Week 1 with EduSport

 

Football pitches were not quite up to the standard of the Premiership in the middle of winter or the end of the season, and most school fields and council run parks would be of a better standard. Not being all that au fait with football, it took me a while to realise what made these pitches different from what I was expecting, and then it dawned on me, there was no grass!

 

As one of the few white people there not wearing an official organisers T shirt, I did cause a few curious glances, but most people who approached me simply wanted to say “Good Morning, How are you?” and shake your hand. One girl did ask for my £1.50 pair of flip flops, but was not prepared to trade in her trainers so that I had some thing to wear to go home!

 

Although the tournament was being run at a community school, the ‘school field’ was compact cooper coloured sand. As there tends to be a nice cooling breeze blowing most of the day, this did mean that the choice of white t shirt and light fawn shorts was not a good. Let’s just say they weren’t that colour when I got home!

 

Time keeping is also not all that great. The 11.00am match we were waiting to watch didn’t start until after midday, but once it kicked off the support was as enthusiastic as any sideline in the UK. The standard was pretty impressive and there didn’t seem to be too many of your prima donnas, certainly no red or gold football boots on display, in deed, many were playing in flip flops or bare feet.

 

The whole city appears to be football mad, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U dominating, even to the point of the local supermarket having a row of Arsenal shirts displayed on a wall near the exit door. There are stickers over the petrol caps on cars, sun visors on the mini buses, etc.

 

Travel to and from the venue was by minibus, an experience in how to get to know complete strangers very well without having to try too hard! The requirement for an MOT and vehicle service is doubtful. The main aim is to crowd as many people in as possible. I get the impression that bus fares are pretty much fixed, but taxi fares are up for negotiation.

 

Sunday - saw a leisurely walk to the office, just so I knew where I was going. At lunchtime it was off to the Arcades for a nosey around the market. Not particularly big but it was a good way to get out. Will probably to go back this Sunday.

 

 

Tuesday – Michael the director returned today and seems to be very keen on me doing some ‘audit’ work to check the budgets that are submitted for programmes. I agreed to complete the spreadsheet work I was doing and then crack on with it.

 

Work attitude does not appear to have changed that much, and with the Director in and out of his office to use the ‘Go Sisters’ PC, Sharon and Flo were certainly disrupted.

 

Walked to the local market at lunchtime, which was quite simply indescribable, not in a bad way, it was just a couple of short rows of stalls/ units selling everything from spanners to food, hairdressing to printing.

 

Walked back tonight, which seemed to take longer than this morning.   I have reverted to walking in my flip flops as my feet appear to have swollen up. It was difficult to put my trainers on when I left Monday.

 

Back at base it was working on the UK Payments office move until about 10.00ish.

 

Friday – Started work on formatting/amending the financial manuals. Also set up report sheets for the Peer Leaders workshops which are being run in three locations this weekend. All thinks considered it was a bit manic today. Very little preparation work had been done with respect to getting all the course material ready for the trainers.

 

A meeting was planned for 10.00 which probably started around 10.15am. Michael had wanted a pre meeting meeting with Sharon and Nyazeya first thing. Sharon turned up around 9.20am, (having been off sick yesterday with a mild case of Malaria I think, she mentioned going to the clinic for an injection and itching all over), by which time Michael had gone out. When he returned they had their meeting, and then all the leaders/ trainers met outside to run through the plan for the weekend’s workshop. Fiona came back in around midday absolutely exacerbated with it all.

 

Earlier in the morning Michael had informed me that it was normally a half day on Fridays! I snuck off just before1.00pm, having got to a suitable place to stop. There was lots of photocopying, stapling, and dishing out of budget, as the trainers armed themselves for the workshops. In a small office with five plus people trying, all be it rather lethargically, to get things sorted and numerous others milling around, it was chaotic!

 

I used the opportunity to walk to the Arcades shopping centre. It took about 40 minutes, and there wasn’t much there. I was hoping that I may have missed some of the shops when I went to the market on Sunday with Fiona, but I hadn’t! Got a few bits from the Spar and then walked back. Popped across to the Hairdressers/ Beauticians after I’d had a shower, as the lady there had said that she’d give me a free foot massage to try and get rid of the hard skin.

 

Came back and finished my book, had some rice and watched an episode of Flash Forward.

 

I have a rather nasty bug in my room that I cannot get rid of. Not sure what it is, but it can sort of jump when I try and capture it! Unfortunately despite having opened my room door, it doesn’t seem to want to leave. Just glad that I have the mosquito net over the bed, hopefully that will keep it away from me during the night. Now quite paranoid as to where it is!

 

Fiona has texted to see if I would like to the workshops over the weekend. I have passed on tomorrow, but should go on Sunday, as it is an opportunity I am unlikely to have again.

 

A family have returned who were here last weekend. I think they are Dutch, but having spoken very briefly to the lady, they are based in the Copperbelt, where they are providing admin assistance to a hospital out there. I think it is a Missionary hospital, and their placement has been through their church. They are combining their time here with some vacation and have spent the last week travelling in the south of the country and Botswana.

 

Saturday – Fiona’s school friend and co director of Friends of EduSport, Derek, arrived this morning. He is staying at the same place as me, so I bumped into Fiona this morning. She suggested walking along Independence Avenue to the Presidents Palace. Although you cannot see much, it did look quite impressive. I got told off by one of the guards on duty when I tried to take a picture of the building opposite, which turned out to be the local army barracks!

 

Then walked all the way down Independence Avenue to Cairo Road, via the C market. Chose not to stay there too long. Cairo Road is a dump so I then walked along Great Eastern Road to Manda Hill shopping centre.   This was quite nice and it would have been a successful trip had the credit card machine been working it the shop that I wanted to buy some souvenirs in! The Arcades was a 15 minute walk from there so I popped into the Spar and bought the pot that I hadn’t had enough cash for on Friday. Not sure how I will be taking that home! Finally got back about 3.30ish, certainly before the England Australia rugby kicked off.