Keeping up those ball skills!

When you are working and living far from home and your everyday life, you look for things that make an alien world more pleasing. Here at the house in Huambo we have a table tennis able setup outdoors in the gym area. As you can see this is the latest in luxury air-conditioned gymnasium facilities. In the foreground to the left you can see the cross trainer and to the right the free weights station. The table tennis table is in the middle and the decrepit (but functioning) rowing machine is on the far side behind the TT table. My bedroom is known as the ping-pong room as it is on the left and opens straight out into this area. I am not yet allowed to live inside the house!!!!!

Most evenings we have an impromptu tournament with the winner staying on. At first it was clear who could play and who could not and we just played for fun. However, as we have progressed over the last week or so everyone has been getting better. We can rally now, spin the ball and serve OVER the net.

Of course, this would not be Angola if there was not a hint of an Angolan influence and that is provided by the lights that pulse in time with the water pump. As the water pump turns so the lights fade up and down giving a mind altering stroboscopic effect which can cause the ball to fade from view and re-appear just slightly from where you last saw it and where you are moving to hit it.

In case you are wondering why we need lights in the evening. As you get nearer the equator the days do not extend at different times of the year as they do further away. The length of the day is pretty constant from “winter” to “summer” and it is dark by 7pm, so the lights are important.

What started as fun, with most of us just managing to get the ball over the net and the better players knocking it up for us has taken on a distinctly competitive edge as the games are now getting closer. Much passion and excitement is roused with new found pride being very much at stake.

Even the less interesting football matches are being ignored as the truly competitive are spending more and more time practising and honing their TT skills. Two of the better players have been away in Luanda this week and we lesser mortals have been preparing for their return on Friday. I predict a competitive weekend is approaching, one to outstrip the football pitches of South Africa.

Thank goodness no-one has brought one of those pesky vevezula things to our competition.