When Careemah Noordien found out that New Zealand rugby player Sonny Bill Williams (SBW) was in town, she had the whole Bo-Kaap Athletics Club (BKA) running after him for a selfie.
At the club training on Tuesday May 16, she announced that she wanted to see SBW that night because she heard that the Blues player was on the rugby field at the Green Point Common.
Armed in her expensive MAC lipstick, she led the bus (the running group) at a high speed, leaving some of us heaving for air.
The discussion on our way to SBW was all about her obsession to seeing the mighty SBW who converted to Islam in 2008.
The Blues were in Cape Town to play against the Stormers, who beat them 30-22 in a brutal Super Rugby clash at Newlands on Friday May 19.
Careemah was not able to hide her disappointment when SBW wasn’t at the field.
But, she was alerted on social media that SBW was staying at the Southern Sun Cullinan hotel.
But the club members were tired of running after her bus, so they set off home and Careemah had to swallow her disappointment of not getting a selfie with the All Blacks player.
At the training two days later, on Thursday May 18, Careemah was nowhere to be found. She was not in the mood for training and had probably cried herself to sleep. However, the rest of the running group went to the Cullinan hotel to see if they could get hold of SBW for Careemah, but they were stopped by security telling them that SBW was “meditating”.
On Friday, Careemah found out that she had missed the SBW bus once again when Anuscha, daughter of club member Shehaam Hendricks, “stalked” SBW and got him to greet everyone in a video before he went to Jumuah (Friday prayer).
She then posted it on the group chat.
Careemah threw her hands in the air and she said “I give up”.
But what seems impossible can happen when you “let go”. And so it did for Careemah.
That same Friday night, BKA was invited to a charity spinathon for the Kilimanjaro SA 2017 group.
The proceeds were for Muslim Hands which focuses on providing accessible and high quality education for the children of Sub-Saharan Africa. Careemah decided to join the spinathon with 17 other members at South Peninsula High School hall.
Everyone had a great time spinning and afterwards went to have a quick bite to eat at a take-aways in Wynberg.
Careemah, who suffers from FOMO (fear of missing out), checked her phone every few minutes and then saw in the BKA group chat that another club member, Labeeqah Gertze, was posing with SBW at the Cullinan hotel.
Careemah jumped out of her chair and with a half eaten vienna in her mouth, was ready to race off to Cape Town to meet the gentle giant.
The whole club was led by Careemah’s bus once again, this time on four wheels.
And while some of the members were still parking cars at the hotel, Careemah was already in the arms of SBW.
Later she told us what she said to him in the foyer. Ready to have her photo taken while standing sheepishly next to the All Black, she looked up at him and said: “Hold me.” He answered: “Sure.” and put his arms around her chummily to pose for her picture.
BKA members surrounded SBW like players in a scrum in the foyer.
Some of them were suddenly keen to be photographed with SBW as well even though they were Stormers fans.
They posed for a group picture and melted in to the charms of SBW in support of Careemah’s efforts.
Careemah, according to coach Anees Gamiet, was on cloud nine.
The members had a great laugh afterwards when Careemah posted her “epic moments” on Instagram and Facebook, tagging all her friends.
I opened my Facebook page to find Careemah had written: “SBW How I take my Coffee?… AllBlacks No More chasing after @sonnybillwilliams he waited for me.”
Careemah beamed because she scored her try with SBW.
