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The work was tough, especially for a pasty skinny Englishman like myself in the sweltering sun, but no matter how hot it got, what hour it was in the day you could not wipe the infectious smiles off of the local’s faces. At points I’d find myself swaying, almost delirious in the heat only to find a woman more than twice my age, baby strapped around her waist picking away relentlessly at the rock solid mud below with more gusto than I had had from the off. What a complete and utter wussy – Get on with it! We’d sing, make jokes and tell stories to keep us amused and at the end of every day just before the sunset we’d get the footballs out and have a kick around.

We ended our time at the village with a grudge match organized between Mlambe School and their rivals from down the road Nanthomba. Seeing the guys that we had been working alongside slip into their new kindly donated kit put a huge grin on my face and they didn’t look too upset about it either! We had a proper team! To top it all off the game ended Mlambe 2 Nanthombe 1, after a cracking 90 minutes of football. They were playing on their home ground after all with a crowd of no less than 150 cheering for them. One poor young man even had a woman who could only have been his mum run on and give him a telling off at one point after one too many wasted efforts in front of goal. You had to feel for him! Over the next few days invitations from football teams from far and wide came flooding in, it seemed like this football pitch would be put to great use. 

I had an unforgettable time at Mlambe and met some amazing, very inspirational people. I would greatly encourage anyone who has any interest in travelling to Africa to get involved as I can assure you it an experience you wont forget and a chance to spend quality time with the local people which I found absolutely invaluable.