Before I came to Liberia, I never thought I would…

1. Be invited to a wedding there (or anywhere!)
2. Witness the world’s longest (and slowest) bridal procession
3. Be on the beach on the first day
4. Dance in the streets of Gbarnga
5. Be forcibly ‘saved from drowning’ at Kpatawee waterfall
6. Be gowned
7. Be taken for crazy Scotsmen
8. Eat a meal consisting only of pineapple – by torchlight
9. Sleep in a bed that was wider than it was long
10. Take part in a Peace Parade
11. Lose count of the number of marriage proposals
12. Have a 62-year-old man call me ‘Mammy’
13. Learn about the toilet habits of four previous Presidents
14. Peel banana, peel peel banana, chop banana etc
15. Hear so many stories about ‘Spider’
16. See a shop called ‘United we Stand – Used Shoe Store’
17. Eat such tasty pineapple
18. See ‘Discuss Me’ painted on the back of a taxi
19. Go over so many bumps in four hours on the way to the Ivorian border (and back again)
20. Be so happy to see a ceiling fan
21. Eat so much Bangladeshi/Pakistani/Indian food
22. Master the snap handshake
23. Hear the dialogue: “How far is it?” “It far small.”
24. Wash my ‘tan’ off at the end of each day
25. Debate teenage pregnancy for half an hour live on the radio
26. Have to answer the question ‘How was your night?’ every morning
27. Greet the people with the sentence ‘How is it?’
28. or respond with the sentence ‘It’s very fine’
29. Talk so much about football
30. Start adding ‘oh’ to the end of words-oh
31. Eat sugar cane
32. and then chunder it back up
33. See a tarpaulin fall on an Archbishop
34. See a shop called ‘Amos the Famous Tailoring Shop’
35. Be renamed Marian Hawkins
36. Be renamed Jeff or Gary
37. Be renamed RB (pronounced Arrabee)
38. Have my name pronounced correctly every time!
39. Have ‘Chinee Man’ shouted at me
40. Have ‘Chinee Man Girl’ shouted at me
41. Have section within a section
42. Meet such a friendly bunch of American Peace Corps people learning to make peace gardens
43. Hear a story about a dog with a face like a shovel
44. Be mistaken for Becca’s mum
45. Visit a (possibly illicit) cane juice factory
46. Visit the grave of an ex-President
47. See a church that was dedicated in 1842
48. Have to learn the names of all the villages between Flumpa and Gblala (Blala, Glala, etc…)
49. Visit so many Master Artisans
50. Learn what a ‘Master Artisan’ actually is (mechanic, tailor, cook, cosmetologist)
51. Ditto ‘cosmetologist’
52. Meet the Treasurer of the Liberian Olympic Committee
53. Survive here for a month without eating any meat
54. Travel in a car with 17 other people
55. Visit a massacre site
56. Scramble down a waterfall
57. Spend so much time under a tree in the Lutheran Compound
58. Meet so many people who remember your name
59. Scare so many small children
60. Be a wig model
61. Hear the phrase “You can laugh till your sides lack”
62. Hear the phrase: “Steal like cats” (re: a wayward child and his friends)
63. Pay 300 Liberian dollars to get into the County Meet football final only for the President to declare it a ‘free gate’ an hour later
64. See stadium security handled by a bunch of kids in karate suits with sticks.
65. Eat so many eggs
66. Suffer the resulting stomach problems
67. See toilet roll processed down the aisle during the Offertory at Mass. Along with a bottle of bleach
68. Witness Climate Change brought to life in a torrential midnight downpour
69. And join the fight against it with our air conditioners
70. Be so humbled by the wonderful, dignified CAFOD partners we met.

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When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that gets trampled

It’s easy to generalise about politics in Africa from a European perspective. So we’re not going to do that here. Instead, we’d like to take the hard way and present some impressions of the situation in Liberia and its neighbour Ivory Coast as we’ve witnessed them this month.

The last day of our stay with CJPS in Ganta was taken up with a trip to the Upper Nimba region, a short walk from the Ivorian border, to meet refugees and observe the beginning of the work that CJPS are hoping to do with them.

We passed through towns with names that seemed to have been made up by someone playing Scrabble who has been dealt only G, B, L and A. Gblala followed Blala and probably Glala, and the CJPS staff singled out Tom to memorise them all.

