There is a 3 pm kick off at the CCAP ground. Playing today in front of a big crowd are Nyabinghe FC versus Santos FC. Wachisa is the coach of Nyabinghe FC (a Rasta word meaning war against the oppressors) and he proudly enters the field wearing the red of South Edinburgh CFC. Slightly behind them follow Santos FC dressed in the black and white stripes of Alnwick Town FC. Wachisa being a Rasta doesn’t believe in ‘juju’ so is happy to enter the field first. It is 1-1 at half time but the game doesn’t really come to life until the final ten minutes when Santos FC score with two 25 yard shots to win the game 3-2. We have some fantastic pictures that the clubs back home can use as publicity and hopefully they will continue to support Chitipa next year.

News of our support for Chitipa Utd was all over town with people coming up to me and saying thanks. I met Isaac Mwepa who was Major of Chitipa last year. He is standing at the 2019 elections. He is only 39 years old and I think people see him as ‘a new breed of politician’. We had a meal at his house and he explained a bit more about Chitipa and how it works. The District Commissioner is appointed by the ruling party at central government. These decision makers are usually not locals. The political leaders are all elected and tend more to be locals with a vested interest in Chitipa. He was able to answer some of the questions that I had based on reading the poems of Jack Mapanje. The uranium mine off the Karonga-Chitipa road had been managed by an Australian company between 2006-2016. The uranium was trucked out to Dar es Saalam and a lot of money made at government level. It is common knowledge that ex-President Bingu Mutarika built houses in Australia from the proceeds. Very little community development happened near the mine. The mine got exhausted and was closed but many people died there in poor health and safety conditions. The ‘19 Mzuzu Martyrs’ were at the time of ‘Cashgate’ in 2010 when police shot peaceful protesters dead. I uncovered some more news that night in the bar. Carlsberg beer is celebrating 50 years in Malawi this year but has just been bought out by Castle from South Africa. A new era of beer drinking is coming to Malawi.

The next morning our thoughts turned to football. Tony the welder had made two sets of 5 a-side goals and by 8.30 am they were on the Kawale field and the pitches marked out. As promised the first six teams that arrived with a teacher present would dress in the kits and wear the boots. We put the schools into two groups of six and the competition started. Each game was 15 minutes long and new schools were added as they arrived. In the end we had twelve schools. The South Edinburgh CFC, Alnwick Juniors FC and Felton Juniors FC kits were on show. All teams in each group played each other and the top two in each group went forward to the final and 3^rd/4^th place game. The final after a scoreless game went to extra time and penalties with Isalykira beating Nachiwe. Only one penalty was scored and it was scored by the son of my old friend Tamson Phiri. Everyone had a great time and I had some great publicity photographs for the clubs back home. It was the first time that all schools from Kawale zone had competed together. The teachers agreed it was an easy thing to organise but they just need to be more proactive.