Frankie Snare

Taking Tennis to Ghana

Frankie teaching tennis in GhanaOn 12th January this year (2008?), I set off on the start of my gap year travels, not knowing what life held in store for me for the next seven months; I was planning to spend three months coaching tennis in Ghana, followed by four months on a round the world trip.

My gap year adventures ultimately turned out to be some of the best life experiences I have ever had and probably will ever have!

When I arrived in Ghana, I was working with young boys aged between 7-14 years old to develop their tennis skills. Although they had very few skills and not exactly the best quality equipment available to them, some of them were amazingly talented players and really committed to playing their chosen sport and improving their skill level.

Frankie and Smiley Faces

I was living in a town called Teshie, which was about a 45 minute tro-tro ride outside of Accra. For the majority of my time there, I was working in Accra Tennis Club, but I also spent quite a few weeks up in the mountains living in a village called Begoro, which was about a five hour and very cramped and uncomfortable tro-tro ride from Accra! Begoro was a much less developed village with a lot less on offer, but every day the boys would come straight up from school, singing and whistling, and head straight to the court to get all the equipment out and start warming up (even without being asked). There was a group of eight boys here and occasionally two girls! They were aged between nine and thirteen and were incredibly friendly.

On the first day when we arrived to teach the boys, Festos, the head coach who was working on trying to develop and improve the opportunities available to these boys, just handed them straight over to us, which was slightly daunting at first! We had ten faces staring at us very intently, their English wasn’t always the best and we had no idea of the standard of play we were dealing with. We started off with some basic feeding to analyse them (it transpired that they were pretty much all completely different standards) and to find out what we could work on in the next few weeks.

Despite the exceedingly hot weather and dry heat, we had very productive sessions and the boys had great fun. Previously they had been used to being drilled balls for the whole two hour session which, especially for the younger ones, is very monotonous, not particularly challenging and therefore less likely to improve their tennis. So instead we varied our lessons, bringing in lots of different drills and games that we use in England and they thoroughly enjoyed these. In fact, there was one game called the ‘Go game’ which was a particular favourite and they couldn’t seem to get enough of it!

Begro village scene, Ghana

The boys seemed so committed to trying to improve their games and were constantly asking questions and making sure they were still doing it right. It really was such an amazing feeling, especially when my time with them had come to an end, to see that all of their games had improved in some way or another. It was especially gratifying to see the older boys who always stayed on at the end of each session to play against each other, putting in to practice what we had just taught them. The final match after my final session was unbelievable to watch. A boy called Abraham, who had always won his matches before, as he was a very skilled player and knew exactly how to challenge the other boys in order to win, played against Michael, who was one of the friendliest, happiest and most committed people I am ever likely to meet, constantly asking if he was doing it right and always eager to learn. During this final match, it turned out to be Michael who won, and seeing him actually put into practice what we had taught him over the few weeks we had been there and for it to work in his favour, was brilliant.

Begro Village Scene, GhanaI would have loved to have stayed there despite it being an extremely basic village with no running water and having fried chicken and rice or rice and beans everyday! Compared to the hustle, noise and smells of Accra, it was such a peaceful, beautiful little village with so many friendly Ghanaians and little children in the street. Also during my time over there, I spent a week in another very small village called Oda, where we stayed with a family who were self sufficient. Here we visited the orphanage a few times.

Anyone for tennis?

There about twenty very young children from between one year to eight years of age. We taught them Ten Green Bottles and Old MacDonald and in return they sang and taught us lots of their Ghanaian nursery rhymes, which were slightly harder to sing along to due to them being in Ghanaian! Also while we were there we spent some time farming, weeding and carrying firewood back to the house from their plantations on our heads.

We had to go through the village and this turned out to be very amusing for the local ladies who were sitting on the side of the street! None of us girls seemed to have the balance needed to be able to balance things on our head without holding on to them with our hands as well, which really defeats the whole point in carrying them on your head in the first place!

The family we were living with were self sufficient, so during the day whilst the men were out farming, the women would spend most of the day sitting outside preparing and making banku, which is one of their staple foods. This is made from ground up maize and water. It takes quite a few days to prepare, as they first have to peel off all the leaves from the maize, then get all the maize off the cob, grind it with water and then leave it to rest for a few days. It was served to us with some fish, which we had caught earlier on during the day from the river.

Living over there for three months and facing many different experiences and meeting so many different people, allowed me to have one of the most life-enhancing experiences I am ever likely to have. Despite their having so little and having none of the everyday luxuries that we take for granted over here, like running water for instance, they are all so happy with their lives and constantly smiling. For me this has to be one of the best and most eye opening experiences I am ever likely to come across and I really hope to go back out and continue working with the boys some time in the near future.

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