Sete de Avril vs Lilongwe Women's Football Club

Last weekend I traveled with 18 others from Lilongwe to Metangula, Mozambique to play football (soccer) against a Mozambican ladies team. I play football 2 nights a week with other women in Lilongwe. It’s a mostly European crowd, with a Malawian coach and a few Malawian helpers. The team from Mozambique had traveled to Lilongwe last June to play the club and beaten us 6-0. They invited us to visit their town for a re-match and arranged accommodation and food for us, and the Mozambican High Commissioner in Lilongwe organized a group visa for us. 

We left Friday afternoon with hopes to make it to Lichinga. However, a late start meant we didn’t make it to the border before it closed at 6pm so we spent the night in the nearest town. The next morning we got up early to get to be first in line at 6am when the border opened. Despite having a group visa, as to be expected things didn’t go as planned and it took about 3.5 hours to get through both borders. The most frustrating part of all this waiting was I didn’t even get a stamp in my passport documenting my entry into Mozambique!
We then drove over dirt roads to Lichinga, the capital of the province where we met the team manager and ate a huge lunch of Spanish rice, chicken, fish, vegetables, fruit, and birthday cake prepared for us by team members. After lunch it was another 2.5 hours to Metangula, the town on the coast of Lake Malawi where we would play our game.
Our bus was greeted with singing and dancing and the air was thick with excitement for the match. We quickly changed and warmed up on the pitch so we could start our game with as much daylight remaining as possible. The game itself was so much fun and we played in front of what felt like the entire town, including the mayor who introduced himself to all of us before the start of the match. It was so great to see African women playing and being supported in a sport that I didn’t even really mind when they scored. The players did cartwheels all over the field and the spectators cheered and hugged each other and sang and danced. We ended up losing 1-0, however we played well and it was an improvement over our 6-0 loss in June. The match was followed by a huge dinner with the team and the mayor and an all night dance party with the entire town.

Some key observations from the weekend:
1. Traveling by bus in Africa is a great way to feel connected to the population. You are sold food through the windows, waved at as you drive through villages, and see so much of the landscape.
2. The bus may be great, but after 24 hours on said bus, the last hour feels endless.
3. I am getting too old to play full field soccer.
4. Spontaneous singing and dancing is one of the things I will miss the most about Africa.