The weekend meant no coaching in schools so with the rest of the team given the job of sourcing some cheap Rwanda FC shirts for the big match in the afternoon, me and Tim set of to the oval to run a coach education course. There were 29 people due to attend the course but as ever the organisation/communication wasn’t great and so the team had a sweepstake on how many would actually arrive. The spread ranges from 12 – 32 and in the end we were happy to get 26 through the course. Scheduled start was for 8.30 but we started as ever in African time at about 9.
The course is 6 hours and pretty intense, made even more difficult with the language barrier but it was great to work and learn from Tim the ECB Tutor as this is something I would like to do if I can ever get on a Level 3 course at Yorkshire. There was a real mix of abilities and a good spread of people including teachers from Greenhills, Apade and Nyragunga as well as some of the older players from some school teams.
It was then back to the apartments for a quick change into our Rwanda shirts and away to the ground for the African cup of nations qualifier against Benin there is a great strip of bars outside the ground with cheap beer and a good atmosphere. Tickets prices were 1,000, 3,000 or 5,000 RWF we opted for the expensive tickets (About £6) as this would then let us go in all parts of the ground.
We watched the first half from the VIP area and just before kick off a huge cheer went up as the President Paul Kagame entered the ground and sat about 20 seats away from us. The score was 0-0 at half time and so we decided to explore the cheaper end of the ground. Around the cheap side we were cheered on entering and beckoned up to join a group of fans with Vuvuzelas etc. so up we went, to big cheers and lots of dancing. Sadly the second half didn’t pan out well for Rwanda as they lost 3-0. We then left the ground and had a drink on the same strip as before the game.
It was then home and out again to the Mutzig Beer Festival which was a brilliant night with dancing and a few drinks.
Click here to view all the videos from the trip on our YouTube Channel.
