The FA sponsored football coaching courses with an element of HIV/Aids awareness targeting primary schools are ready to start. It would prove an amazing experience. The basic idea was to conduct a basic football coaching course based on limited resources for two days. On the third day the trained teachers would coach sessions themselves and be assessed. On the fourth day the newly trained coaches would organise their own football competition. There had to be at some point a HIV/Aids awareness session delivered by a local expert. We had a big bag of equipment to conduct the course and would leave it afterwards so the schools could organise their own competitions. I decided that the fairest way to hand it all out would be to lay it all out on the floor and the winning team would get first pick and so on until it was all gone. VSO volunteer Dan in Lilongwe had designed some drills and skills for us to use but I preferred to create my own sessions based on circle drills.

I decided to go to Likoma first because they had impressed me at the district finals. Here it was a different story of lateness, requesting allowances, drunkenness and at the end ‘accusing me of using them as guinea pigs for my course’. I was deflated but a small minority had enjoyed it and they organised a great competition. I even heard a rumour that the participants were selling the balls and equipment I had given them. Not a good start as I headed back to Mzuzu. I met the DEM to discuss the future and finding my replacement soon and having a good handing over period. In Mzuzu the FA course was a success. I had thirty participants. It was a great sight as the teachers trained over one hundred and eighty children all over the Katoto field. They were early on day two and even complained that I was late!! The competition was held and it was a big success. I was even thanked by the teachers for organising the course. We are having problems with my replacement and it is just making me feel guilty about leaving. In Karonga I start the course under a tree delivering a short theory session before a full day of practical sessions. The coaches do well on day two and show a lot of what they have learned. In the afternoon I agree to referee a game. I give a goal and one team refuse to play on so I take my ball and leave a packed ground of over one thousand spectators. On the final day the HIV/Aids talk was good but the five a side competition was far too serious and ended in controversy. I need to get to Chitipa today as the course starts tomorrow. It is 6 am and it is not looking good until a UDF truck picks all of us. There is a good turn-out with thirty teachers and sixteen schools present. It was another big success. At the end Mr. Kumwenda the Chitipa DEO said some kind words about my commitment and endurance. He said I was a friend of Chitipa and would always be welcome. I got a letter from Marshall Mwenechanya from Twanda Private Secondary School. He wrote to thank me for the work I had done in developing soccer in Chitipa and the booklets I had written. ‘I think you shall come again as your services are needed’.

I have chosen Usisya as the venue for the Nkhata Bay FA course. I arrived from the Ilala in a small dug–out canoe with a big bag of footballs over my shoulder. It was an amazing three days in this amazing location. Sixteen schools attended and it was so positive. The zone co-ordinator who to this day I still can’t recall his name did a brilliant job of organising things. We even had a goat cooked for the teachers at the end of the course. The HIV/Aids awareness session was in the form of a drama. There were big crowds to watch the final awards ceremony. I was on a real high as I left in a small boat being waved off by so many people to meet the Ilala moored offshore.

The last course is in Mzimba at St Pauls FP School. The teachers were very motivated and really happy to have some coaching skills. These courses have enabled teachers to get basic coaching skills in a short time. I’ve met some really amazing positive and inspirational people doing these courses. It has been a real highlight of my two years here.

The time has come and I have my exit interview with VSO. Jackie Buckley is impressed with my efforts and progress made. I have officially decided what to do. I will leave Malawi with my memories in January 2001. The letter is written but nobody tries to change my mind. Fabiano and I share a beer at the Kool Spot. He knows I’m leaving soon and we reflect on an interesting two years together.