Manica

The journey itself to get to Manica Mozambique was something I will forever remember in my life. It took us just about 34 hours to get here, and we spent 8 hours in the boarder between South Africa and Zimbabwe. After that long journey to get here, I would say the wait was well worth it. The first images I saw of Manica were beautiful. Everywhere I looked was green and there were mountains everywhere too. After we finally arrived we got introduced to almost everyone here at the club. The first day since we arrived so late we slept almost immediately after dinner. The next day the guys and I decided to explore the town a bit. The people here in the town are very welcoming and friendly to us, everywhere we would go we would get a wave or a how are you. On Monday they took us to the 5 a side FIFA pitch they have in Manica. The view you get from that pitch is unmatchable. You have a 360 view of all the mountains, and that includes Vumba Mountain which is where they get their spring water from. The pitch itself is amazing. Too bad we couldn’t keep up the first day with the rest of the guys. We were out of shape and not use to the heat, but I enjoyed every second of it. The rest of the week consisted of us helping coach the first team and under 17’s. They start training at 6:30 am because it’s too hot to train during the day. The second half of our days had us coaching kids in the community which is always fun to put on a session with the local kids. Though on Monday we did do a bit of garden work. GDM has a great garden and will eventually feed the entire club and then some. Also during our first week here we met our contact out here named Schalk he gave us a tour of Futeco which is the land that GDM own and have the FIFA pitch, the Garden, and a practice pitch there. He told us about the 10 year plan the club has and I will say it’s pretty impressive and it makes me want to come out here again and help. Food here we got adjusted too very quickly. It mainly has either rice or Pap, and fish, and spinach. It’s very healthy and I’m sure my body is thanking me for this haha. All of my favorite chocolate bars and candies that made up my daily diet are not here. Also this week I was shown how to correctly wash clothes by hand by a couple of the players…they saw my washing skills last week and thought I needed some coaching on it. Everything here is very relaxing and just outside outside of my room I have a gorgeous view where I can just sit on the steps and look out and see the mountains. Being out lets me think and appreciate more all the things we take for granted back home. So far my time here has been very enjoyable. We’ll see what Manica and the club have in store for us. Stay tuned til next time!

#Mozambique