August 29^th 2007

A weekend in Brufut

There are no words to describe the feelings that I’m dealing with after returning from Brufut. After using several weeks of talking, at different offices, it was quite a relief finally to be able to use my knowledge.

I left Bundung early Saturday morning to board the small ‘busses’ going from town to town. It was very important for me to arrive before 9 o’clock since all traffic in the Gambia stops at this time. It is the national cleaning day and no traffic is allowed on the streets and no work, besides from cleaning is allowed between 9am and 1pm. It was a horrible trip. The best word to describe the activity around the car parks is: War. Everyone fought an intense battle to join the small busses that were leaving Serekunda. I was lucky. Some of the Gambians helped me to get a seat, which provoked some of the other passengers. They were screaming, shouting and complaining for almost 15 minutes before peace settled in the wagon. The driver told me he was going to Brufut but I was kicked out of the car halfway. It wasn’t going to Brufut it was heading for Tanji. There I was stranded at a junction in the middle of nowhere, not knowing what to do. After consulting Mr. Jallow on the phone, telling me to stay and wait for a car going in the right direction, I decided to start walking. I knew that the trip to Brufut would be very long, several kilometres, but since it was very close to 9am, I wouldn’t risk getting stranded in no-mans-land. I started walking and once again I was lucky. After a few minutes a ‘bus’ going to my final destination picked me up. The driver though, was pretty rude to me and the passengers kept laughing at me for no particular reason. I was very angry with them since that kind of behaviour is very uncommon here. But I wanted to go to Brufut so I did my best to ignore them.

When arriving in Brufut Max picked me up. We walked to the nearby field, where I was introduced to the voluntary coaches of the Gilcock Football Academy (Please visit their homepage for further information regarding this weekend: www.gilkock.com . There should be pictures too). They had expected me to start training them right away but I emphasized that it was important for me to see how they were working normally to be able to gain enough knowledge to set up a specific program for them. I therefore used the Saturday observing the players, the coaches, the interactions between coaches to players and player to player. Made some notes and came up with ideas for the Sunday session. Honestly I must say that I was very impressed with the players’ technical skills. It was clear to me that they were way ahead of the Danish boys and girls at the same age. Therefore I decided to use my time at the academy dealing with the most important thing in football, seen from my perspective: Teamwork. It’s essential to work together as a team since it’s impossible to succeed in this game alone as an individual. A team that is working perfectly together can be very hard to defeat even though their technical skills might not be the best.

At the end of the training session I informed the boys and girls about what was going to happen at the Sunday session and made it clear to them that they had to be there on time, since late in the Gambia isn’t 5 minutes, rather 30 minutes or more.

Max and I strolled to his family compound where I spend the evening preparing for the Sunday session. I had to do a lot of thinking and reading. Though I had my mind set on the issues that I wanted to address and train it wasn’t easy to put it on paper, since the conditions were quite different from those I’m used to in Denmark. Normally I coach around 16 boys, using 16 balls; today I coached 2 shifts of approximately 60 boys and girls each using 10 balls. It’s clear that changes from my normal training sessions had to be done and that process is very giving.

I arrived at the field 10 to 9am Sunday morning. It was a nice morning. The sun wasn’t to hot, which I appreciated since I had had some problems dealing with the heat during the Saturday training session. The first shift was the girls and the small boys and I started the day introducing my objectives of the day and informed the players that this session would be very different from what they were used to.

I started the program using an activity slightly inspirited by my former teacher-tutor Annette Øberg, designed to increase the ability of the children to concentrate. It was important that the children kept focused during the day, since this is one of the major problems on the fields in the country.

We started warming up using the fundament of the previous activity and continued by playing some games used to increase the children’s awareness of team spirit, friendship, and interdependence. I wanted the children to be able to motivate each other and by these means increasing their confidence and self-esteem. It was important that the children began to recognize each other, realising that each individual was a part of the group. The team.

I ended the training-session training some basic skills. Such as break and pass just to let the children feel that they did touch the ball today. The strange games had something to do with football it was not just a day of games.

