Mr. Sniebly’s lovely life skills

That’s right we’re back again! We left you last time having just begun our life skill competition, which is now in full swing. We delegated control of the project to our German friend Robin (Bieber/ Schweinsteiger= Biebsteiger if you remember), although we now call him Mr Sniebly because we think it sounds German and because we liked him from the film School of Rock! A very ignorant British approach, but he doesn’t seem to mind too much, in fact we think he kind of likes it! Anyway we have been progressing nicely with the life skills with activities ranging from Ultimate Frisby (a good under 17’s warm up), 4 legged races (involves 4 people but legs tied together), marshmallow eating (that’s what it says on the tin really) and electric fence dodging. No not real electric- like we’re sure you are thinking, just a metaphoric piece of rope in which the kids had to jump over without touching. Anyway, as well as being fun they really do have real meanings and extremely important lessons to be learnt from and applied to everyday life. The sessions involve the fun activity, us taking some photos and then a detailed discussion on how the kids interpreted the session in relation to skills used in everyday life. There are over 30 which has been a challenge to say the least, but with Sniebly’s great enthusiasm we are almost finished and hopefully first to do so.

Mr Sniebly's life skill

We have also started sessions with old BRIGHTon and Hove Albion, no sorry his real name is- always look on the BRIGHT side of life! Ok enough with the poor name jokes, we have started at our Zimbabwean friend Bright’s school sessions and the first session was an event to say the least! We turned up at his voluntary school/derelict church bang on time, as all professional coaches do, expecting to have about 20 kids and a nice pitch to play on as Bright had promised to arrange a nice pitch at another local secondary school. How very wrong we were. He gave us a tour of the classrooms first which are scattered in the small areas surrounding the church and within the church itself, separated by blackboards. Therefore whilst one class is doing algebra, another is learning countries of the world, whilst another is doing some spellings. Quite a shock for us to see so many classrooms in so little space with so many kids it appeared. Bright told us that he had been strict and sent a lot of kids away because he just didn’t have the capacity for any more. He then went outside to ring the bell for assembly. When we say bell, it was a large piece of tin roofing hanging on a piece of rope tied to a tree. He hit it several times with a large wooden branch and the kids came scampering. They were extremely polite but in unison (literally every child) said, “good morning”, so we replied “good morning, how are you?” They then shouted “fine thanks and how are you” back at us, leading us to a strong conclusion that they all spoke English. Again how very wrong we were!

The pitch at Brighton and Hove's pitch/ church

Bright introduced us at the 3 Mzungo’s (not quite musketeers) and then assigned Will with grades 2, 3 and 4, and Meggo with grades 5, 6 and 7. So he did us a great favour there leaving the tiny tots of grade 1 at the side to watch as avid spectators. Therefore we had 60 kids between us on a pitch (not the one he had promised) which ran alongside the church and was basically made of rocks. Will was so shocked that he expressed his concern to the teachers that if a kid was to hit their head on one of the many small mountains, they would in fact die! This didn’t really bother them though and they were just eager to get going with some football. The pitch was tiny and to put it into context it was probably a bit smaller than an 18 yard box at Emirates stadium. So as you can see an extremely challenging debut and we can quite easily say the HARDEST 1 hour session of our lives! However like all great (and we mean great) coaches do, we pulled out some relays, dribbling races (although many balls hit small mountains and went off the sides of the church down its steep sides, as it is situated on a very high hill) and some turns drills. We then had a small tournament at the end which was fun until Bright and his deputy head master Succeed (yeah you could have guessed a name like that) started offering 20 Metacais as financial reward to the winning team. They then decided to have a bet between themselves on who would be the winning team. Before we get onto that rather concerning matter, just thought we’d throw some other interesting names we’ve found over here. Obviously there’s Hard Life (David really) and then there was a guy called ‘It doesn’t matter’ to which Meggo replied, “Ok I won’t tell you my name then,” when he first met him.

Good morning and how are you?

