My name is Bongiwe Nhleko, I come from a township called Meadowlands in Soweto. I am 25 years old and, have a young 3 year old daughter and I am extremely passionate about sports development.  Sport has changed my life in ways I thought couldn’t be possible. Little bit longer than a week ago I was privileged to go to Mozambique – a great opportunity but a challenge in itself as I had to leave my daughter and my partner behind.

I was extremely nervous at first as I was travelling to a place with a language I didn’t speak. The last time I saw a familiar face was when my friend dropped me at the bus stop - so for a month I was all alone with no friends or family member.

The bus trip to Manica was ok as I had someone to translate everything that was said on the bus as they were speaking Shona. My worst moment was at the Zimbabwean border when they started searching our bags and everything we were carrying, we had to wait there for four hours still having to travel another 10 hours to get to Mutare and then Mozambique.

The nerves started kicking in when I arrived thinking about how am I going to communicate with everyone because my friend travel companion had to leave in a couple of hours to go to school (Res) because that was where he stayed.

Once I arrived, everything changed. WOW! Such warm hearts … everyone came through to greet me, there where posters all around saying WELCOME BONGIWE …it was so special. They took me to my room as it’s a club house where all the intern coaches lived. I had my first BIG MEAL Pap (Sadza) and beans. We all sat together with other coaches and BOOM the language barrier hit.  I didn’t understand anything at the table but I just laughed when they laughed – and that helped. The comradery that I saw within the team members was so intense that they never let their moral/positive attitude drop at any time.

The first week was very chilled as I did everything they were doing. This included going to training, attending English classes. I couldn’t differentiate between their work and their lives because everything to me just looked so humbling and real, it was like a documentary. The kids were so humble and smart on levels that aren’t imaginable. They always have room to learn more. The children I interacted with were amazingly enthusiastic on having fun and making the most of what they have.

This journey made me realise how blessed I am with all that I have. Most of those kids don’t have playing shoes nor shoes that they own. I was extremely broken by one of the players that was playing with one shoe on his right and asked him: “hey man where is the other shoe” take it in mind that I was so embarrassed because I was giggling when I was asking and he said “Eish my friend don’t have I’m using this one cause this my best foot, play so well with my right” with a joking face but my heart was bleeding “Let’s play my friend”.

After training I then asked him to help me carry the balls to the club house and when we got there, he didn’t expect it and I gave him my boots. The look on his face was priceless  - this made  me appreciate everything I had and made me realise that nothing can stop you from achieving your goals not even a pair of shoes, just commitment, hard work, hope and belief that one day I will have something. I hardly had my phone in the afternoons as everyone just wanted to take selfies. I went to visit friends and slept over … they went out of their way to cook fantastic meals for me. The way they hosted me was priceless and with so much respect and culture.

Their showers were a bucket and a cup. Even though it’s a man’s duty to take care of a woman but the disbelief that I had was when I sat down with one of the girls and she explained to me that majority of the women literally go to school and when they finish school they depend on finding a husband and getting pregnant and enjoying the life of being a housewife. I have met a lot of girls that are eager to change and take a stand by being more involved on the coaching front and that inspired and pushed

I hope I was able to attract quite a lot of girls to come and go through the coaching processes and let them know that there is nothing wrong with being a wife at home and a coach on the field. Ever since I got back I keep seeing those little girls and boys smile and the older boys saying “NO BONGI NO MORALE” “NO MORALE NO SADZA” that’s what actually keeps me going and I have been trying inflict the facts of what I learnt in Manica and bring it back home.

The team work from the management, coaches and senior players was amazing as they work together every morning in building the upcoming gym, always working at the garden in the morning so that they can have something to eat, having one teacher that takes his time teaching the community how to speak English and three young leaders teaching others IT skill and after all the heavy bricks they still make time to reach out to the community to coach football and other sporting codes. Everything that they do they are extremely creative about - most of all they do it themselves for their own community with a smile to equip and empower them with the little that they have. Grupo Desportivo de Manica is a true inspiration and appreciate everything they have done for my growth as a young leader, I look up to all of them.

A Home, A Project, A dream and a way of living.