The month of March seemed to arrive and disappear in a blink of an eye. Our time here in Congo is starting to come to an end and it is a strange feeling to know that we soon are going to leave. After 7 months here in Brazzaville this is now home with everything that comprise.

It has been an intense month with the celebration of the international women’s day, lots of new kids, the clubs first league game, a Kinshasa visit for the visa applications ect. In the mids of all this, Sara and I did an incredible journey up to the northern Congo were we visited a pygmy village in the rainforest. It is not all that bad being a soccervolunteer!

On March the 5th we arranged a soccer tournament for girls at a school located near Mfilou. It was a huge success and a lot of girls attended. After the tournament we informed them about Gothia and our activities. The result of this was that over 200 girls attended Gothia on the international women’s day and that Sara the week after had over 30 new girls signing up for practise, fantastic! It is not always easy to be a soccer playing girl here in Congo and the reluctance towards girls playing is big. We are working towards reducing the prejudices and supporting the girls that wants to play. We have also started volleyball activities that are very popular among both girls and boys.

Our club team is making great progress. The league started this month and they won their first game. So that was a good start for them and now we’re looking forward to follow the club and see if they will manage to be in the top of the league during the season.

On March the 25th our leader principal, Mouck and Sara went over to Kinshasa to meet the embassy and apply for 20 visas for the group that is coming to Sweden this summer. It has been a lot of work to get all of the passports ready and to do all the visa applications. But all of that is done by now, so now we can just wait for the answer. Me and Sara are preparing the boys as good as possible for their big journey and we have lessons with them in swedish culure once a week. Then we’re talking about Sweden, showing them pictures, learning them Swedish, playing games, information’s about the food, Gothia and so on. The boys are really excited and want to learn as much as possible. The trip still seems to be a bit like a dream, but now when we’re approaching the departure, we start to understand that it is for real.

Sara and I will now enjoy our short time that is left here in Congo as much as possible. There’s an intense summer waiting for us back home in Sweden, that’s going to end up with the visit of the team and Gothia cup!

We wish you all the best, from a sunny and warm Congo!

The soccer volonteers, through Sofia