our heads, humming and singing the lyrics throughout the day. While the song is catchy for the first few hundred plays, it has grown into a pest that won’t leave our minds, and as we made our way out to where we left off yesterday, we couldn’t get the song out of our heads. We began today’s dribble on the outskirts of Goldsboro and worked our way towards Kinston, heading through La Grange in the process. One of the best things about being in eastern North Carolina is the fact that, as Papa put it; “It’s all downhill from here.” We’ve been blessed with flat ground to dribble on, and plenty of open spaces, so soccer golf has become a common pastime for the three of us.

The major issue we faced today was the forecast, as the temperature was hovering around the lower 90’s this morning. By noon we were all exhausted from the heat and ready to take a break from dribbling, and we sought shelter at Murray’s Restaurant in La Grange where we ate a delicious lunch and were surprised to read an article written by Andrew Kenney about Kicking Across Carolina, which can be found here. We’d like to thank the News & Observer for taking the time to speak with us and write a story on our cause, helping us in our continued quest to reach out to as many people as possible. Along the same lines, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Eurosport sent out our press release to hundreds of news outlets, many of which posted a message about our cause and what people can do to help. This article was posted on Yahoo News’ Finance section, a web-page that is viewed by millions of people every day!

After lunch, we continued our journey towards Kinston, stopping to record an interview with the local news station WITN just as the rain started to come down. The weather forecast mentioned that tropical storm Alberto might be making its way up the coast and that we might see some rain as a result, but thankfully we were spared the brunt of the stormy weather. We also were fortunate enough to arrange a meeting with a reporter from the Kinston Free Press, which will hopefully be running a story on us tomorrow which will increase awareness of our cause in the area.

However, we were surprised at the number of individuals who came out to encourage us in the Kinston area. We were stopped on several occasions as people voiced their support and spoke with us about how the trip has gone thus far. Lucy Manning, Mary Scott Manning, and Danielle McLaughlin drove out to meet us on the trail in order to show they’re backing our cause, and it was refreshing to see that people of our age share our values and hopes that such a concept sticks in people’s minds. We’re happy to say that we feel confident in the number of people our message has reached, and we hope that the idea continues to spread, even after we are through with kicking.

Total Distance Traveled Today: 22.14 miles

Time Spent Traveling Today: 11 hours

Total Distance Traveled: 373.43 miles