So all the district finals are over and the winning teams have been invited to Mzuzu for the Divisional Finals in three weeks. News from VSO is that they have met with Kalombo and he is very impressed with what I’m doing. He said ‘I was always fighting but he liked me’. He wants me to consider staying on for another year. After what he said to me in Lilongwe I respect him even less now. The DEM announces my sports budget for 2000-2001 at 667,000 kwacha, less than I asked for but something. It is ten days until our finals and I’m needed in Blantyre by MultiChoice to meet the press and accept the sponsorship. I’m in Brincon Sports to collect some trophies and I see some trophies with Coca Cola on it sponsoring the MASSA Divisional finals. I fear the worst about my MultiChoice sponsorship clashing badly with this. I rang Mr. Mbiza from Southern Bottlers and he wasn’t impressed with our MultiChoice sponsors. Ben Nyirenda was not impressed with Coca Cola being involved in the finals he has been planning to sponsor for six months now. Finally I’m not impressed that nobody bothered to tell me this even though they knew I had other sponsors. It is a right mess and I’m in the middle as usual. The Coca Cola boss tells me that they will pull out of sponsoring the North Divisional Finals but our winning team wouldn’t be invited to National Finals. Kalombo and Saidi think it’s my fault. At the press conference the next day Ben Nyirenda thoughtfully decided to pull out of sponsoring the Secondary School finals but is happy to sponsor our primary school finals in October. I’m very grateful but really annoyed again with MASSA and its incompetence. The story is in the Daily Times and it annoys Kalombo. He can’t resist criticising me for attempting to get private sponsors for our events. I found out later that MASSA had approached MultiChoice earlier in the year to get sponsorship for National sports competitions but Ben had not been impressed with MASSA and preferred my proposal. I was personally very glad that this problem had surfaced now and not a day before the finals.

Bad news meets me on my return to Mzuzu. Mr. Msuku at the stadium has decided we can’t use it for the finals. While I was away Downs had been painting a banner for me that proudly mention MultiChoice and the stadium. In the bin please. Both Kalombo and Ben Nyirenda have spoken to Msiska about the problems in Blantyre. I’m not very popular this week it seems.

On the evening of the 21^st July all teams have arrived except Chitipa. They are housed, fed and waiting for tomorrow. Behind the scenes we are working long hours to sort out problem after problem. Food, firewood and floods in Chitipa our major problems. The planning meeting goes well and we are ready. The morning starts badly as the Katoto vehicle due to pick players from Katoto to the stadium has gone to a funeral instead. The netball is great and our women umpires do a great job. After two days of tough competition we reach the finals. In the netball final Phwezi beat Fundani. Chitipa SS won the football beating Chintheche 4-2. The Coca Cola boss arrives at 2 pm and tells us how we should organise our awards ceremony. As the organiser I stay as calm as possible as Ali, Mukolongo, Mbiza try and steal the show. I am very much used to staying out of the way when the speeches are due. The many words spoken by many people are only something a Malawian could organise. Joseph in his suit is proving excellent at it.

The whole competition was brilliant but the post mortem meeting was painful. The main criticisms seem to be around the sponsorship deal and the lack of lime to mark the pitches well enough. It was a great event and the first of its kind to include all districts for many years. I left frustrated and annoyed with MASSA officials when I should have been celebrating with the schools. Ali and Saidi grilled me for an hour about the competition but it just made me angry and I responded badly to the criticism that I felt was misplaced. As I was to discover on many occasions it wasn’t always about the children and the sports but about status and appearances of the dignitaries. This annoyed me so much but I had to accept it with a smile.

The main aim in the morning is to get rid of all the teams as soon as possible. There is no transport for Likoma but at least their ferry doesn’t leave until late tonight. A few months later a story appeared in the Daily Times. It was about Chitipa beating Our Future Private School and how I had told the referee before the game that Chitipa should win. A goal had been scored by Our Future and I had come onto the pitch to order the referee to change his decision. I had a quiet laugh to myself. I even wrote a letter to the editor of the paper about the quality of his sports reporting and his sources.