Diaries of an AFCON reporter – Why matchdays are the most exciting yet most chaotic for journalists

Day two

It is Monday, January 10, 2022, and the Black Stars take on Morocco in the opening Group C game of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations. Every match day is exciting for a journalist, especially if it involves your country but it also comes with a lot of responsibilities and that mixture can create beautiful chaos (if there is anything like that).

But before I go into the struggles of matchdays let me backtrack a bit and finish up the story from episode one. I am happy to hear you guys enjoyed the first episode. The reactions and feedback have been good even though one person commented that I am here to work and not a tourist. Come on man, take a chill pill.

Now to the problematic covid-19 testing at the Yaoundé International Airport when we arrive. Jesus Christ, it is a mess. These guys take our passports, take us through the uncomfortable nose swap ( lol, they do it so aggressively and leave you with teary eyes afterwards) only to come back within 10 minutes with the results? We are talking about an antigen test that is required to take at least 30 minutes to generate an accurate result. The pretence that this is a serious covid testing regime is a complete joke and whoever is in charge must be serious.

Let’s talk a little about food. By the way, I have not had any solid food, except for croissants, biscuits and drinks since we left Ghana on Saturday night. I know it is bad for my health and I may grudgingly have to take a deep dive (I am not adventurous with food) and try some local dishes because the Lord knows I can’t keep using drinks and biscuits as a substitute for proper food.

The problem is that I haven’t even had time to settle. I arrived on the eve of a Black Stars game and that cannot be good for anyone covering a tournament. Why? Because your first day is probably going to be the most chaotic. You are new, in a different country and it is worse if you don’t speak the official language of the country like is the case with me in Cameroon. My French is rubbish.

First, you need to sort out your hotel, sort out accreditation and find out the itinerary of the Black Stars if you are not heading to their hotel for information. There are also press conferences on the eve of games as per the rules of the competition among many other to-do-things. All these can be overwhelming even before you get settled and that was my case. From experience, it gets easier as the days go by and I am looking forward to the softer, less chaotic days. Lord knows I need those. Lol.

Guys do you know that in Cameroon, people still buy bottled water, drink it and give the empty bottle to the seller to be washed, re-filed and sold to the next customer? Like can you actually believe this is happening in 2022? Remember the days when Ghanaians use to buy drinking water from vendors who sold them in buckets with ice cubes( call it ice blocks) in it and with shared cups, yeah the aluminium ones which later was changed to plastic cups? Yeah, that kinda thing is what I am talking about. I will gist you more later. For now, I need to run to the Black Stars game.

As usual, send me feedback of what you think via my Twitter handle @daniel_oduro

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