Inhassune 3-0 Inharrime

We won! I’ll tell you a little later about the match, but for now, you’ll be glad to hear that that’s another win for Inhassune!

So what have I been up to other than emphatically beating another village football team, I hear you ask. Well, not much to be honest; nothing new at the school and nothing much new with me. Sue and I decided that we needed to get away from the sound of frolicking and/or screaming kids in the playground, even if it was just for the day. Off we went to Inharrime beach. 

It’s a beach that isn’t very much to write home about (even though I kind of am; right now), a narrow strip of sand with a rather steep drop into deeper water, doesn’t provide too much entertainment. The water’s warm mind you; I did go for a dip or two.

The only other thing that I have to report is that the chapa journeys are getting pretty tedious. The beach day was filled with a total of 4 hours of travelling/waiting in/on chapas, and only a 2-hour beach trip.  Obviously, we are in Africa and I’d expected something similar, but at times, you really wish there was at least some kind of timetable! They’d ignore it for sure, but it would probably make me feel a bit better anyway.

My chapa journey back to the village was the most uncomfortable and overloaded I’ve had so far. I was in the back, stuck on the right front side, pinned on one side by an elderly woman’s legs and on the other, the luggage (rice sacks, suitcases, assorted plastics bags of food, you get the idea). These two things were tolerable, even if the woman’s knee did keep digging into a painful place on my calf, but it’s the lack of any padding for you bum that bothers me most. A solid, inch- thick strip of metal combined with potholes and bad driving makes me pretty unhappy by the time Inhassune comes into view.

And so, onto today, I don’t know if you heard yet, but we won! Just to clarify, that’s 3 goals for us and 0, yes 0, to the other guys! The match wasn’t without it’s controversies, and it seems that controversies are dealt with rather differently here. In England, no matter what the referee decides and however much you might have decided you hate him, you have to go with what he says. In Mozambique, it seems that if you protest long enough and shout loud enough, you’re pretty likely to get the decision overturned. Surprisingly, my team, Inhassune, were pretty nice and didn’t do much shouting. But Inharrime managed to get 2 freekicks, a throw-in and most importantly, my goal (a pretty impressive volley) ruled offside. The goal, or by now disallowed goal, was followed by at least 5 minutes of protesting and eventually a goal kick (?!). Admittedly, without any lines or even linesmen, the ref has a pretty tough job, but I’d never realised that shouting for long enough worked in life – I thought we’d all learnt that in childhood.

Unfortunately - or fortunately, some might say - my master plans were not put into action. Somebody had decided that there wasn’t enough time, even though I’m pretty sure there was! There’s one more game left before I leave, so hopefully I’ll be able to pass on my limited knowledge. But even my limited knowledge might be quite useful. My inkling that their lack of knowledge of tactical or positioning sense has been proved entirely correct. Not that you care, but their formation started as 4-5-1, but somehow there were two other guys joining me in attack at the start, and that’s where they stayed. Similarly to our school, they don’t seem to want to use what’s in front of them (me), even though they have explicitly asked for my opinion. In this case, I think I’m going to force it upon them. It’ll make me feel better about being here – in that I’ll feel that I’ve left something useful behind, this football thing and the litter initiative - and hopefully some might learn something.

Anyway, rant over, the game was pretty hot but enjoyable. There was nice little lineup, like professional matches and a bit of clapping that I didn’t understand. Here's some action photos. Please excuse the dodgy framing, my camera man – Francis – hasn’t seen an iPhone many times in his life.

Halftime entertainment was provided by a one legged dancing guy on crutches, everyone very much enjoyed his impromptu show and clapped along to the music. The music by the way was playing throughout the entire match. It wasn’t a nuisance, nor was it overly loud, but it was pretty off-putting to hear the latest Mozambican and RnB hits when you’re trying to kick a ball around.

Anyway, that's all for now. A good time was had by all - except for the other team; probably. And we all went home, hot, sticky but happy.