We arrived a bit nervous. The sudden presence of white people tends to make expectations rise, and CJPS had been keen throughout our stay that we would interact with anyone we met. We feared this would make us look like rich Western benefactors, so we discussed with CJPS how we could be presented as being there to witness their work, and grateful for the added chance to talk to the refugees as well as we’d seen something of their plight on TV back home.

The Ivorians were gathered under a tree with a handwritten sign pinned to it in French saying Refugee Registration Centre.  We tried some of our school Franglais, but the conversation quickly switched to Gio, the local language that spans both sides of the border. Through CJPS translation, we got their story.

The dispute centres on two presidential candidates – the previous president and his challenger. According to the West African states and the rest of the international community the challenger has won. But the sitting president refused to give up power. Factions are fighting for control and our friends have been threatened unfairly for supposed opposition to the outgoing President.

They’ve been through similar problems before recently and knew immediately they had to flee, as the refugees’ ‘chief’ told us: “When you have been hit by a bull once, you’ll always run, even if it’s just a termite hill you see.” OK, you’ve got to appreciate the looming bulk of a termite mound in the dusk in the West African bush to get that one, but another great aphorism summed up their plight: “When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that gets trampled.”

CJPS are expecting to work as mediators of conflicts between the refugees themselves, between them and their new hosts and between the frazzled Liberian authorities and the wave of incomers.

Meanwhile, Liberia is this month encouraging voters to register for their October 2011 Presidential Elections.  As well as getting the right to vote – which some may be too disillusioned to exercise – those registering also get an ID Card, which allows them to travel and work throughout West Africa and obtain various rights for which bureaucracy demands proof of identity.

We’ve seen huge enthusiasm for registration and but we’re aware there were might be flaws in the process: so much of the authority is down to the individual registrar as to decide whether the person is genuine or not. Potential registering voters will be judged on accent, name and general deportment, and even a fair-minded registrar could misread some of those signs. (Even though Ged’s been told he’s a Liberian, most people we’ve talked to recon he wouldn’t be able to register!) Worse still, a registrar with a grudge could make it difficult for any individual or group he decided not to favour. And we’ve heard of people trying to sell their Voters Registration card or register more than once

We wait to see what happens, with hope…

REUNITED!

Savio Village is a rehabilitation and transit centre of Don Bosco Homes and temporary residence of up to 30 boys aged 5 to 18. Our second visit to Savio began with a walking tour of the local community and adjoining farmland, eagerly led by the 16 boys we’d met the day before. For three of them this was still their first 24 hours at the village after having been collected by us from the police station where they had been accused of theft. We could already see a change in them after one night at the contrasting safe and caring environment of Savio Village, where they await rehabilitation in the near future. The story of these three 14-year-olds is typical of the cases that Savio constantly deals with, as well as that of street children who are picked up by Robert, Louise and the Don Bosco team.
The vibrant, happy and welcoming atmosphere of the village is contagious – the boys talked and played with us as if we’d known them for weeks and you can’t help but feel immediately attached to them. Probably one of the warmest welcomes we received was from one little boy who was picked up a few months ago after he’d got lost. Nobody knows his name or where he comes from, as he has no verbal communication and would probably be described in the UK as having severe special needs. On our first arrival at Savio he ran into the room where we were sitting, jumped up on the table and ran around squeeling and giggling with excitement. The next day when he was a bit more used to our unfamiliar prescence, he joined us and the other boys on our walk, running between Becca and Maria, hugging their knees and letting out more explosive squeels of excitement. The older boys are all very protective of him and look after him like a little brother. One of the lads even carried him for most of the walk, even though at times he was clearly struggling.

Among the smallest of the boys are two little lads who we’re told are about 5 or 6 years old, but the team aren’t sure of their ages as their dates of birth are unknown.  They were picked up over a year ago at an “orphanage” full of children being illegally trafficked and advertised as orphans to Western couples desperate to adopt. Don Bosco picked up about 30 children from the same orphanage, all of whom had living parents but had been used as part of an illegal money making scheme. Most of these boys have now been reunited with their families but our two little friends are still living at Savio Village. They were thrilled to see Ged, who they remember from last year but as we laughed and played with them we were left wondering whether it’s foolish to hope that they still have a chance of reunification with their families.