Oh yeah back to the more concerning issue of the two teachers betting on the outcome of under 12’s football. Basically they took a team each in the final and decided that the winner would win a drink and probably some money off of the other. However the final was a draw and went to penalties. Therefore each team had 3 penalties each, typically these were all missed and because we were over running on time we suggested that the next team to miss would be the loser. We did this and thought we had a winner until Succeed went absolutely mental as his team was the losing team. He shouted, jumped up and down at us and spat quite a lot into our faces. We were forced to continue with penalties because he made up some rubbish like the keeper was off his line, and again as expected his team finally won the whole charade. Therefore it was quite an experience on top of an entertaining experience in the first place.

Outdoor classroom at Bright's school

However on a more serious note we gave the teachers a talking to at the end and explained the errors of their ways. They took it very well and apologized to us over and over again, but it just highlights the importance of educating people out here on how to be responsible and a positive role model to kids. This is our main concern out here and the strong point we have emphasized on our coaching course to the first team players. Overall a great experience because the kids, who appeared to have never played football before (we guess this as they didn’t know how a match worked) had a great time, sang fantastic Arsenal songs (I like Eboue, boue) and got fit at the same time.

The other big event which stands out as a true highlight of the whole Mozambican experience was a trip to Pingi’s (Pingu for comedic effect) house in Chimoioi. Cimoioi is the big town/city in the province of Manica and about 45 minutes away from the club. However it took about 1 hour in one of the ‘death traps’ they call Chappa’s out here (the taxi bus). This was the start of our adventure with; us, Sniebly and Hard Life all wedged onto the back seat of the Chap, made to fit 3 people. The public transport system has no bounds though it appears with about 25 people squeezing tightly like crisps in a packet. Some sitting, some standing, some bent, some on people’s laps and others with their bums hanging out the open windows. When people want to get somewhere here though, how they squeeze onto these things. The boot was also open and tied with some string. So we all got whiplash to our necks and couldn’t twist them for a few days, well we still can’t really move them now!

Electric fence and Sniebly

We arrived in the market of Chimoioi to find Pingi and two other players who live there, Manino and Mario (self-proclaimed Messi). Pingi was and is so proud of his roots and from the moment we left the Chap treated us like royal guests. He bought us some crisps and water before showing us some land marks, such as the radio station, cinema (not really a cinema to you and us), market, football grounds and centre of town. We then moved swiftly onto his auntie’s house which was a large pink building just off of the main road. The house seemed quite small, but large for Mozambique and had endless amounts of cousins, nephews and nieces to meet inside. Oh and about 14 dogs! They were all extremely kind and gave us some bananas and oranges as a warm up to the day. The fun was just about to start.

Inside a reasonably empty chap

We jumped on the back of an open truck in which Pingi’s cousin drove us down some very tight back passages and far away from the main town. This was the true Chimoioi. After just about surviving not falling out of the truck due to the, well to be polite tricky terrain, we were dropped just short of Pingi’s house. The poverty and tough, tough living conditions in Mozambique was clear. The house was small but extremely well built by Pingi and his brother. There were holes in the walls, no windows and the roof was improvised to say the least but it’s what Pingi and his family call home. We were taken back and in awe of how people survive, let alone live in such conditions. The toilets are deep holes outside (unbearable conditions for you know what in the winter), the kitchen is a small open brick building and bedrooms are very tiny, dark bricked areas. However the family spirit is something to admire. They have a small area with 4 small chairs (1980’s leather) and a TV with 3 fuzzy stations. This is the hub of their family life and Pingi told us that when he goes home the whole family huddle in this area and enjoy each another’s company. He also had an old wireless set up which he played in his small dining area to which we ate an exquisite meal at a miniature table. His mum was extremely kind cooking heaps of Sadza, spaghetti, chicken, home made potatoes and coconut mixed with green vegetables. We were stuffed and had the best meal (we must say best Sadza) in 3 months out here. We met the whole family and took photos of Pingi and them in front of their house, even including their tiny little pet kitten. The family was so proud of their house and so grateful to us for visiting, although we were the ones who were humbled and the ones who are eternally grateful for the experience and hospitality offered to us.

