A busy 3 weeks in Chitipa ahead

I go upto Jomba Jomba where the U14 league season has started. There is a clash between Nyabinghi Warriors FC and Chitipa Hammers FC both dressed in different Longhoughton Rangers FC kits donated a few years ago. The leagues are organised well by Albert Chihana and his committee but standard of officiating not great. I suggest a Refs training course and Wachisa knows the perfect man. Mr Steven Nyerienda a qualified FIFA referee and who works at the Chitipa prison. I meet Wachisa and we plan some dates for the upcoming training courses. The senior and young coaches refresher course plus the fitness testing course will be 3 days starting on Monday. The big netball meeting will be on Thursday. I had to clearly explain to Rowland why after initially sending the equipment through him to support the schools, I changed to Wachisa and supporting the clubs. Basically the reason was that Rowland and the schools failed to give any feedback after courses were held. Also the cricket initiative had failed due to lack of interest from Rowland. We had put all the primary schools into 'clusters' to play games but it hadn't really happened, mainly due to teacher apathy it seemed and the wanting of allowances. We talked about trying to develop U12 netball along the lines of the football project. He said it was possible but always emphasises the negatives. My idea is to hold a stakeholders meeting (17 primary schools and 5 netball clubs), discuss the current state of netball, form a committee, group all participating teams into 'clusters', hold some initial basic training, distribute size 4 balls and bibs, organise 'cluster' festivals which lead to a zone final. Firstly concentrate on U12's. If this is successful, then introduce U16 next and distribute the size 5 balls. It will be a challenge but one if successful I will support. There seems like an unhealthy atmosphere of competition in Chitipa which I believe needs to change to a friendly community ethos. I need some money so get to the FDH bank early before opening. Five minutes, no receipt just £200 changed at todays rate of 2530 MK. This is compared to over one hour in the National Bank of Malawi with multiple forms, computer issues and waiting. 

Spend a few hours wandering around Chitipa. First stop the three yearly Church of African Protestants meeting for women. Lots of singing and dancing. Next Mr Goodhope Mwandira, the Deputy Head of Kawale FP school. He remembers me. He invites me for tea and we talk. He doesn't have much faith in the MASSA 'Youth Games' organised by the education sports office and Mr Patrick Simwayi. He says each school contributed 20,000 MK for the zone 'cluster' events that are just designed to identify talent for a Divisional team. In reality it is only Kawale zone, the central zone that gets to take part due to less transport costs. Talk to Limbani, the owner of the 4 Seasons Restaurant and also a teacher at Muselema FP. His school has 650 pupils and gets about £400 a year from the government for basic learning resources. It is not enough. An average teacher earns about £150 a month.   

In the evening I visit Wachisa in his home in the 'Blue Gum' yard. His front room is a shrine to Manchester Utd and Emperor Haile Selassie. Wachisa keeps the goalposts and other equipment at his house. He has opened a small shop where he sits for three hours a night after football training has ended. He farms to eat and sell a small surplus. He has never married. He was in Blantyre playing football and training to be a car mechanic when his dad died 15 years ago. He moved back to Chitipa to be near his mum. Then he found his calling in 'developing youth football'. It is a real pleasure to help him and his friends do that. 

It is Sunday morning. It is match day in Chitipa with a 2 pm kick off versus Blue Eagles, the Malawi police team. President Chakwera is due at the game and there is a rumour that he has paid the gate fees for everyone as a vote winner. My old friend PCB Mkandawire is here with the match officials. I am at the stadium early. People have been drinking since this morning, even the Chief of Police and his Malawi Defense Force friend. The KO is delayed as they wait for Chakwera. People are angry about this. Eventually he arrives just before half time and hundreds of people waiting outside get in for free behind the car before the security can close the gates. The final score is Chitipa Utd 1 Blue Eagles 0. It is a great atmosphere and I get a ride back to town in the Chitipa Utd bus. I have a beer with PCB. The beer of choice now is 'Kuche Kuche' which means 'Slowly Slowly'. 

I am enjoying my stay at the NaChitipa Guest House. My room is costing £1.20 a night. I am getting a meal for £1 and a beer for 90p. Mr Mosopoli, the owner of the lodge and son of a famous Chitipa politican in Banda's time is a businessman making money from trading in rice, beans and maize from Zambia which he sells on for a profit mostly in Karonga. His lodge manager and helper is Nelson. I get an early night as the next few days are going to be busy delivering the first of several training courses over the coming weeks.      

By 8.30 am I am at the CCAP, venue for the course. By 9.30 we have 10 senior coaches and 25 established young coaches present. Wachisa has just completed module 2 of his CAF B course and has knowledge to share. He delivers a 2 hour theory session. He is a good communicator, motivator and supporter of the others. His session involved qualities of a good coach, how young players learn, how to plan a session and using limited resources. We return at 3pm. Wachisa delivers three 30 minute practical sessions. The truth is that he is not as competant practically when delivering sessions that show progressions. I stepped in at one point a delivered the session as a model. I had devised some practical sessions in 2017 when I visited and had used them as a basis for the course. I assumed Wachisa knew these inside out by now having repeated the course several times since. The idea of progressing a skill several times and then adapting the small sided game to emphasise the skill is a bit lost on Wachisa but it wouldn't take much to upskill him. He appreciated the support and ideas offered. After the final session, the coaches from each team got together to plan two 30 minute sessions to be delivered tomorrow. We sat and helped them. It was a great day. 