Robert is confident all the boys will one day be reunited with their families. Last year, there was another boy at Savio also with severe special needs, by the name of Warren. One day, they brought in a street kid from the market who recognised Warren straight away. He kept telling the staff he knew him from Buchanan, a city two hours drive southeast of Monrovia. Nobody believed him, but he persisted with details of Warren’s Ma and Pa. In the end, the DBH staff were persuaded to take him to Buchanan. Within ten minutes, they’d found his parents. The whole community came out in celebration and carried Warren shoulder high round the community, like the winning scorer in the Cup Final.

Peace – a process not an event!Ganta is an hour from Gbarnga – roads are measured by time not distance. You head north from Bong County to Nimba County, passing the taboo catfish (see last year) and you find Ganta on the Guinea border. As well as Guinea, the crossroads points you further north to the mines and the mountains (cold, apparently…); to the East of Liberia and the rest of Nimba and Grand Gedeh County and the south east coast; and to the border with Ivory Coast, where we’ll be heading shortly to visit refugees on the run from the aftermath of indecisive elections.

Ganta is lively like you’d expect from a town on a crossroads. Every night the people are out and about until 2 or 3am (so we’ve been told) and the town throngs with more than 2,000 motorcycle taxi drivers – an estimated 10% of the population of the town. CJPS works with the Nimba County Motorcycle Transport Union, which has its headquarters in Ganta, to train the young drivers in road safety – many have been injured or killed after starting their taxi trade with only a day or two practising in a field before they are let loose on the road.

As in Gbarnga, CJPS in Ganta find established tradesmen and women – master artisans – prepared to train young people. We visited several mechanics, tailors and beauty therapists and spoke to them and their pupils. All seemed pretty happy with the arrangements: the young people spend 18 months or two years learning the trade they fancy and the master artisans get added labour, advertising and good standing in the community for their part. Incredibly, they don’t get paid for this service, but see it as their civic duty.

As part of the process of rebuilding the post-war Liberian society, CJPS works in local schools offering a tailor-made therapeutic session, which gets into the issues in the heads and home-lives of the pupils that they might not feel confident to broach on their own. The whole session includes ice-breakers, ground rules, an impromptu drama and a feedback session, all done and dusted in 20 minutes. From the first “Hello!” (response “Hi!”), “Hi! (response “Hello!”) to the ending dance, we were amazed at the level of energy of the CJPS facilitators and the participation of the children. So amazed that we threw our own ‘Banana Song’ in at the end as well!

CJPS Executive Director Joseph Howard told us that the organisation sees peace as a process not an event, meaning – we think – that you achieve peace by doing it. We took part in a peace parade along the main street in Ganta and back with more than 150 of the young people representing the schools, training courses and voluntary groups CJPS works with. Slogans on the handwritten placards carried by participants read:

• “Learn to settle your dispute at community level, instead of the court or police station.”
• “Motorcyclists and drivers, respect your passengers, they are not your enemies, but your friends or partners!”
• “The best place for a child is the home!”
• “Young people, respect the rule of law!”

Bearing in mind Mr Howard’s pronouncement, we came up with this slogan:

“What do we want?”
“Peace in Liberia!”
“When do we want it?
“At the end of a thorough, participative and empowering process involving all sectors of the community.”

On the dusty red roads of Gbarnga, Liberia’s second city, BOCAP (Bong County Awareness Programme) perform dramas to get across information about important issues to passers by. Those passers by include children on their way to and from school, people going to work, motorbike taxi drivers waiting for passengers and wandering salespeople, carrying food, clothes and fruit and veg. In January 2011, three new faces joined the group – dancing Liberian dances and joining in the improvised plays.

So here I am taking part in an amusing but poignant drama for the second time this week. The aim was to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS as you can see from my t-shirt – a quick costume change from the dance outfits we were wearing moments before! The crowds were large due to the fact that we had just been attempting the traditional dancing and so we tried to keep their attention and explore the issues surrounding HIV. Whilst we were performing, the crowds which gathered were encouraged to go and get their status checked on the spot. Although I was reluctant at first, I actually enjoyed it so much!

