tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-271853212011-04-21T22:37:05.320+01:00Welcome to The Great Football Giveaway's blog. We're filling a truck with thousands of footballs, donated by the British public, and driving through Malawi in Africa giving the balls out to kids along the way, in the weeks building up to the World Cup.The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.comBlogger131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1151152310462843502006-06-24T13:26:00.000+01:002006-06-24T13:31:50.476+01:00

“7,500 pupils”. That’s what the headteacher said. Can you imagine it?Maybe that explains why the small handful of classrooms overspilled into the damp and muddy areas outside. Children aged five to fifteen huddled together around blackboards exposed to a cold and miserable drizzle. “There are so many children that they have to come to school in shifts. We teach the young ones in the morning when

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1149493243859960722006-06-05T08:39:00.000+01:002006-06-05T08:40:43.866+01:00

Oh boy. It is certainly remote up north.Most of Malawi feels quite densly populated. Maybe it is because nobody seems to stay at home. Instead they spend their days walking down roads, narrowly missing our Landrover.We had a stroke of good fortune on the road to Chitembe in the north. We nearly hit a cow. There aren't many cows that wander the street of Malawi without a boy shepherd and his stick

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1149493153848520532006-06-05T08:33:00.000+01:002006-06-05T08:39:13.866+01:00

No! Don't get the guitar out. Please... Too late.We have decided to treat ourselves while we are in Lilongwe and have checked into a hotel. Not a lodge, but a hotel. The only problem is that a group of 40 bible belt Americans have decided to do the same thing. They are here to spread the word to an already very religious country. They have a tour bus, broad West Virginian accents and a guitar.At

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1148709345035873992006-05-27T06:51:00.000+01:002006-05-27T16:12:57.206+01:00

We're on the road again. This time in a new car. Yes, our rather romantic love affair with a battered Landrover came to a grinding halt yesterday. I don't whether it was when the fuel pump came disconnected or when the steering wheel came off whilst driving (both true), but after a few stern words the relationship was over. So now we drive to Lilongwe in a slightly better, but rather bouncy,

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1148276008156633182006-05-22T06:31:00.000+01:002006-05-22T06:33:28.173+01:00

"Taxi?""Yes sir. Step this way."It was a dark night and we had returned to Blantyre for an evening to re-stock with footballs and meet with Patrick and Pauline for a traditional Malawian homecooked meal.The taxi driver walked us past a line of cars that I had previously thought was a dumping ground for disused motors. Just before we arrived at a shiny 4x4 Toyota Hilux (no doubt that of an aid

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1147970449506465562006-05-18T17:39:00.000+01:002006-05-18T17:40:49.523+01:00

The harsh reality of African life has reared its head a number of times since we have been in Malawi.I woke up the other morning excited by the prospect of visiting a scheme in one of the poorest townships of Malawi, that uses football to help take kids off the street. I called Patrick, who runs the scheme first thing in the morning. During the night his young boy Pius, aged three, had contracted

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1147497929543085692006-05-13T06:24:00.000+01:002006-05-13T06:25:29.563+01:00

Whatever you are doing, stop it right now. Book yourself onto the next flight to Malawi and come and join us. You will have a reason of course not to - and a good one, no doubt - but this is something everyone should experience, no matter what the time, financial or emotional cost. So cancel everything for a week and come to Malawi - you may never get this opportunity again.Today we went right

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1147280478820253582006-05-10T17:55:00.000+01:002006-05-10T18:03:17.323+01:00

At 2.34pm today, Bluey gave birth to a beautiful set of baby balls.It has been a long and quite painful labour. We had our first contractions over a week ago, where it seemed the birth would be imminent and relatively straightforward. Since then we have had a few false starts, a number of premature rushings to the maternity ward and an agonising final day today. At one point we appeared to be

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(Long one this time)Blantyre has won my heart. Before I came here I thought it would be one of those cities that I would just want to get out of. Why be surrounded by urban chaos, when minutes away lie the open arms of the Malawian countryside? After all, what I have left behind is London, the capital of western hustle & bustle.But there is something about Blantyre that is so refreshing. It's

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1146842851001902442006-05-05T16:23:00.000+01:002006-05-05T16:27:31.013+01:00

I love Malawi.It's arrived! Our container full of thousands of footballs for the kids of Malawi is in Malawi. We know it because we've seen it with our own eyes. 'Bluey' as we've affectionately called it, is here in Blantyre, huddled up affectionately alongside other international sea-farers in some out of town depot store. Of course we don't know if there's anything left inside it, but as far as

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1146777240991841032006-05-04T22:12:00.000+01:002006-05-04T22:14:00.993+01:00

The planning is over. The wheels touch down in Blantyre and we have arrived.Which is more than can be said for our luggage.Because we are not seasoned travellers, we do not know that this is quite normal. For a moment I start to think 'if our luggage can't even get here, what hope does our container full of thousands of footballs have?' It's a fair question and one that we will deal with tomorrow

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1146777160696536312006-05-04T22:10:00.000+01:002006-05-04T22:12:40.710+01:00

It's been a long day. It started at about 4am when I first woke up too excited to sleep. This has been a theme to the start of my days recently.It feels as though one chapter is closing and another is beginning. Today we fly to Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, to give their children thousands of footballs. It's really quite bizarre.I have no idea what to expect. We think they will

The Great Football Giveawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335031066248458322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27185321.post-1146508295973506112006-05-01T18:40:00.000+01:002006-05-02T08:31:10.296+01:00

Ok. So here we go. Tomorrow we leave for Malawi. And boy are we excited. I'm remembering back to this time eight weeks ago. It was just an idea. "Let's take a suitcase of footballs to Malawi". Having just shipped a full container load of thousands of balls, I feel an odd mix of pride in achieving what we have done so far, and nerves. We have promised thousands of people that we will deliver balls

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