The small boys ended the day by joining the big boys in a 45min lecture, given by me, dealing with the values earlier mentioned. I based my lecture on the football project I designed at my former place of work; Pyramiden After School Centre inspired by the Danish educational documentary: “Pas Paa Nerverne” (Calm Your Nerves). It’s a project specially designed to teach the children aspects of responsibility, role modelling, fair-play, respect, co-operation, recognition of each other, positive communication etc. through football training sessions. The children participated in a constructive matter and it was a pleasure to be able to give them some knowledge. Some of the big boys didn’t have the motivation and turned up very late. The only thing I could do was to make them apologize for their lack of respect to the team and for wasting our time and then send them home. I wanted to clarify that respecting each other develops team spirit and turning up late for a training session is a clear sign of disrespect.

After the lecture it was time for the big boys to go through my programme. It was slightly different from the programme due to the age difference. I was worried that they wouldn’t respect my knowledge and programme since some of the boys were around 17 years old, but I faced no problems at all. It was a real pleasure coaching them and they seemed to enjoy the games. I began by ordering them outside the field. They had to walk around the field until they reached the back of one of the goals. They were not allowed to enter the field in any other way than climbing over the goal. I wanted the coaches of the academy to see how their boys would work together. I told them that the only way they could join the training session was by climbing the goal. Those who didn’t succeed would be send home. They were not allowed to use the posts so they had to use teamwork. After 10 minutes of struggle most of the boys had succeeded but there were still 4 left. After giving them another speak about teamwork/spirit I told them to do it again, since this was a team assignment and they had to get everyone across the bar. They then started to work together as a team and all players had entered the pitch within 5 minutes.  We then continued playing some of the games that the small boys also did and I soon realized that the boys had a hard time expressing them self’s. I chose to stop the training session and paired the boys. I then forced them to sit 2 and 2 together using ½ minute each to tell the other person all the positive things that they appreciated from the other. It was a strange but giving experience for them. We then continued playing the games and ended the session playing some six-a-side rotational football, based on man marking and fast passing. Again just to let them feel that they had had the opportunity to play some ball.

It was a fantastic weekend and I really appreciated that the family of Mr. Max Jallow opened their doors, letting me stay at their family compound.

Sunday evening I returned to Bundung and was alone for 20 minutes. Then the neighbours and the girls from the neighbouring compounds entered my apartment and stayed there until midnight. That’s is something that I’m starting to get used too. It’s very different from the Danish traditions to have the neighbours visiting every night, but it’s cosy and I’m (almost) never bored.

After visiting Brufut I’ve started attending teacher-trainee classes at St. Therese’s  (The school where I will start teaching from September. Some of the lessons are absolutely useless to me but some are very giving.

Yesterday, when I was on my way home from classes I met two immigration officers at Serekunda Market. They wanted me to show them my documents. Since I don’t want to carry my passport of safety reasons, I showed them my Gambian Alien ID, which I’ve got made especially to be able to walk the streets not worrying about keeping an eye on my pockets. But that were not enough for them. They wanted me to have a citizen permit or something like that and threaten that they would arrest me. Luckily I had the numbers to some of my contacts at the Department of Youth and sports. I called Mr. Abdoulie Kah and he convinced them that I worked for the government and that they should let me go without paying for these expensive documents. Then they released me on condition that I should go home directly, get my passport and immediately return to the Serekunda Police Station. I went home and returned to the station carrying my passport and 50 Dalasis only. I wanted to avoid the possibility of them seeing that I had money, which would have extended the process even more. It was very clear to me that they wanted money and from the time they caught me at the Market till I was released from the station two hours of my valuable time was wasted.

I was expecting a guest the same evening and the officers had now ruined the possibility of having dinner ready at her arrival. I didn’t even get lunch.

Today I experienced that I had entered the columns of the Daily express. I bought three copies and in the coming days I will send a copy to my school and off course there will be a copy for my family at home.

I will post the article at the homepage later

Regards

Allan