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about Liberian actors it’s that they have a rare talent for improvisation. By the time this picture was taken I was so relieved that the dance segment of our performance was over, but little did I know that in ten minutes time my ‘husband’ (pictured with me) would announce to the audience that we’d discussed voters registration in bed and then proceed to rest his feet on my lap in the strangest public display of affection I’ve ever been involved in. It was hilarious though and so worth it for encouraging people to register to vote in the upcoming elections. We even discovered a whole new level of over-heating – “I’m sweating like an Englishman dressed in African clothing about to humiliate myself in front of hundreds of people!”

It’s pretty impressive to see the size of the crowd you can gather simply by dressing us in what we were assured were traditional African outfits. As soon as people saw us, (and I’m sure that we were very difficult to spot) they rushed over to see what was going on. And as soon as they realised we would be dancing they called over their friends too!

The second week of October 2011 is the date set for Liberian elections. January 10 to February 6 is the time set aside for voters to register so that they can take part when the time comes. Many people who participated in the democratic process last time around – 2005 – are frustrated that not enough has changed. BOCAP – supported by CJPS (Centre for Justice & Peace Studies) – is encouraging them that they should still vote: not only will they get the chance to change the future, but they also receive an official ID card.

HIV/AIDS is another subject of the street dramas. While the play takes place, members of the audience are encouraged to take part in voluntary counselling and testing, so they can find out their HIV status; the first step in taking control of their health and their lives.

“How do you solve a problem like Maria?!”

Anyone that knows Maria will have heard at least one of her many random anecdotes. From becoming a millionaire for a day in Korea, to playing the harp for the president of Ireland she’s definitely got a story for every occasion. Well today we had the privilege of witnessing one of these stories come to life before our very eyes.

Yesterday we met some members of the Millennium Stars, a Liberian football team, who visited the UK in 1999 on a three week tour. Maria told them that she remembered their visit. It turns out she was at the Knights of St Columba in Middlesbrough when they visited. The goalie, Nusee, (who’s name Maria swore was very familiar) came back to see us today and took us for a walking tour of the 12th street community where he lives.

It was definitely off the beaten track – Nusee told us it was impossible to get a car by his house and we witnessed this as we stepped over breeze blocks and walked down sandy tracks on the way to his house. Washing lines were strung across our path, children played everywhere in the streets (including some kids who were playing a very complex looking game involving a ball and a flip flop), ladies sat outside their houses doing each others hair and we were greeted by lots of stares and even more waves of hello from rather perplexed looking children. One small girl even screamed in fear for her mummy at her first glimpse of white people! It made a change to be shown round by a real Liberian and not a fake one from Consett! (Ged considers himself to be Liberian!)

At Nusee’s house, he introduced us to his mother and got out his photo album from the ’99 tour. Tom opened the first page, gave it a quick glance and went to turn it over, before Maria and Becca spotted someone who looked vaguely familiar. The picture was of a confident Liberian footballer talking to three star struck young fans. One of them was a much younger (but still very recognisable) Maria. No one could have summed it up better than Nusee’s mother – “You’ve still got the same small face!” Although this is her first trip to Liberia, Maria’s face has been known here for twelve years.

In our next update we’ll let you know all about our leaking fingers and our new found Scottish heritage!

Since arriving back from Africa, I’ve had so much fun on all the retreats!

Thank you to Our Lady and St. Bede’s Year 11, St. Leonard’s Year 9, St. Mary’s Year 7 and St. Joseph’s Years 5 and 6!!

I’ve had so much fun, and I’m so happy to be back at the youth village on retreat.

I hope everybody enjoyed reading the blogs we sent through and liked our photos. They’re all still on the YMT website so flick back to “Step into the Gap” to read more about the project and also our time out in Africa.

STEP INTO THE GAP is an exciting new venture for CAFOD and YMT that offers a joined up programme for leadership development during a Gap Year. This is Blog # 7 of the YMT/CAFOD Team experience in Liberia, Africa.

