Um Por Todos, Todos Por Um!

Last Thursday I was feeling extremely homesick and was struggling to come to terms with the extreme heat here in Mozambique, so on Friday morning when the footballs at training disappeared, I wasn't best pleased to find that we would be running up a ramp carrying another player on our shoulders (especially given the fact that my shoulders were red raw!)

The hard work paid off and we were given a rest from training in the afternoon. Instead, Schalk, one of the men who made our trip happen, and Short, took us and the first team players down to Futeco Park, as some of them were still yet to see it. We were given our second (and some of the players' first) tour around the land that had been bought. The project is quite simply unbelievable. One football pitch has been laid, and there are plans for two more, plus changing rooms, and an indoor area for basketball, indoor football etc. Fruit trees are planted all around the land and we have been told that it is Mozambican law that we are not allowed to leave the country until we have planted one of our own!

So much hard work has gone into this project already and so many sacrifices made, in particular those of Schalk Van Heerden. Schalk has been visiting Manica for 13 years and is now a well known face around town, and a real role model for everyone involved in at the club. He stressed that the aim for the club is to not only produce great footballers, but to make sure that these great footballers are also great people, and everything about the set-up suggests that it will be successful! (You will hear more about Schalk in the near future!)

Some of the jobs that need to be done may seem minor, but it is the drive for perfection that will ensure this plan fulfills it's potential. On this particular day we went to remove stones from the new pitch. Grass is being planted whenever possible and we are hoping the pitch will be ready for training by the time the new season starts. So along with the first team players we spent half an hour or so picking up stones; small, medium or large, and believe me the job wasn't anywhere near finished!

Over the time we are here there will be plenty of jobs similar to this which need to be done, and with the same hard work the pitches will be immaculate in no time! What was great to see was that the players were more than happy to chip in with their hard work, the whole time cracking jokes and laughing in the unthinkable heat!

Before we left, we all got in a huddle in their traditional way and after Rafa's ridiculous 1,2,3....

"UM POR TODOS, TODOS POR UM"

- All for one and one for all!!! I think that says it all really!