{"id":1998,"date":"2010-05-22T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/?p=1998"},"modified":"2020-10-26T12:50:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T12:50:21","slug":"long-i-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/blog\/2010\/05\/22\/long-i-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-I-Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mondo Challenge Foundation<\/a> crew whizz into town: They are on a mission. Their uniforms, bright yellow polo shirts, are the first thing that we see. Mondo\u2019s Director, Anthony Lunch takes charge: ordering food, sending a messenger running to find Mr. Alliy and organising a kick-about on the street with locals from a Maasai tribe. It\u2019s a feverish pace.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Just<\/a><\/span>Just arrived: The Ball gets its Tanzanian entry stamp<\/small><\/div>\n

We are glad to see how motivated Mondo\u2019s Directors are and we find out about the projects they are funding. Anthony tells us about Mondo\u2019s hectic schedule — meetings this morning in Longido, this afternoon and tomorrow in Arusha and the following days in Moshi at the foot of Kilimanjaro\u2026 then back to the UK. A whirlwind tour. They have no time to waste and are incredibly precise about the money they invest and the return on that investment in terms of quality of help. And before we can blink (or even snap a photo of them) they are off again.<\/p>\n

\"Alliy<\/a><\/span>Alliy (right) introduces The Ball to a Maasai<\/small><\/div>\n

Alliy Mwako arrives, beaming a huge smile, and makes us feel most welcome. He immediately understands what The Ball is about and begins to suggest an itinerary. We\u2019ll stay in his guest house and play football this evening. The biggest bonus for Andrew -\u2013 Alliy\u2019s a fervent Liverpool fan too.<\/p>\n

\"Alliy's<\/a><\/span>Alliy’s guest house in Longido<\/small><\/div>\n

All this action is foreign to this sleepy, out of the way corner of the world, tucked in at the foot of idyllic, tree-covered Mt Longido, not far from the Kenyan border. The view of the more distant Mt Meru is spectacular.<\/p>\n

\"Mt<\/a><\/span>Mt Meru seen from sleepy Longido<\/small><\/div>\n

Unusually, the people here leave us alone. We\u2019re not being inundated with requests. No one is trying to sell us paintings or phone cards or children\u2019s shoes or even shoe polish. Instead, we are looked at, stared at even\u2026 who are these guys? What about that ball full of signatures? Perhaps suspicions have been aroused. We are keen to find out more about this town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mondo Challenge Foundation crew whizz into town: They are on a mission. Their uniforms, bright yellow polo shirts, are the first thing that we see. Mondo\u2019s Director, Anthony Lunch takes charge: ordering food, sending a messenger running to find Mr. Alliy and organising a kick-about on the street with locals from a Maasai tribe. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,18,232],"tags":[59,159,161],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tanzania-countries","category-the-ball","category-the-journey","tag-behind-the-scenes","tag-longido","tag-tanzania"],"geo":{"latitude":-2.715672000000000085861984189250506460666656494140625,"longitude":36.70267869999999987840055837295949459075927734375,"description":"Longido, Tanzania"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2010\/05\/tan_long_DSC00917.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998","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=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3309,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions\/3309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}