{"id":1571,"date":"2010-04-21T08:11:03","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T07:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2020-10-26T13:23:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T13:23:30","slug":"cavalcade-through-abidjan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/blog\/2010\/04\/21\/cavalcade-through-abidjan\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavalcade through Abidjan, Phil’s last day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two sweaty, stinky, happy vagabonds holding a ball (yep, you guessed it, The Ball) are on the back of a moving truck, surrounded by dancing Special Olympics volunteer girls and SO athletes, led by a gendarmerie on a motorcycle, siren blaring away, and followed by 10 bright yellow DHL vehicles. It is a sight for sore eyes…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/span>The cavalcade truck<\/small><\/div>\n

…and a sound for dancing ears as an excellent DJ is cranking out super tunes on the rather large sound-system on the truck and, as we pass, bystanders are getting into it — dancing and waving. The Special Olympics athletes are absolutely made up. So are we. What a great time. What a great idea! A cavalcade through the streets of Abidjan from street to stadium, from the airport to downtown, from slum to high-rise. This snaking cavalcade of fun has a morning of visits through the streets of Abidjan and a Unified Football event to get to. Let’s go.<\/p>\n

\"Laurent<\/a><\/span>Laurent Pokou today…<\/small><\/div>\n

At our first stop we meet with C\u00f4te d’Ivoire’s most famous footballer of all time: Laurent Pokou who is even more famous and highly regarded in C\u00f4te d’Ivoire than current Chelsea star Didier Drogba. Pokou was twice the highest goalscorer of the Africa Cup of Nations and was voted the best African player of the twentieth century. He is all smiles as he juggles The Ball with Phil and children. Laurent has paid for the cavalcade. He loves this ball.<\/p>\n

\"Laurent<\/a><\/span>…and back in his heyday<\/small><\/div>\n

We process through 5 of Abidjan’s 10 districts and in each we stop to meet the mayor and various dignitaries for a quick hello and a hand over of footballs and football shirts from SO turning up at an event, where the Minister of Sport is awaiting The Ball. He addresses a large crowd and mentions The Ball as a unifying factor. After he has headed it and signed it we are off again.<\/p>\n

\"Crowds<\/a><\/span>Crowds warm to the cavalcade<\/small><\/div>\n
\"Crowds<\/a><\/span>Crowds love to the cavalcade<\/small><\/div>\n

Our final destination is a Special Olympics unified football event, where Andrew is a super-sub, coming off the bench to score a cracking left-foot goal. 20 minutes of football later, he collapses in a heap on the ground, unable to move any more in the sweltering heat.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew's<\/a><\/span>The team Andrew joins…<\/small><\/div>\n
\"Andrew<\/a><\/span>…and the resulting exhaustion<\/small><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two sweaty, stinky, happy vagabonds holding a ball (yep, you guessed it, The Ball) are on the back of a moving truck, surrounded by dancing Special Olympics volunteer girls and SO athletes, led by a gendarmerie on a motorcycle, siren blaring away, and followed by 10 bright yellow DHL vehicles. It is a sight for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,18,232],"tags":[117,122,81,38,80],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cote-ivoire","category-the-ball","category-the-journey","tag-abidjan","tag-cavalcade","tag-ivory-coast","tag-special-olympics","tag-unified-football"],"geo":{"latitude":5.3363890999999998854264049441553652286529541015625,"longitude":-4.0266666000000004288494892534799873828887939453125,"description":"Abidjan, C\u00f4te d'Ivoire"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2010\/04\/ivory_cavalcade_crowd_02.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3355,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/3355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}