Farewell

I’m quite emotional about this so it may get a little soppy:

Over 180 sessions delivered, more than 250 hours of football, over 300 different kids worked with every week, 6000km of driving, and 79 wonderful days, it’s time to bid farewell to Barbados. I’ve had a fantastic time, worked with some amazing people and enjoyed everything this culture has to offer. I’ll certainly miss the sandy beaches, hot weather (the rain not so much), welcoming people, exotic food, splendid scenery and relaxed lifestyle!

Of course though, the priority of our stay in Barbados, was to promote football across the island to all age groups and abilities. I have always been a firm believer in that football has the power to bring people together and this is something that has only been emphasised on this trip. There have been many examples of this and I’d be here all day if I was to list them all, so I’ll tell you my favourite. A few weeks back, we were a little early to watch one of our groups play a match. Whilst waiting I saw a young fella out on the field walking around by the goal. I decided to go over and take a ball and we got talking and ended up just taking a few shots at each other. A few minutes later another boy emerges, this time a little older, and asks to join in with us. Within 5 minutes another 5 guys appeared and we’ve set up small pitch playing a bit of 4v4. All of that happened because of that spherical, plastic object we call a ball, something so simple, yet so powerful. 8 people had been brought together, none of which I had ever met, or spoken to before and we all ended having a great time. The influence of sport on people, in particular football, is something that amazes me and something that I don’t feel is utilised across the world enough – something that has confirmed my desire to continue working in sport after this programme.

On a more social topic this final weekend has been pleasant for sure. Saturday night we returned to Oistins for some of the best fish I have ever tasted. This time I sampled marlin and before the national dish flying fish, an experience I certainly recommend. Make sure you head down to this place if you’re ever about. We then boarded our catamaran, Sunday morning, for our cruise up the west coast. I’m a bit of a snorkelling enthusiast so this was an ideal trip for me. We initially anchored off Folkestone Marine Park to see a variety of species followed by a swim with a few turtles, another fantastic experience – such great creatures. We also received the added bonus of two sting rays passing up and down beneath us and the trip was capped off witnessing flying fish doing as their name suggests. Only downside was that I got rather sunburnt but you can’t have it all.

Despite the sunburn Mullins Bay (my favourite beach on the island) was hit on the Monday morning. Seen as it was our final week we also decided give jet skiing a try. After a bit of haggling we were ready to go and went speeding off into the horizon…for about 10 minutes. This was until mine just decided to cut out about a kilometre from shore. I tried restarting but nothing. So I’m in the middle of the Caribbean Sea thinking ‘bugger, that’s a long swim back’. Some people on a passing yacht offered me a ride but I politely declined and waved back to the coast for help just bobbing up and down. Eventually some other guys came out on a jet ski and I was relieved to learn that it was in fact actually knackered and not me being stupid. We came back in and went back out on another ‘ski to make up for lost time. Brilliant fun if you’ve fancied a go.

So here we are with only one more free day before flying back to cold England. A big thank you to the Brewster Trust and Arsenal in the Community for organising this trip and thank you Barbados for the last 3 months. You’ve been great!

Here’s a link to a video of some our highlights whilst working in Barbados: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLgR74EGypk