The next day, all coaches were on time. Each set of coaches had brought 12 of their U12 players to train. Five teams trained and five watched. Each session was 30 minutes with one ball and 12 players. Then we swapped. The timings were looked after by me so to ensure a smooth morning. Timing is not one of the coaches best qualities. The only team of coaches that didn't have a team were Impala. Their senior coach Gibson Simbeye is Chairman of the Chitipa Youth League but useless. It went really well. The impression that I got was that the less active senior coaches were getting the young coaches to do most of the work. It was a very colourful event with all trained coaches dressed in the green kits that Paul Doig from Hibs Community FC had given me. 

After lunch I was ready to deliver the Fitness Testing Course that I had designed. Each of the participants had a booklet, exercise book and pens. I went through each element of fitness, discussed the test and then did the test practically and all participants recorded their scores. It was so much fun and it almost took on a life of its own as the coaches got so enthusiastic they almost were out of control. Agility, balance, coordination, speed, muscular endurance and strength, stamina and flexibility were all tested. The coaches were challenged to test 5 of their own players and report back in one week.          

The plan in 2025 was always to try to encourage U12 netball. I had bought plenty of balls and had collected bibs. It was all in the shipment that was getting closer to Chitipa everyday. Earlier in the year I had supported the Chitipa Queen's to travel to Mzuzu for the Divisional Finals. They had come 2nd. I had also paid for Coach Allan's registration fee for a netball course. I wanted Allan, as the only qualified coach in Chitipa to be a resource person in the project to develop U12 netball. He had previously held some Young Coaches training at three venues and later had identified the most competant and interested to attend more training. 14 primary schools and 5 netball clubs attended the meeting. The clubs included Chitipa Queen's, Home Sisters, Lwambo Stars, Eleven Spanners and Chitipa Hammers. I introduced the idea and got lots of feedback. That very afternoon a project committee was formed and would meet a week later. We also had bought 8 three metre poles ready for the hoops to be welded onto. We would place them at four central locations to support the U12 games. Rowland had previously showed me some oddly shaped posts.   

It is time to discuss the fuel costs to collect the boxes once they arrive. It is 60 litres of fuel one way to Ekwendeni in a small vehicle. Rowland says he has the hospital vehicle booked and in a government vehicle there will be less police stops along the way. Albert's dad has a 'Canter'. The train of thought here is that we might be transporting goods during the election and government vehicles become a target. In the end I give 330,000 MK to Wachisa and Albert, so decision is made. The only problem is to get fuel at the pump at the reasonable price of 2530 MK a litre. These days there is a fuel shortage, basically because the government lacks enough foreign exchange to buy enough. Also it is being badly managed and Chitipa is neglected in terms of deliveries. What is happening is that when a tanker arrives at one of Chitipa's two petrol stations, the motorcyles fill up, empty and return as many times as they are allowed. The fuel is then put into litre bottles and can be sold for as much as 8,000 MK a litre. The police don't supervise the stations and it is easy to bribe a poorly paid petrol pump attendant. It is a mess at the moment. Yesterday, while I was having a haircut and shave, the police decided to raid the illegal fuel of the vendors in town. They siezed 200 litres. The vendors reacted, burning tyres and got tear gassed for their efforts. We had the move fast away from the fumes. 

I was supposed to visit Chitipa North constituency with Issac Mwepa this morning but his PA system wasn't working and it delayed him. I ended up having beers with his driver again instead.  

