Week 11 - Au revoir Manica

Just arrived in Johannesburg this morning, I’m writing my last blog about my experience in Manica. And for sure, I will remember this for the rest of my life. From our journey to Manica to the bus trip back to South Africa, I could tell you a million stories that happened during my time in this amazing place. But let’s focus on this final week for now. Enjoy the read and the pictures.

Coach Education

As “Coach Education” was part of our the programme in London to become better coaches and develop our ideas over the weeks, we decided to give the local coaches a session of Coach Education. The aim was to go through a couple of theoretical points to have in mind when they plan their sessions for kids in the community. We used our own experience of the FA Level 1 course as well as the FA Youth Module. Then, we showed them some warm-ups and main sessions to use as they wish. We also give them copies of every single session we could think of for kids.

Last Coaching day

After another full week of coaching to prepare the next CUP game for GDM, we had to say goodbye to most of the players on Friday. We took a final picture with them and told them we wanted to see GDM win the title this year.

Final community sessions

On Wednesday, Armando and I went to visit our first team captain for our last session with him at his ground. Walking the usual 35 minutes from the clubhouse to this place, Armando and I got our final “Mozungos” (that’s how they call white people) yelled at us by little kids surprised to see us around here. After a quick but intense warm-up, we decided to run a small tournament between four teams. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Desportivo and Brazil were picked up by the kids. Barcelona won, like they always do.

On Thursday, James, Armando and I went to the ground of two of our best friends from the first team : Santos & Paolo. Always smiling, always joking, those two guys are the reason why Manica is such a tremendous place to live. Usually, this ground is coached only by Armando because James and I are always coaching others places around Manica. But this time, we had to go there. Armando gave a Arsenal kit to a little kid called “Zito” and nicknamed “Karateco” by Armando, meaning Karate kid in Portuguese. The story of this kid is just unbelievable. Armando told us that every single session he went to, this kid was there, playing, enjoying and smiling. He never had any proper clothes on him and no shoes, never. And the funny thing is, this kid showed up every time with cows and bulls to watch. A big responsibility for a 7-8 year-old small boy. Every time his cows were walking away from the ground, he would leave the session, run towards the cows with a stick in his hands and wipe them back in the line. Then, he would run back to the session like nothing happened. Amazing snapshot of what the life of a kid looks like in Manica.

Amazing views

Manica is beautiful. I’ve never stopped to be amazed by the landscapes and the views. From Futeco to every single community sessions grounds, from The Vumba Mountain to the Church, those pictures are printed in my head forever.

But the best views of Manica are represented by the African Sunset. Every night around 6:30 PM, the sun goes down and the sunset appears. From the black shadows of the mountains to the yellow-orange light of the sun going back to sleep, I spent a lot of time sitting down outside my room just watching the spectacle.

Final Futeco week

On our way back to our last Futeco appearance on the 5-a-side FIFA pitch, James and I were at the back of the truck, enjoying the fresh air. We spent the whole way looking back at the moon. Straight in line with road, the African ocher was reflected its orange-red color. I wish I had a better camera to capture that moment. God I’m going to miss the views.

Early on this week, we played our last extremely serious match against the workers and directors at the FIFA pitch. We started terrible, losing 6-0 after 15 minutes. Extremely poor performance from us. Then, we decided that it couldn’t end this way. Mozambican football is very physical and we were not used to it, at all. We learnt that the hard way. Usually, we didn’t need that to win. But that day, we had to. So, we started to play a little rougher than usual on them. I don’t mean bad tackles or anything, just a little more contacts. At first, I was struggling in defense to handle Hardlife, one of the most physical players we’ve met in Manica, but such a good friend. Armando and I then switched positions and our problem was solved. Armando shut down Hardlife space and got him away from the goals. His work made me free from the defensive side and I started to play higher and to combine way better with James.

After being unlucky the first 15 minutes with our finishing, James got the first goal to make it 6-1. We won 18-9 at the end. They were not happy by the way we played on them but like I said, they played that way on us every single time we played. Five minutes after the end, everyone forgot about it and the friendship came back immediately. Football is amazing. I already miss playing there. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the most amazing 5-a-side pitch in the world.

Last dinner

On Friday night, after football at Futeco, GDM cooked us a nice meal to say goodbye to everybody. After everyone made a speech, the goodbyes were emotional. Manican people are amazing, the made our trip so much easier and so enjoyable. They don’t know it because they are used to it and they grew up that way, but they are so friendly, all the time. The whole town is like that. They don’t know different the life is back home. I hope it never changed for them. I couldn’t thank enough in a lifetime the people at GDM for the way the welcomed us and treated us every single day of our stay. Thank you Manica, thank you Africa.

Bus trip & Johannesburg arrival

On Saturday, we started our journey back by crossing the Zimbabwean border. The bus took off around 11 AM in Mutare, Mozambique and it took us about 9 hours to reach the South African border. After multiple checks, we crossed it in about 2 hours. We were thrilled to do so in such a short time. As a reminder, it took us 8 hours to cross the same border on the other side, from South Africa to Zimbabwe. Once we were all clear with the authorities, we reached Johannesburg at 6:00 AM. But, no one was there to pick us up. We had to wake up Doc in the middle of his sleep, as he didn’t have any idea we were coming that day… We waited 40 minutes in one of the most dangerous locations in Johannesburg : Park Station. Anyway, safe but tired, Doc kindly picked us up and drove us to his place where we will be staying until the day I fly out back to France.

Don't pay attention to the timings on the picture, Google is wrong. On the way up, 35 hours journey. On the way down, 24 hours. Just saying.

Next week will be starting with National Kruger Park, so there will be some more adventures and pictures coming.

#Mozambique