Random picture of our U16's with manager Chitty Chitty Chibanga in Chimoioi

We then left the house and got a bus down the dirt road (which they classify as a real road, we’re not sure about that) and traveled to another densely packed area of improvised houses deep in the heart of the back streets of Chimoioi. We visited and saw Mario, Simaozinho and Lloyd’s houses (all GDM first teamers) who gave us a great insight into real life in Mozambique and were very kind in their hospitality. The thing that humbled us the most is the pride they hold in their homes, their memories of great childhood’s growing up there and how they are constantly dreaming of earning enough money to pay back their families. This is either through money or building new homes for them, it is really inspirational. It is from just 1 day in a small area like this that our view of life changed and changed the way we approach our own lives when we return home. It was a truly amazing and positive experience.

Short in snooker action, shame Meggo beat him!

Finally we visited the manager’s house, old Miguel Morinihou, who invited us especially because he heard we were in the town. They treat us with such respect for basically just being from a totally different world and wanting to help. He was a great host giving us bread, crisps and drinks before showing us photo albums upon albums of his career photos. There were photos of him representing the Mozambique national team against a range of teams like Portugal, Bulgaria and Zambia. Again we didn’t know the true man he was until he opened up his ‘real life’ to us. We are used to seeing the fiery and arrogant management side to him, but deep down he is a family man living with his wife and eldest daughter. He is proud of what he has achieved in football and eager to show us and the first team players that were with us, what he lives for- football. So after a full day out in Chimoioi we headed back into the sunset on a Chappa with Hard and Sniebly. A day we will never forget for the rest of our lives.

Again random picture of minnies sister- Chandulia

Gallos have also been busy winning 2 matches since our last blog. The first was on a very strange pitch to say the least which slanted quite steeply down hill and had large bore holes scattered all over the place. We won the game 1-0 with Meggo missing a penalty only for Fat Boy to scuff the rebound and Will to finally slot home on the 3^rd attempt. Meggo also went on to miss 3 penalties at the orphanage in the same week. A real low point in his time here and it’s knocked his confidence quite severely. However if another penalty does arise, he will be willing to take it, just so he can complete the Mzungo triangle of goal scorers! The second match was against the ‘moody Spurs’ outfit of Vumba who we drew 0-0 with in the first week. This time we couldn’t control ourselves and won comfortably 2-0. Spurs didn’t have 1 shot really and the 2 strikers smelt like they were drunk, as reported by the Laurent Koscielny wannabe- Meggo. The game was quite fiery though with tackles flying in everywhere and Meggo getting kicked in the head when trying to head a ball at literally ground level. Quite a stupid way of defending we reckon!

Our U17's and girls at 7 in the morning

The first team have had mixed results with a shocking 2-1 loss to the team that are currently 4^th in the league at home. Miguel was shell shocked and had an intense week of training to get the boys back in good routine. The players themselves do not like losing and took it very hard as they are not used to it. Their attitude changed remarkably and last weekend we beat FC Shoprite 6-1, with about 27 one on one’s being missed by Flex alone. He’s the El Hajj Diouf look a-like. However the performance was much improved and because of results elsewhere we have a crucial match with the top team TextAfrica this Sunday at Campo Municipal. They are 2 points clear on the same games and we MUST win to be in contention for the title. There are only 3 games left after this match and it is vital we approach the game with the right mentality. That’s currently what Miguel is working on around camp now, they are really focused on beating the African text message!

The 6-1 mawling of FC Shoprite in Chimoioi

That is probably quite enough for one day’s reading so we’ll leave it there and write one more blog before we leave for England. We have a feeling that last blog will be very interesting as we are going on Safari in Gorongosa National Park- alone! Well we say alone but Zambo, Joanna, Pingi and Sniebly will be with us in the red love bug. Lets see it as a promising adventure! Oh yeah and Meggo might shave again, it's been 5 weeks! Until next time, take care blog fans out there!!!!!!!!

Arsenalllll!!!!