1. Food, especially palm butter and pineapple
2. The fantastic West African music especially “Yori, Yori”.
3. The glorious sunshine that glows like a balloon in the sky at night
4. Shaking hands with everyone and anyone we meet
5. … and doing the African ‘snap’
6. Getting a high five on the way back from Communion
7. People remembering your name
8. People getting your name wrong in a friendly way
9. People looking delighted to see you even though they’ve only seen you once before
10. Patience and Kindness sitting next to each other in class
11. … just behind Comfort
12. Watching football
13. Talking about football
14. The Virtuous Women’s Multipurpose Collective
15. Walking round inside the President’s Palace on an impromptu visit
16. Visiting Guinea without a visa or a passport
17. How beautifully mathematical the Palm trees are as well as all the amazing trees in general
18. Sitting in a gushing waterfall, dancing next to the water fall, drinking Club Beer next to the waterfall and dancing to African Gospel music next to that same waterfall
19. Messages of (Spirit) inspiration… on the bumpers of yellow taxis
20. The warm welcomes
21. The amazing people
22. The tropical fruit (including Solero fruit)
23. People being shy but never embarrassed
24. Everyone wanting to be your friend, including those you shake hands with on the street
25. The spontaneous harmonies that pop up as kids sing in class
26. The silent conversations (with smiles and head nods) with people you pass on the street
27. Putting ‘o’ on the end of words and sentences
28. Being introduced to people with brand new – and sometimes peculiar – names wherever we go
29. Being told by people they heard you on the radio
30. … and they remember what you said
31. Club beer
32. Sugar cane
33. Having our own driver
34. Having these particular drivers – Simeon, Flomo, Jimmy and Bility…
35. Dancing at any given opportunity
36. Teaching Africans to dance
37. Orange Fanta that’s deliciously different to our own Orange Fanta
38. Driving along with the windows open taking in brisk air (and being able to smell lots of different kinds of foods)
39. New sights everywhere we drive
40. People being out and together all of the time, day and night
41. Seeing wild fires at the side of the road
42. Beesie the dog and his fox-like friend
43. The massive “No Lemon” sign marking the garage which indicates that they don’t sell lemons
44. Bizarre Liberian advertising and billboards
45. The fact that people still say Happy New Year to you, even though we’re two months into the year…
46. …and also that people still have their Christmas decorations up

The country itself – we’ll never forget our first trip to Africa

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Click here to know more about the YMT/CAFOD Programme.

STEP INTO THE GAP is an exciting new venture for CAFOD and YMT that offers a joined up programme for leadership development during a Gap Year. This is Blog # 6 of the YMT/CAFOD Team experience in Liberia, Africa.

The biggest complaint in all the police stations we visited was lack of funding for transport and basic furnishings. The policemen often don’t have enough money to hire a motorcycle taxi to go to crime scenes, and one policeman apologised that they didn’t have enough chairs in the station for us all to sit on. There were five of us.

But he was proud of the businesslike way they had developed their own police jargon – ‘Romeo,’ he told us, was code for ‘rape’. There are so many people hanging around police stations that they don’t like to broadcast the news if there is an accusation of rape.

In our first week, we came to a police station with three little boys – aged nine, ten and 12 – in the Women and Children’s Protection Section. “Small Romeo,” said Robert, our Don Bosco Homes guide. “Are you getting me? Small Romeo”. The policeman behind the desk also looked at us knowingly. The charge on the sheet was “corruption of minor”.

One of the boys looked slightly tearful, another blank, and the third – who said he was 12, but looked much younger – seemed excited by this sudden appearance of white people and beamed at us. He was so taken with us when we all left that he forgot his toy car. The policeman called him back and handed it to him as we left.

At Don Bosco’s Savio Village halfway home, Robert gave the three of us a sheet each to fill in with the boys’ details. It was difficult, partly because of the Liberian English, and partly because we were nervous about the sensitivity of the case.

Some details emerged: they were on the way to or from the water pump; there was a building nearby; there was a man involved – possible the uncle of one of them.

The next day we were leaving for a week in Gbarnga, but when we returned, we asked what had happened. We heard a confusing story. The three boys had been returned to their families and there was to be no charge brought; the community would deal with the incident. Our first reaction was of outrage: surely this couldn’t be fair?

Robert took us out for a full day following up different cases. The last one was to visit the three in the Small Romeo case. We met the two aged nine and ten in a dingy half-constructed building with a huge hole in the floor that the owner had intended for a cesspit, but which was currently lined with rubbish and dirty water. The father of one boy was in a wheelchair; the other boy’s father carried his baby daughter and answered the official questions stony-faced.

The boys were healthy and apparently happy to be back home, we heard. Both fathers had talked to their boys, and the community witnesses said they were behaving normally. Everything seemed comfortable, but we were all thinking of the seriousness of the case, and wondering if one of these men was the ‘uncle’ in the descriptions we’d heard.

