Friday 19th July 2024

 

Friday 19th July 2024 

By Olly Steyn 

Today was a tough one, through hours of tough endeavour and the pummelling of the radiating of the sun beating down on my bare skin. The incapability of being able to keep a tight schedule is evident as we were only able to relocate with our companions later as James is late most mornings. 

I am struggling with the smaller portions as I usually eat for three. After a depleted bowl of cereal being watched under the close eye of Miss Perks. The first two minivans set off. We arrived at Musamba at 7.05am and began to construct six pitches. Throughout the past couple of days many have fallen to the hands of the brutal African sun. 

It was a slow start as the predicted time of the blow of the first whistle was 9.30am whereas it only sounded at 10.30am. Throughout the group we were assigned different tasks, such as referee, manager or a spare. I was given the role of referee. At first it was tough as the intensity and the importance of this tournament and what it meant to the children was evident. 

After a while I got the hang of it and found it a lot easier than before. Many of the children remembered me from previous coaching sessions. My preferred team was SOSCO as my favourite Child plays for them. 

We only managed to finish half of the expected games due to how hot it was. We then reached the finals. The first game was close providing entertaining game for the around 450 children to watch. However, the second game was not close at all. At the end we distributed the donation bags to 14 schools. 

We ended the day with a good lasagne for dinner. 

Love you guys lots. Missing you all, Mum, Papa, Gabby, Bentley and Tilly. 

Friday 19th July 2024

By Sophie Stevenson 

Today was our first tournament. We woke up bright and early at 5.15am, it was still dark. Whilst waiting for the bus, Miss Perks started a sweep stake of how many babies I would kidnap as I am now known as the baby magnet. We arrived at the tournament to over 500 excited smiling faces and quickly set about arranging pitches, teams and height groups. We were given different jobs such as pitch manager, referee and linesman.  I was a referee. Although it was stressful at first I got the hang of it and it quickly became enjoyable. 

When the tournament ended we distributed bags of donations and food for all of the children. The pleasure and gratefulness shown made it all worth it. Whilst waiting for the coaches to deliver the teams home, many of the children came over to play with us, I made friends with two five year old girls who held my hands and followed my everywhere and many of the older girls enjoyed playing with my hair and giving me different hair styles. When we finally arrived home, we were shattered and all went to shower (not together). For dinner we had the famous lasagne. It was delicious. 

Miss you all, love you so much, I am having such a good time and can't wait to tell you all about it. Love Sophie xxx