Today I am off to Ibuluma. The Chisenga car is very late so I find a motorbike going that way. Elias is going to Nthalire to buy groundnuts and is happy for a bit of extra cash. We have to reattach the bag twice as it kept coming loose on the very rough 42 km dirt road south east from Chitipa. I have a huge smile on my face and dust in my eyes as we turn off the main road and are soon in Chambo village. Bright Futues Secondary School is the dream of Levison Mlambya, a local man born in the village. Back in 2015, Levison was studying social work and counselling. He applied online for a course but said he had no funds. A well wisher paid the fees and Levison took the course. He started to support old people and orphans from the village. The well wisher turned out to be a man called William Stewart. As the years went by William supported Levison in building a small centre to work from. When William died he left Levison money in his will. The family contested it but he got the money. He gave 70% to his project and the school slowly developed to what it is today. Now the school is supported from UK by Changing Lives Malawi which raises money and sends out equipment. Previously, Levison had helped us collect boxes from Ekwendeni and I have supported them by sending netball posts. The school now has 4 classrooms, teachers accommodation, shower blocks, library and staffroom. The students are sponsored from UK at £25 a month. There are currently 62 students in the 4 year groups, all orphans. I meet Elias and Dymon, the two sports teachers who will help me tomorrow. It is a beautiful part of Northern Malawi at the foot of the Mafinga Mountains that border Zambia. Tomorrow in the morning I will hold training for 16 young coaches and in the afternoon they will coach 30 younger children. I have brought kit donated by Warkworth CC and the green tops from Paul Doig from Hibs Community FC. It is going to be a colourful day I am sure. An early night.  I am up with the sunrise and walking around Chambo village. It has a primary school in very bad shape and a new hospital funded by the 7th Day Adventist Church. It is now run by the government. There is an outpatients and a maternity unit. The school staff arrive. Miss N'gambi prepares us some breakfast of black tea and sweet potato. By 10 am we have 16 students aged 14-16. It is a walk down the hill through the village to the local football field. When I arrive I realise it is the venue for the famous game back in 1999 Chisenga CDSS v Namatubi where the goalkeeper got influenced by 'juju'. He froze during a penalty kick and had to be carried home. I had arrived there on the back of Joseph Munyimbili's bicycle. It all made sense now. The location, the direction of Chisenga and reason we had met there being a mid point between the two schools. It hadn't changed a bit. I deliver a 3 hour session on fun warm ups, fixed practices for bowling, batting and fielding and finally some small games. It was a fantastic morning. We go back up the hill for lunch. We collect 30 younger children and head back to the field. Unfortunately 4 coaches from this morning have decided not to return. The trained young coaches are great after a slow start they start enjoying and organise some great activities for the kids. I am impressed with them and the two teachers. It has been a brilliant day.     

The course is delayed because Wachisa has to coach Chitipa Utd this morning. I visit the FDH bank again and cash up the final £300. I need to get budgeting well to make sure everything is covered. By 11 am I start the session where the coaches from the fitness course are giving feedback on the testing of their players. Each club speaks and I am impressed. Only one club has not returned. The course certificates are handed out and people leave happy. There are 20 new young coaches on the course with all clubs represented. Wachisa delivers a one hour theory session and then a one hour practical session based around warm up ideas, SAQ drills which I deliver and cool downs. It is enough as the coaches are tired and have been waiting around a lot today. I sense it is a good time to end it today. Wachisa is delayed again so I start and recap the theory from yesterday. I talk about organising a session spatially either using circles, lines and squares. Wachisa arrives, starts but isn't organised or focused it seems. He must be tired. He is coaching passing/control and dribbling/turning. It isn't great and I sense he is happy when I step in and deliver a model session on heading.  It is 1.30 and people are tired so we break again. Tomorrow will involve the final three practical sessions and the U12 festival. 

I am up early and excited to get going. By 8.45 we have the 16 young coaches present so we start. Wachisa coaches goalkeeping in a better session. Then I do shooting inside the box and we both finish with running with the ball. It has been a great two days. We now have a festival to finish in style. There are 8 teams ready to play. I organise a proper competition today. There are two pitches and two groups of 4 teams. They all play each other and then top two in each group play the final and 3rd v 4th. Simple. I am central timekeeping and we get going. It is a colouful event. Two girl refs take charge. We need a penalty shoot out to decide the winners of one group and another to decide the final. In the end Young Stars FC are the winners and receive the trophy.     

Today I have a chat with Rowland Harawa, Chitipa District Sports Officer and Patrick Simwayi, Education Office Sports Officer. The too big men in Chitipa sports. Both have limited budgets to work with. Rowland £2100 and Patrick £1900 a year. It is not always on time, other departments often share it and deductions are made even before they receive it. Even so probably only really enough to fuel their motorbikes and pay the electric bill. Patrick organises the MASSA 'Youth Games' each year. Primary schools are asked to contribute 20,000 MK each to cover costs of zone events. The overall aim isn't mass participation but just talent identification. Each zone forms a select team in football and netball. Zones cluster together and form teams and finally zones meet in Chitipa to form a district select. Great in theory but remote schools don't take part because of transport issues. Then all Chitipa teams travelled to Chilumba for a camp with Karonga and Rumphi to form a North West Education Division select. 28 players went from Chitipa to Mzuzu and then onto Blantyre for the finals. A kind of legacy of our work back in 1999-2001.  It is my last day in Chitipa. In the morning I take it easy and finish reading ' The boy who harnessed the wind'. I didn't realise that during my time in Northern Malawi 1999-2001 there was a lot of famine and very bad decisions made by President Bakili Muluzi in selling excess grain stores to neighbouring countries at the wrong time. Today Chitipa Utd are playing Nyasa Big Bullets at the stadium. Chitipa lose 2-0 and at the final whistle the Chitipa head coach tries to attack the referee. There is chaos with just Wachisa sitting calmly on the bench. The Bullets bus is stoned and the police use tear gas for a second time this week. An apology is quickly put on social media but I think the club will be in trouble. 

Rowland invites me for supper for the last time. He is genuinely a nice man but just a bit out of his depth in sporting terms. He just seems to fire fight issues day to day but develops very little. Wachisa on the other hand is all action, a clear thinker and a perfect role model for the youth on the project and in Chitipa in general. It is an absolute pleasure and privilege to know and work with him.