8th - 14th
Illegal officially now in Tanzania. Residents permits taking so long to process the whole notion of actually needing one now is a farce. We are already over half way through our stay here and still no word regarding our permits. When we left Mtwara at the start of December with a one month extension we where told that the permits would be ready for us when we return. Upon our return we where told after Christmas. Now we have been trying to get in contact with the boss who has not been in the office. We tried to get going all this week but it failed due to our other commitments in Ziwani. Fortunately, the police didn't arrest us so we slept peacefully.
Our football camp in Ziwani which was due to start on the 3rd was rescheduled for the 8th however, when we arrived at the office which, was meant to have dealt with these issues on Monday morning it was clear we where going nowhere today. The problem was all the officers had gone out to check whether the secondary schools where in good condition for the start of the new school year. This meant that the transport which had been promised was no longer available. After a long time trying to negotiate a good deal and waiting for the necessary officials to come back from their journey, it was agreed that we would be give petrol money and we would, ourselves, have to collect the girls from Mtwara rural and take them to Ziwani. Not an ideal solution but the only one that was remaining. So the camp would then start on the 9th – hopefully.
The following day we arrived at Ziwani where some of the girls had been collected. In total we had 28 girls from 54. The accomodation and food was not enough for 54 girls so it became evident that the girls we had now would be the ones selected to go to Finland. Its unfortunate for the other girls who could not make it to Ziwani due to the officials been not organised. We had to get the total number of girls down even further to a total of around 22. A game was organised and the names of those girls that impressed was recorded. Those who didn't make the final list of 22 where given – football boots, socks, t – shirt and a bag full of pens.
We trained at Ziwani for a few days, but due to the awful sleeping conditions we were trying to find a new sleeping place for the girls. Training went well and as the week went on it became evident the girls where quick learners and of course motivation was not needed because all knew about the possibility of going to Finland. Different sessions involved working on different skills. As the girls are not used to do regular exercise for long periods over a number of days consecutively they became quickly tired therefore meaning sessions generally lasted around 3 – 4 hours. We tried to encourage the girls to drink plenty of water and highlighted the reasons for this, some listened others didn't.
After two days at Ziwani, new accommodation was found about 15 minutes drive in the Mtwara urban direction. The sleeping facilities where a lot better but the pitch was not great and one of the goal posts was in danger of falling and possibly killing someone as it was not the regular goalposts but mental posts, almost rusted the whole way through and supported in the middle by a piece of wood. Fortunately during our time there nobody was hurt because of the post. Again we had a number of training sessions organised over the remainder of the week we spent there. As Friday was a holiday we had a short session and organised the girls into two teams. They both played really well, some remembering the skills picked up during the week and using them to go effect. It also really good now that the girls have settled with one another and are no longer making “kissing noises” to get attention but rather calling out names and shouting for the ball. In the first number of days they were a bit nervous which could be seen by how they where kicking and controlling the ball. But once we moved to the new place they seem to enjoy it a lot better and their football as a result improved. In the end the team lead by me beat Kanda's team 6 -0. The girls stamina and energy levels are also increasing. So over the next number of weeks when we don't have training it will be interesting to know whether they are still practising.
On Saturday, a party was organised at a local Mzungu house, Philip. He had organised a cheese and wine party. It was more than just that as he had been working very hard for the previous two days with Kate, another Mzungu, cooking various dishes for all the guests. I was wondering where the cheese had come from but Philip had been travelling recently so had taken it from DAR. The food was great and for desert he had Malteesers. It had been ages since I had some of these and it was so nice to try them again. Some luxury goods in Mtwara.
Also the really good thing about the party was the wine, Philip had made his own wine in various taste. One in pineapple which was really good. All the guests had a really good time and was nice to meet up with everyone again after the Christmas break. We all talked about been back in Mtwara again and our safari's around the Northern Circuit.
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