The third boy lived in a house almost on the beach. We walked further into the community, through mazy paths and sudden corners, but he wasn’t there. For a moment, we stepped out of a dark alley and savoured the bright sunlight and the fresh sea air. Word had got to the boy and he came to meet us. He was at his Grandmother’s stall back up the road the way we’d come, and he happily walked us back there.

The same questions followed: Was he healthy? Was he happy? Was there anything to be concerned about? His Granny again seemed content that all was well with the boy: he helped carry the stall – selling vegetables and bottles of locally produced gin – out to the main road in the morning and back in the evening. He washed his own clothes, carried water, and cleaned up in the house.

We took a picture of the three of them before we left – again one looked sheepish, one blank and the third one was smiling happily.

Back in the car, we were burning with questions, so we asked Robert to explain the full story. He told us that the three boys had waylaid a girl on her way to the pump and raped her. The ‘uncle’ had caught them. Because they are minors, they can’t be charged, so the best that can be done is for the community – with DBH prompting – to monitor their behaviour and keep them on track as best they can.

“Ah, they are bad boys,” said Robert.

Click here for more information on the YMT/CAFOD gap year programme.

STEP INTO THE GAP is an exciting new venture for CAFOD and YMT that offers a joined up programme for leadership development during a Gap Year. This is Blog # 5 of the YMT/CAFOD Team experience in Liberia, Africa.

Football atheism in a land of believers:

Here in Liberia – in this land where everyone believes in something and literally everyone loves football – you get a similar bemused reaction saying you don’t support a Premiership football team that you would if you said you don’t believe in God. One devout worshipper has even embarked on the hopeless task of trying to convert me: promising to email me once a week on our return to England with reasons to support Arsenal.

Yesterday we went along to the final of the African Cup of Nations at the Relda Cinema: a dark cavernous shell of a building that was almost destroyed during the war – everything was looted from inside, including the entire upstairs. All that is left are the red theatre-style seats, most of which don’t fold up, some of which have the springs poking through, and here and there, there is no seat at all. To our surprise there were two games projected onto the huge back wall: the final between Ghana and Egypt and a game between Arsenal and Manchester United.

As people with little to no interest in football, to Michael and I it was like watching a load of brightly coloured ants running around a billiard table. I’d sooner have turned my chair around and watched the audience, who broke up the tediousness with constant screams of support and excitement.

Surprisingly everyone’s attention seemed to be on the English Premiership match rather than the African final: there’s globalisation for you! When there was nothing much happening a man a few seats down simply stood up and shouted delightedly at the screen: “Football, Football!” The enthusiasm of everyone here hasn’t quite succeeded in breaking through my own indifference to the game but I have been impressed to see what a unifying and motivating force football is in Liberia.

I don’t know if there was an official statement released to this effect, but everyone tells you that football in Liberia is “a unifying force”. During our stay, the County Meet – a football tournament between Liberia’s 15 counties – came to a climax, and the final was to be contested between Nimba and Grand Gedeh counties – the two main antagonists in the county’s 14-year civil crisis. Nimba won 2-0, but there was no crowd trouble: county officials shook hands on the pitch before and after the game and fans joined together in one big post-match party. Unlike our Premier League’s over-paid stars, professional footballers in Liberia earn around $40 Liberian per game, so anyone playing football at any level in Liberia can only leave the country to be a success.

Teku Nahn, who toured the UK with the Millennium Stars football team as a teenager in 1999, was top scorer in Liberia with 16 goals before Christmas last year. Callers to radio phone-ins clamoured for his inclusion in the national team. He was invited for a three-month try-out with Cape Town FC in South Africa, which he thinks went very well. He scored in his first game and impressed the coaching staff with his skills and hard work. Now he is waiting for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to be over before finding out whether they will offer him a contract.

If Teku makes it to South Africa it will be a success for the whole Millennium Stars club – a narrow bridge to success that others may be able to follow him across. For those left behind, the focus is shifting from their own dreams to the dreams of others. Now in their fourteenth year – they are engaged in a consultation with team members to transform the football club into a community organisation to be role models to local children and help them develop their talents in music, singing, sport, and especially football.

Click here for more information on the YMT/CAFOD gap year programme.

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